Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Amending Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill 2014 is the second bill in the government's 2014 Autumn Repeal Day package.

The main purpose of the bill is to clean-up the statute books by removing over 1,000 amending and repeal acts.

The bill repeals each act mentioned in its schedule.

These acts are no longer required as the amendments and repeals that they provide for have already happened.

If any application, saving or transitional provision is included in one of those acts, any ongoing operation of the provision will be preserved. The acts do not contain any other substantive provisions that are not already spent.

Repealing these acts is important because it will make the statute book simpler and quicker to use by reducing the time it takes to locate current regulations.

At present, the acts proposed to be repealed in the amending acts bill form part of the current law and it is not clear to everyone whether the acts have force in and of themselves.

Repealing these acts will remove any confusion about the status of these laws.

It will be easier for individuals, businesses and community organisations to find laws that impact them without needing to sift through redundant material, while people with a specific interest in the legislation can continue to access these acts as they will remain publically available on ComLaw as historical records.

The earliest act being repealed in this bill is the Defence Act 1904. It made amendments that were themselves amended and overtaken multiple times since 1904. This is recorded in the legislative amendment history of the current Defence Act 1903. Indeed, so historic is the Defence Act 1904 that it references a State Division of the Naval Forces and not the Royal Australian Navy, which was formed in 1911.

There are numerous other items contained in schedule 1 of the bill which were made in the decades shortly after the start of Federation but which are no longer necessary.

The Dried Fruits Export Charges Act 1927 is an example of an act that is clearly outdated but has remained on the statute book for a significant period of time. It set the charge on export of dried fruits in the now repealed principal act of 1924 to one-eighth of a penny for each pound of dried fruits exported. It is now fully spent and redundant.

Other acts being repealed amend principal acts which have already been repealed. For instance, the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric power acts from 1951, 1952, 1956 and 1958 amend parts of the principal act from 1949. The 1949 act was repealed over a decade ago by the Snowy Hydro Corporatisation Act 1997 when the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Authority was corporatised.

Amending acts made after 1969 will be repealed on future repeal days.

I commend this bill to the chamber.

Debate adjourned.