Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to talk on the Statute Law Revision Bill 2012. This bill corrects technical errors caused by drafting and clerical mistakes, repeals obsolete legislation and makes other technical corrections. Bills of this nature are traditionally noncontroversial and receive the support of parliament because they are regarded as an essential tool in the process of keeping the Commonwealth statute books accurate and up to date. The acts to be repealed relating to air passenger ticket levies imposed as a result of the collapse of the Ansett group are self-evidently obsolete. The levy was discontinued in 2003 and all of the mandated distributions have been completed. Of the acts to be amended, most of the proposals relate to spelling, grammatical and technical errors. A small number of obsolete provisions will be repealed.

The bill also proposes amendments to provisions of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 and the Legislative Instruments Act 2003, which have been rendered redundant by other enactments. This bill is clearly of an exceptionally technical nature. It does nothing that we would regard as remotely controversial, apart from essentially tidying up the statute books. I hope that the next speaker is in the parliament—I think she is. So, on that note, I can conclude my remarks.

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