Statute Law Revision Bill2017

Introduction Print

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

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BILL LA INTRODUCTION 7/2/2017

General

The purpose of this Bill is to revise the statute law of Victoria. The Bill makes minor amendments to a number of Acts to correct grammatical and typographical errors, to update references and for other similar purposes. TheBill also repeals a number of spent or redundant Acts.

Clause Notes

Clause 1 sets out the purpose of the Bill.

Clause 2 subclause (1) provides that, subject to subclause (2), the Bill comes into operation on 1 September 2017. Subclause (2) provides for a number of items in Schedule 1 to be given retrospective commencement. The reason for the retrospective commencement of an item is set out in the note on that item in the notes on Schedule 1 below.

Clause 3 provides for the Acts listed in Schedule 1 to be amended as set out in that Schedule.

Clause 4 provides for the Acts listed in Schedule 2 to be amended as set out in that Schedule.

Clause 5 provides for the Acts listed in Schedule 3 to be repealed.

Clause 6 provides for the automatic repeal of this Act on 1 September 2018. Once the amendments and repeals made by this Act have taken effect, this Act will be spent.

Schedule 1—Amendment of Acts—General amendments

Item 1 Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006

This item amends section 65(2D) and (2E) to correct an incorrect cross reference to "section 65(1)". The cross reference should have been to section 65(2) which relates to the time within which the Secretary must decide whether or not to approve a cultural heritage management plan and is the section that should be referred to, as section 65(1) refers to the criteria for an application for a cultural heritage management plan.

Item 2 Access to Medicinal Cannabis Act 2016

Item 2.1 amends paragraph (b) of the definition of relevant power in section 4(2) to substitute an incorrect reference to "person" with "position".

Item 2.2 amends section 71(1) to correct a spelling error.

Item 2.3 amends section 92(1) to insert the missing word "if".

Item 3 Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008

This item amends section 124(f) to correct a punctuation error.

Item 4 Audit Act 1994

Item 4.1 amends section 16(3)(b) to correct punctuation errors.

Item 4.2 amends section 19A(1) to insert a missing hyphen.

Item 5 Bus Safety Act 2009

This item amends section 49(1) to correct an incorrect cross reference to "section 27(a)(ii)". Section 49(1) refers to "an order, referred to in section 27(a)(ii)" but there is no section 27(a)(ii) inthe 2009 Act. However an order may be made under section27(1)(a)(ii) of the 2009 Act and this is the section that should be referred to.

Item 6 Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994

This item amends section 71(3) to omit a reference to a paragraph that has been repealed.

Item 7 Education and Training Reform Act 2006

Item 7.1 amends section 2.8.2(2) to move the misplaced word "if".

Item 7.2 amends section 3.3.32(1)(c) to correct an incorrect crossreference to "section 3.3.29". Section 3.3.32(1)(c) refers to"any Order in Council made under section 3.3.29", however section 3.3.29 of the 2006 Act does not refer to an Order in Council. Section 3.3.28 of the 2006 Act refers to an Order in Council and is the section that should be referred to.

Item 7.3 amends section 4.3.1(1) to replace a reference to "Part"with a reference to "Division". Section 4.3.1(1) concernsthe requirements for registration of a school by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority. Part 4.3 ofthe 2006 Act is titled "Registration of students and providers", however Division 1 of Part 4.3 of the 2006 Act specifically concerns the registration of schools. Therefore the reference insection 4.3.1(1) should refer to "this Division" rather than "thisPart".

Item 7.4 amends section 6.1.42 to substitute the correct word "Act" for the word "Bill".

Item 7.5 repeals clause 5(6) of Schedule 2. Clause 5(6) is redundant as it duplicates clause 5(1) of Schedule 2.

Item 8 Electoral Act 2002

This item amends the heading to section 19B to correct a spelling error.

Item 9 Electricity Safety Act 1998

This item amends section 141AB(4) to correct a spelling error.

Item 10 Filming Approval Act 2014

This item repeals section 9 and Schedule 2 which contain provisions amending other Acts. Section 9 and Schedule 2 havecommenced operation and are spent.

Item 11 Fines Reform Act 2014

Item 11.1 amends section 297 to remove an unnecessary full stop from the instruction to amend section 19B of the Road Safety Act 1986.

Item 11.2 amends section 300(1) and (2) to insert the missing words "an" and "a" into the instructions to amend section 67(1) and (3) of the Road Safety Act 1986.

Item 12 Fisheries Act 1995

This item amends the definition of initial election period in clause 5 of Schedule 4 to substitute a reference to "Bill" with thecorrect word "Act".

Item 13 Greenhouse Gas Geological Sequestration Act 2008

This item repeals Division 2 of Part 18 which contains selfamending provisions. Division 2 of Part 18 has commencedoperation and is spent.

Item 14 Guardianship and Administration Act 1986

This item amends section 16(1)(ha)(ii) to correct a cross referencing error.

Item 15 Health Services Act 1988

This item inserts a new heading to section 104 to replace a reference to the "Chief General Manager" with a reference to the"Secretary" for consistency with that section.

Item 16 Heritage Act 1995

This item amends section 163(6) to replace an incorrect crossreference to subsection "(3)" with subsection "(5)". Thereference to section 163(3) in section 163(6) is incorrect because section 163(6) refers to "if the Tribunal is not satisfied" however there is no reference to this in section 163(3) and the only requirement for the Tribunal to be "satisfied" is found in section 163(5).

Item 17 Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission Act2011

Item 17.1 amends paragraph (i) of the definition of mandatory notification provision in section 3(1) to correct a punctuation error.

Item 17.2 amends the definition of senior officer in section 41(5) to correct a punctuation error.

Item 17.3 amends the notes at the foot of section 44(1) to correct the heading to the notes and an error in the numbering of the notes.

Item 18 Infrastructure Victoria Act 2015

This item amends section 36 to remove a duplicated full stop.

Item 19 Integrity and Accountability Legislation Amendment (AStronger System) Act 2016

Item 19.1 amends section 4(1) to insert the missing word "found"into the amendment to section 4(1) of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission Act 2011.

Item 19.2 amends section 28(1)(a) to replace an incorrect crossreference to "subsection (1)" with "subsection (2)" into theamendment to section 91(1) of the 2011 Act.

Item 19.3 amends section 46(1) to correct an error in the instruction to insert a second note at the foot of section 44(1) ofthe 2011 Act.

These amendments are made retrospective to 30 June 2016, which is theday before the day sections 4(1), 28(1)(a) and 46(1) of the 2016 Act came into operation, to remove any doubt that the original amendments took effect as intended.

Item 20 Justice Legislation Further Amendment Act 2016

This item amends section 17 to insert in the text being omitted the missing word "a".

This amendment is made retrospective to 30 April 2016, which is the day before the day section 17 came into operation, to remove any doubt that the original amendment took effect as intended.

Item 21 Local Government Act 1989

This item amends section 81C(2) to remove the unnecessary word "a".

Item 22 Major Crime (Investigative Powers) Act 2004

This item amends section 3 to substitute the definition of legalpractitioner. This definition was amended by item 60.1 ofSchedule 2 to the Legal Profession Uniform Law Application Act 2014. Item 60.1 contained an incorrect reference to section3(1) of the 2004 Act instead of section 3 ofthat Act. Schedule 2 to the 2014 Act has since been repealed. Thisamendment is made retrospective to 30 June 2015, which isthe day before item 60.1 came into operation, to remove any doubt that the amendment took effect as intended.

Item 23 Marine (Drug, Alcohol and Pollution Control) Act 1988

This item amends the definition of Victorian Marine Pollution Contingency Plan in section 3(1) to correct a punctuation error.

Item 24 Marine Safety Act 2010

This item repeals the heading to Part 9.3 as all the sections in this Part have previously been repealed.

Item 25 Melbourne and Olympic Parks Act 1985

This item capitalises the reference to "olympic park" in the definition of Olympic Park in section 4 for consistency within the 1985 Act.

Item 26 Mental Health Act 2014

Item 26.1 amends the definition of police officer in section 3(1) to replace outdated terminology.

Item 26.2 amends section 43(b)(v) to remove the words "to the Department of Human Services". These words are unnecessary because they are included in the definition of Secretary in section3(1) of the Mental Health Act 2014.

Item 26.3 amends section 169(4) to substitute an incorrect reference to "subclause" with "subsection".

Item 27 Mineral Resources (Sustainable Development) Act 1990

This item amends the heading to section 40 to change a reference to "Plan" to lower case for consistency within the 1990 Act.

Item 28 National Domestic Violence Order Scheme Act 2016

Items 28.1 and 28.2 amend sections 66(2) and 79(3) respectively to correct punctuation errors.

Item 29 National Parks Act 1975

This item amends clause 26 in Part 7 of Schedule One AA to renumber this clause as clause 27 as there are currently 2 clauses numbered as 26 in this Schedule.

Item 30 Occupational Licensing National Law Repeal Act 2016

This item amends section 1 to substitute the incorrect word "Bill" with the correct word "Act". This item is made retrospective to 10 May 2016, which is the date of Royal Assent of the 2016 Act, to remove any doubt that section 1 took effect as intended.

Item 31 Pipelines Act 2005

This item amends section 33(1) to correct a grammatical error.

Item 32 Port Management Act 1995

This item amends section 49S(2)(a) to correct a punctuation error.

Item 33 Retail Leases Act 2003

This item amends section 87(1) to substitute the reference to therepealed Fair Trading Act 1999 with a reference to the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012, whichreplaced the Fair Trading Act 1999.

Item 34 Road Safety Act 1986

Item 34.1 amends section 17(A)(4) to remove a duplicated comma.

Items 34.2, 34.3 and 34.4 amend sections 61A(8)(c),
64(4)(b) and65(3)(b) respectively to substitute "10km" with"10kilometres". These amendments replace the abbreviatedterm"km" with "kilometres" for consistency withinthe 1986 Act.

Item 35 Rural Assistance Schemes Act 2016

This item amends section 13(2)(b) to correct a spelling error.

Item 36 Safety on Public Land Act 2004

This item amends section 5(1)(c) to omit a reference to section 6 of the 2004 Act which has been repealed.

Item 37 Tobacco Act 1987

Items 37.1 and 37.2 amend sections 3, 15U(6) and 15X(1)(b) to correct punctuation errors.

Item 38 Unclaimed Money Act 2008

This item amends paragraph (a) in the definition of unclaimed money in section 3(1) to correct a grammatical error.

Item 39 Water Act 1989

Item 39.1 amends section 51AB(6)(b) to correct a spelling error.

Item 39.2 amends section 238(1) to correct a spelling error.

Item 40 Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act2013

This item amends section 493(1)(zb)(ii) to substitute the correct spelling of the word "co-operation" for consistency within the 2013 Act.

Schedule 2—Amendment of Acts—Administrative arrangements

This Schedule contains amendments to a number of Acts to correct references in those Acts to names of Departments that are out of date because of Orders made under the Administrative Arrangements Act 1983 which have reconstrued the references to other Department names.

The amendments relate to the following changes in Department names—

·  the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to—theDepartment of Environment, Land, Water and Planning;

·  the Department of Sustainability and Environment to—the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning;

·  the Department of Transport to—the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources;

·  the Department of Planning and Community Development to—the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning;

·  the Department of Business and Innovation to—the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport andResources;

·  the Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure to—the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources or the Department of Health and Human Services;

·  the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to—the Department of Education and Training;

·  the Department of Environment and Primary Industries to—theDepartment of Environment, Land, Water and Planning or the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources;

·  the Department of State Development, Business and Innovation to—the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources or the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning;

·  the Department of Justice to—the Department of Justice and Regulation or the Department of Premier and Cabinet or the Department of Health and Human Services;

·  the Department of Human Services to—the Department of Health and Human Services;

·  the Department of Health to—the Department of Health and Human Services.

These amendments arise from following Orders—

·  the Administrative Arrangements Order (No. 183) 2002 (Government Gazette S 252; 30 December 2002, p. 1), whichreconstrues references to Department names;

·  the Administrative Arrangements Order (No. 192) 2006 (Government Gazette S 317; 5 December 2006, p. 2), whichreconstrues references to Department names;

·  the Administrative Arrangements Order (No. 196) 2007 (Government Gazette S 189; 14 August 2007, p. 2), which reconstrues references to Department names;

·  the Administrative Arrangements Order (No. 209) 2011 (Government Gazette S 55; 22 February 2011, p. 1), whichreconstrues references to Department names;

·  the Administrative Arrangements Order (No. 216) 2013 (Government Gazette S 228; 25 June 2013, p. 13), whichreconstrues references to Department names;

·  the Administrative Arrangements Order (No. 217) 2013 (Government Gazette S 228; 25 June 2013, p. 22), whichreconstrues references to Department names;