Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move government amendments (1) to (4) on sheet CD216:

(1)   Title, page 1 (lines 3 and 4), omit "or amend any Act of the Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory", substitute "or recommend amendments of enactments of the Australian Capital Territory or laws of the Northern Territory".

(2)   Clause 1, page 1 (lines 7 to 10), omit the clause, substitute:

1 Short title

     This Act may be cited as the Territories Self-Government Legislation Amendment (Disallowance and Amendment of Laws) Act 2011.

(3)   Clause 4, page 2 (lines 9 to 18), omit the clause, substitute:

4 Objects of Act

     The objects of this Act are:   (a)   to remove the Governor-General's power, under section 35 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988,to disallow an enactment (or part of an enactment) of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory or to recommend amendments of any enactments; and   (b)   to remove the Governor-General's power, under section 9 of the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978,to disallow a law (or part of a law) of the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory or to recommend amendments of any laws of the Northern Territory.

(4)   Page 3 (after line 5), at the end of the Bill, add:

Schedule 2—Amendment of the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978

1 Section 9

Repeal the section.

2 Section 10

Omit "or disallows a law or part of a law".

3 Section 10

Omit ", or for the disallowance, as the case may be,".

4 Section 10

Omit "or the date of the disallowance, as the case may be".

As Senator Brown has referred to, and as I referred to in passing in my second reading speech, we have had the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee report and the amendments reflect the issues raised in the report. We note that the private senator's bill was referred to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Com­mittee for consideration on 2 March 2011. While the Senate committee strongly suppor­ted the removal of the Commonwealth's power to disallow ACT amendments and Northern Territory laws, the committee suggested amendments to the bills and consistent with the recommendations of that report of 4 May the government moved the amendments that have been circulated to the Senate.

The main purpose of the government's amendments are to include a schedule amending the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 to remove the Governor-General's power to disallow laws of the Northern Territory Legislative Assem­bly. There is an amendment to exclude Norfolk Island from the operation of the bill. The government amendments to the dis­allowance bill will exclude application of the bill to Norfolk Island. As the committee noted, Norfolk Island's population is on a very different scale to that of the ACT and the Northern Territory. The passage of the Territories Law Reform Act 2010 provides the Commonwealth with increased oversight of Norfolk Island legislation to ensure it is consistent with the national interest. It would therefore be inconsistent for the disallowance bill to apply to Norfolk Island. The amend­ment to the disallowance bill would also remove from clause 4 words that purport to confer 'exclusive legislative authority and responsibility for making laws' on the ACT. As noted by the Senate committee, that is a significant misstatement of the law, apparently, as the Commonwealth's plenary power under section 122 of the Constitution to make laws 'for the government of any territory' will remain unchanged. The government's amendments would change clause 4 to more accurately reflect the current power of the Governor-General to recommend amendments to ACT enactments and Northern Territory laws. Those are the reasons for the government's amendments that we are considering in committee.