James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

The Statute Update (Winter 2017) Bill 2017 makes minor and technical changes to the Commonwealth statute book to improve its quality and accuracy.

The process of correcting the statute book and repealing spent provisions and Acts has been undertaken regularly since 1934.

John Latham, Member for Kooyong and Attorney-General at the time (and later to become Chief Justice of the High Court) had this to say about the introduction of the first of these types of Bill in 1934:

There is an obligation resting upon the Government of the Commonwealth, and upon this Parliament, to present the statute law of the Commonwealth in a convenient, accessible and readily intelligible form.

These update Bills are an essential tool in the process of keeping an orderly, accurate and up-to-date Commonwealth statute book.

The main purposes of these Bills are to:

This Bill contains four schedules.

Schedule 1 corrects errors in 17 principal Acts and makes minor technical improvements to clarify the text of the law.

Schedule 2 amends six Acts where cross-references were not updated after changes were made by the ActsandInstruments (Framework Reform) Act 2015 to rename the LegislativeInstruments Act 2003 as the LegislationAct 2003 and renumber some provisions of that Act.

Schedule 3 to the Bill repeals 19 spent and obsolete provisions of Acts.

Schedule 4 repeals four redundant Acts.

These amendments enhance readability, facilitate interpretation and administration, and promote consistency across the Commonwealth statute book.