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 (subject to any remaining operative provisions being transferred to other appropriate Acts), proposed by government agencies or the Parliamentary Counsel
• savings and transitional provisions.

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.

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.

Dates 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 21 March 2016 will be included in the Bill for the Budget Sittings and proposals received by Monday 22 August 2016 will be included in the Bill for the Spring Sittings.

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