Christian Porter (Pearce, 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 Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 2) 2015 is part of the government's 2015 autumn repeal day package. The bill continues the work of repealing spent or redundant legislation and correcting minor errors in the Commonwealth statute book. By removing obsolete provisions and correcting outdated terminology, the bill makes improvements to the acts it amends without making substantive changes to the law. The bill improves accuracy and useability of Commonwealth legislation, thereby reducing the burden of regulatory compliance for individuals and businesses.

Schedules 1 and 2 to the bill correct technical errors, remove redundant text and renumber text within principal acts, as well as amending acts and regulations. Correcting these legislative provisions helps to make the law easier to understand and use.

Schedule 3 to the bill makes amendments to make clear, on the face of Commonwealth acts, that the Crown in right of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory is bound by those acts. It also modernises the form of associated provisions about whether the Crown is liable to be prosecuted for an offence. These changes clarify the intended operation of Commonwealth legislation.

Schedule 4 to the bill updates indexation provisions by replacing the term 'reference base' with the term 'index preference period'. This is in accordance with current terminology preferences of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The schedule also removes gender specific language. These changes improve the relevance and inclusiveness of the provisions amended.

Schedules 5 and 6 of the bill repeal spent or obsolete provisions and acts. For example:

This work will continue in future repeal days. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.