Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the Civil Law and Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2014, implements a variety of minor technical amendments to a range of Commonwealth acts within the Attorney-General's remit. The bill amends the Bankruptcy Act, the Copyright Act, the Court Security Act, the Family Law Act, the Evidence Act, the International Arbitration Act and the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act. For the most part, the bill is concerned with worthy but minor technical measures.

What the bill represents is the product of, for the most part, long consultation by dedicated officers of the Attorney-General's Department. It is the sort of law reform that all parliaments need to engage in and all governments need to engage in, and I would commend those officers of the Attorney-General's Department for the thorough work that they have done to bring this bill before the parliament.

Some measures are directed simply at the readability and comprehensibility of Commonwealth legislation by, for instance, inserting notes into the Court Security Act or including in the explanatory memorandum to the Evidence Act a table comparing provisions in different jurisdictions. Other measures in the bill are consequential to the good, substantive work of the Labor government. The Bankruptcy Act is amended to clarify that payments under the National Disability Insurance Scheme are not available to creditors in the event of a bankruptcy. As I said, there is an example of an amendment that is entirely consequential on the very good work that Labor did in government to introduce to Australia, following on the recommendations of the Productivity Commission, the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The International Arbitration Act is amended to clarify that the United Nations Commission on International Trade Laws Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, which the Labor government implemented into Australian law in 2010, applies retrospectively to arbitration agreements entered into before 2010. The Court Security Act, which was introduced by Labor to ensure the security and safety of the federal courts for all who use them, is given technical improvements.

There is one measure of particular importance in this bill—the amendment of the Copyright Act to introduce an electronic deposits scheme for the National Library of Australia. The introduction of this scheme follows two consultations undertaken by the Labor government, and I am pleased that, after what has been a substantial delay in bringing this measure before the parliament, it has finally got here. Labor welcomes the introduction of this particular scheme, this electronic deposit scheme, which will bring the National Library's operations up to date with modern technology and make the deposit scheme both more expensive and more efficient. It is of obvious importance that the large amount of Australian cultural output now produced in digital form be preserved by the National Library.

I commend the bill to the House.

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