Content and Nature of Proposals for inclusion in Bills

Bills will contain the following matters only:

• minor amendments proposed by government agencies
• minor amendments by way of pure statute law revision proposed by the Parliamentary Counsel
• repeals of obsolete or unnecessary Acts and transfer of savings and transitional provisions with ongoing effect, proposed by government agencies or the Parliamentary Counsel
• savings and transitional provisions.

 

Minor Amendments

 

Amendments proposed by agencies must be non-controversial and must contain no more than minor policy changes. Matters that are usually inappropriate for inclusion in the Statute Law Revision Program include but are not limited to:

• amendments increasing sentences of imprisonment for offences, or creating offences punishable by imprisonment
• amendments increasing monetary penalties by very high amounts
• amendments that prejudice the private rights of any person
• amendments retrospectively imposing liabilities on any person
• amendments to Acts dealing with controversial subject matter
• amendments that have been the subject of disputes between agencies, or that require considerable whole of government consideration
• lengthy or voluminous amendments.

 

Repeals of obsolete or unnecessary Acts

 

Agencies or the Parliamentary Counsel may propose repeals of obsolete or unnecessary Acts and the transfer of savings and transitional provisions. Agencies should also consider any Acts that have not commenced or fully commenced that are now obsolete or redundant. A list of these Acts is available at http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/tables under the “Uncommenced NSW Acts” section.   

Agencies are asked to identify for repeal the following:

• any legislation that is outdated or redundant for repeal (including uncommenced)
• legislation with provisions of ongoing value that can be transferred or consolidated into other legislation, to allow the redundant provisions and the remainder of the principal act to be repealed.

 

In identifying legislation for repeal, agencies are not limited to subject matter areas that are ‘non-controversial’ and may recommend any legislation for repeal where it is no longer required.

Procedures for Submission of Proposed Amendments

Ministers should ensure that their agencies are advised of the following procedures for submission of proposals.

• Requests for matters to be included in Bills should be drafted for the Minister’s signature and addressed to the Parliamentary Counsel.
• Requests should be accompanied by a parliamentary briefing note of not more than one page per proposal. A briefing note template and an example are set out in Attachment 1 and Attachment 2 respectively. Each briefing note should relate to amendments to one Act only and should be in plain English, assuming no knowledge of the particular issue. It should include:
  • a broad statement of the rationale for the proposal (ie: why it is required), its context and who has proposed it
  • a general outline of the proposal in non-technical terms and how it will resolve the problem
  • full implications of the proposal.
• Each matter will be assessed initially by the Parliamentary Counsel and then by the General Counsel, Department of Premier and Cabinet. Any matter considered to be unsuitable for the program will not be included.

 

Date for Submission

To facilitate preparation of Bills, Ministers should ensure that proposals from their agencies are submitted to the Parliamentary Counsel throughout the year as soon as the need for an amendment is identified and approved by the Minister.

 

Subject to their being assessed as suitable for the Statute Law Revision Program, proposals approved by the relevant Minister and received by the Parliamentary Counsel by Monday 18 August 2015 will be included in the Bill for the Spring Sitting.

 

Proposals submitted after these dates will be considered for inclusion in the following Sitting’s Bill unless formally withdrawn.

 

Enquiries may be directed to the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office or the Office of General Counsel, Department of Premier and Cabinet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blair Comley PSM

Secretary