Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I give notice that, on the next day of sitting, I shall move:

That the provisions of paragraphs (5) to (8) of standing order 111 not apply to the following bills, allowing them to be considered during this period of sittings:

Aged Care Amendment (Independent Complaints Arrangements) Bill 2015

Banking Laws Amendment (Unclaimed Money) Bill 2015

Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Primary Television Broadcasting Service) Bill 2015.

I also table statements of reasons justifying the need for these bills to be considered during these sittings and seek leave to have the statements incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statements read as follows—

STATEMENT OF REASONS FOR INTRODUCTION AND PASSAGE IN THE 2015 SPRING SITTINGS

AGED CARE AMENDMENT (INDEPENDENT COMPLAINTS ARRANGEMENTS) BILL

Purpose of the Bill

This bill will introduce a 2015 Budget measure in the Social Services portfolio, which will transfer responsibility for aged care complaints from the Secretary of the Department to the Aged Care Commissioner.

Reasons for Urgency

The measure is intended to commence on 1 January 2016.

STATEMENT OF REASONS FOR INTRODUCTION AND PASSAGE IN THE 2015 SPRING SITTINGS

BANKING LAWS AMENDMENT (UNCLAIMED MONEYS) BILL

Purpose of the Bill

This bill will improve the unclaimed moneys provisions in a number of ways by:

extending the required period of inactivity before accounts are transferred to the Government to seven years;

exempting children's accounts and foreign currency accounts;

removing a legislative inconsistency that can result in active accounts being transferred to ASIC; and

introducing additional privacy protections (such as ceasing publication of the unclaimed moneys gazette) to help prevent Australian's with unclaimed accounts from being taken advantage of.

Reasons for Urgency

These changes are due to commence on 31 December 2015. It is important to give industry certainty about the announced changes as soon as possible and provide them with sufficient time to adjust systems and processes prior to commencement.

In addition, there are large regulatory savings for industry and individuals associated with this bill; however a delay in the introduction of legislation could increase implementation costs as changes to systems and processes would have to be completed faster than initially expected. This could potentially erode the regulatory savings associated with this measure substantially.

STATEMENT OF REASONS FOR INTRODUCTION AND PASSAGE IN THE 2015 spring SITTINGS

BROADCASTING LEGISLATION AMENDMENT (PRIMARY TELEVISION BROADCASTING SERVICE) BILL

Purpose of the Bill

The bill will implement a reform arising from the review of the digital television regulatory framework, providing flexibility for free-to-air broadcasters to deliver programming on their primary television services in either high definition (HD) or standard definition (SD) formats.

Reasons for Urgency

The measures in the bill would remove provisions preventing commercial free-to-air television broadcasters and national broadcasters from offering coverage of major sporting events such as the AFL and NRL grand finals in HD on their primary services. While removing these events from the anti-siphoning list would enable them to be broadcast on a HD multichannel, broadcasters prefer to show these events on their primary service because this service typically attracts significantly larger audiences than their multichannels.

Passage of the bill in the 2015 Spring sittings would allow but not require commercial free-to-air broadcasters to televise the 2015 AFL and NRL grand finals on 3 and 4 October, respectively, on their primary services in HD.