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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-11-24 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Committees

LEGISLATIVE REVIEW COMMITTEE: POSTPONEMENT OF REGULATIONS FROM EXPIRY

Mr SIBBONS (Mitchell) (11:02): I move:

That the report of the committee, on Postponement of Regulations from Expiry under the Subordinate Legislation Act 1978, be noted.

The Subordinate Legislation Act provides for all regulations to expire 10 years after they are enacted. This is to ensure that regulations are reviewed at least every 10 years to update their content and maintain their relevance. Government agencies are responsible for the review of regulations. Section 16C of the act allows the 10-year expiry date to be postponed for a period not exceeding two years at a time and not exceeding four years in aggregate.

Postponement from expiry was introduced to allow for extra time for the review of regulations. It was also intended to apply to those few cases where there were delays in completing a review. The act does not require an agency to justify or provide reasons if they require a postponement.

Regulations that are postponed from expiry under the act are referred to the Legislative Review Committee every year. Over the past eight years the number of regulations being postponed from expiry has increased dramatically. In 2002 a total of 48 regulations were postponed. In 2009 this had increased to 100 postponements, with 88 regulations postponed in 2010. Allowing regulations to be repeatedly postponed from expiry is not in keeping with the spirit of the legislation. Postponement was only intended to be used in exceptional circumstances but is now used as a matter of course.

Secondly, the Subordinate Legislation Act should be amended to grant extensions for postponement only in exceptional circumstances, and these exceptional circumstances need to be certified by the relevant minister and certificates of exceptional circumstances need to be provided to the Legislative Review Committee at least one month before a regulation is due to expire. Thirdly, guidelines should be developed which clearly outline the circumstances in which postponements will be granted and which support the original intention of the act. These guidelines should make it clear that extensions for postponement should only be sought in exceptional circumstances and not just for administrative convenience.

On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank the Department of the Premier and Cabinet and the former attorney-general and their staff for briefing the committee on this matter. I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the committee members in this chamber and in the other place, and particularly the committee of the previous parliament which instigated and heard evidence for the inquiry.

I would also like to acknowledge the work of the committee's secretary, Ms Leslie Guy, and the committee's research officer, Ms Carren Walker.

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (11:05): In brief, I wish to record my approval, I suppose, of the words of the member for Mitchell—

Ms Thompson: Support.

Mr GARDNER: —my support for the words of the member for Mitchell, and note the work done by the previous committee under the previous parliament. The committee structure in this place comes under a bit of scrutiny in terms of its value. Its value is extraordinarily dependent on the hard work of the secretariat, and so I wish to add my thanks to the work of Ms Leslie Guy and Ms Carren Walker for the incredibly good job they do.

Motion carried.

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