David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer ) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Statute Stocktake (Appropriations) Bill 2013 is the sixth Statute Stocktake Bill since 1998, and follows the Statute Stocktake (Appropriations) Act (No. 1) 2012. It forms part of an ongoing process to clean up the statute book by repealing legislation that is redundant, or would be better addressed in up-to-date legislation.

The bill does not appropriate any money. Rather, the bill will repeal 84 annual Appropriation Acts from 1 July 1999 to 30 June 2010.

Those acts encompass:

This bill will also allow the repeal of numerous subsidiary laws, connected to these old Appropriation Acts, consistent with the government's deregulation agenda.

No agency will be denied access to appropriations from this bill, to the extent that old appropriation amounts may potentially need to be re-appropriated through other processes.

This bill was foreshadowed last year, when parliament passed the Statute Stocktake (Appropriations) Act (No. 1) 2012. That act repealed acts from 1984 until 1999 inclusive, covering:

The government will continue to review Appropriation Acts as part of its deregulation agenda to determine whether further appropriations are redundant and can be repealed.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.