Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this morning with pleasure to support the National Measurement Amendment Bill 2013, which deals with an area of our economy that does not get much newsprint attention but that is a deeply important area for the way Australia works. I will deal with the specifics of the bill first. This is a bill that deals with a number of technical amendments to the National Measurement Act, specifically through clarifying the offence and noncompliance approaches associated with ensuring the application of particular offences being directed to appropriate persons. To clarify, at the moment it is an offence to adjust or repair an instrument in a way that affects its measurement accuracy without also obliterating its verification mark. This amendment will separate the offences so that the offences will apply separately to the person who carries out the adjustment and to the person who causes the adjustment to be made. It is a technical measure but important nevertheless.

The bill will also better empower trade measurement inspectors so that they are able to deal with and resolve minor issues by providing, under the act, 28-day periods in which traders can resolve the issues that have been raised by the inspectors. It also empowers inspectors to deal with vehicles, for example, and have them moved to particular locations. There are also a number of definitional alterations in this bill. For example, the definition of 'use for trade' will be amended to embrace the determination of fuel tax credits under circumstances to be prescribed in regulations following consultation amongst the Treasury, the ATO and the National Measurement Institute. Also, the definitions of 'reference standard of measurement', 'certified reference material' and 'certified measuring instrument' will be altered to bring them into alignment and to clarify the period for which the standards are in effect.

Having articulated the significance of this particular bill in the context of our framework around national measurement, I will make the point that this occurs as a result of a COAG process that was undertaken by this Labor government to simplify the measurement framework of this country by taking eight trade measurement systems that used to exist under the state systems and bringing them down into one. Trade measurement is at the heart of $4 billion worth of trade in Australia's economy every year. As we have sought to reduce regulation in this country, sought to reduce red tape and sought to harmonise our system of laws, this has been an unsung measure but one that has brought enormous benefit to people throughout the economy so that they are now dealing with one system of trade measurement throughout Australia. The amendments today are important technical amendments associated with that bigger push that was achieved back in 2009.

Weights and measures are at the foundation of our economy. In this context I would also like to say something about the National Measurement Institute, the agency that oversees trade measurement in this country and our system of weights and measures. The National Measurement Institute is the custodian of deep science. For example, it is the National Measurement Institute that houses Australia's three atomic clocks, which are Australia's contribution to the very definition of time in this world. It is the National Measurement Institute that houses Australia's kilogram, which is based on the original kilogram in Paris and is the fundamental measurement of weight in Australia. It is interesting to note that the measurement of a kilogram is the only significant measure that exists in the world today that is still based on an artefact—that is, on a reference point of the original kilogram. There is an international effort to try to redefine mass based on a constant of the universe, such as the speed of light. In this case a couple of approaches are going on, one of which is to try to define precisely Avogadro's constant.

It is all very scientific, and it is all work that is being undertaken by the National Measurement Institute and which forms part of the international collaborative effort to try to redefine the very nature whereby we define mass. If you go to the laboratories of the NMI you see dedicated Australian scientists undertaking fantastic work, and you realise the significance of that entity as well as just how important the National Measurement Institute is to the science infrastructure of our country. You can see it in an esoteric way, if I can put it like that, when you look at the person—and I met him—who goes to work every day to try to work out Avogadro's constant; he has a great job. And you see it in the way, as this bill talks about, the National Measurement Institute oversees trade measurement, which is absolutely fundamental to our economy. When you go to the supermarket and you measure the weight of your vegetables, the weight of your apples or the weight of your bananas and when you go to the petrol station and take out a volume of fuel, all of these involve measurement instruments that form part of our trade measurement system. That is what we are talking about when we say we have unified all those systems of trade measurement into one national system, and that is what this particular amendment seeks to do in relation to that.

In commending this particular bill to the House, I would also like to commend the harmonisation of trade measurement laws in this country that has been undertaken by this Labor government. I would also very much like to commend the fantastic work undertaken by the National Measurement Institute. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context