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

I rise to speak on the Regulatory Powers (Standardisation Reform) Bill 2016, which Labor will be supporting. The standardisation of Commonwealth legislation was a project of the last Labor government which began under Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Clearer Law project. As part of its regulatory reform agenda, the Gillard government developed a framework of standard regulatory powers, such as powers of investigation, compliance monitoring and enforcement.

Commonwealth legislation has many provisions that confer powers on agencies to regulate regimes, such as the regime that ensures that Australians have access to paid parental leave or the regime that prevents doping in Australian sport. The idea was that standard regulatory powers would be conferred on agencies that administer regulatory regimes in order to reduce the volume of Commonwealth legislation. A suite of standard provisions containing powers to be conferred on agencies would only be in one act that can be incorporated by reference instead of hundreds of acts that contain similar provisions. This would improve the clarity and reduce the complexity of Commonwealth laws.

These standard provisions were developed by the Gillard government and introduced to parliament as the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Bill 2014. Unfortunately, the bill lapsed upon prorogation of the parliament on 5 August 2013. The Abbott government then introduced a modified version of the 2013 bill, which became the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014. The standard provisions in that act increase legal certainty for agencies because, when they are exercising powers across multiple regimes, they are less likely to make mistakes if the powers and procedures are consistent. The act also reduces the compliance burden on individuals and businesses that are subject to regulatory powers, because the consistency in powers and procedures means that they are more likely to be aware of and exercise their rights and obligations.

The regulatory powers act does not have direct legal effect. The standard provisions must be applied to a particular regulatory scheme through another piece of legislation for either a new act or to amend an existing act. The bill before us today is one such piece of legislation. The bill amends 15 Commonwealth acts that establish regulatory regimes by substituted certain provisions with a corresponding standard provision of the regulatory powers act. The bill also repeals existing provisions conferring powers so that they can be replaced with the standard powers. The acts that are being amended to insert standard provisions are the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority Act 2006, the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act 2010, the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992, the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Payroll Levy Collection Act 199, the Defence Act 1903, the Defence Reserve Service (Protection) Act 2001, the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards Act 2012, the Horse Disease Response Levy Collection Act 2011, the Illegal Logging Prohibition Act 2012, the Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989, the paid parental leave act 2010, the Personal Property Securities Act 2009, the Privacy Act 1988, the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011, and the Weapons of Mass Destruction(Prevention of Proliferation) Act 1995. There are some existing regulatory powers and related provisions in these acts that do not have an equivalent standard provision in the regulatory powers act. The bill provides that those existing provisions will continue to operate. The bill also makes a few minor amendments to the regulatory powers act.

These are all worthy reforms and Labor is pleased to support them. We hope that the government will continue to build on Labor's standardisation reform project in pursuit of less voluminous and less complex legislation. We must all strive to make sure that the statute book is as clear, accessible and comprehensible as possible. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

Leave granted for second reading debate to resume at a later hour this day.

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