Legislative Review Committee: Annual Report 2016

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (11:30): I move:

That the Annual Report 2016 of the committee be noted.

I am pleased to move that the Legislative Review Committee's annual report be noted. The annual report provides information about the committee's consideration of regulations referred to the committee in accordance with section 10A of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1978 and of the committee's ad hoc inquiry work.

The committee met on 19 occasions in 2016 and inquired into and considered 282 regulations, 44 court rules, two other rules and 87 by-laws. The committee also asked representatives of six public sector agencies, the Law Society of South Australia, the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement and the Supreme Court of South Australia to appear before the committee to assist the committee's inquiry and consideration of 10 regulations. In addition, the committee asked representatives of the Local Government Association to appear before the committee to assist the committee's consideration of three by-laws.

In relation to the committee's inquiry work, the annual report includes information on four inquiries conducted by the committee in 2016. The committee tabled final reports in relation to two of these inquiries:

on 12 April 2016, the committee was pleased to table in both houses of parliament a report of its inquiry into the Sexual Reassignment Repeal Bill 2014; and

on 19 October 2016, the committee was pleased to table a report of its inquiry into an amendment to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Regulations 2011 to enable de facto relationships to be recognised on the register recording the death of a person (death certificate).

The committee also continued with a review of its inquiry into the partial defence of provocation. This review was referred to the committee on 13 May 2015 following a decision by the High Court of Australia to set aside the Supreme Court of South Australia Court of Criminal Appeal judgement in R v Lindsay. On 8 March 2016, the committee tabled an interim report in both houses of parliament. In the interim report, the committee concluded that it would not be prudent to make further recommendations or findings until legal proceedings involving Mr Lindsay had concluded. At the end of the reporting period, that review was ongoing.

In August 2016, the committee also commenced an inquiry into the operation and impact of the Graffiti Control (Miscellaneous) Amendment Act 2013 amendments to the Graffiti Control Act 2001. The inquiry was required by section 14 of the Graffiti Control Act 2001. At the end of the reporting period, this inquiry was ongoing. On behalf of the Chair, I thank the members of the committee for their work in 2016. I also thank the committee staff, Matt Balfour and Ben Cranwell, for all their hard work, advice and service over the year. I commend the report to the house.

Mr DULUK (Davenport) (11:33): I will also make a brief comment in regard to the annual report of the Legislative Review Committee 2016. I also found this to be a most interesting committee. I think that with the addition of the member for Playford, who has come on in recent weeks, the committee is even more vibrant. It does a lot of important work. The member for Hammond just asked me, 'What does this committee actually do?' It provides quite a good oversight in terms of regulations and by-laws that are passed and it has also conducted quite a few interesting inquiries. I put on the record my thanks to secretary, Matt Balfour, who is ever diligent in his work, and research officer, Benjamin Cranwell, for his assistance in the work of the committee.

Motion carried.