House of Representatives

Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by authority of the Attorney-General, Senator the Hon George Brandis QC)

General Outline

The main purposes of this Bill are to:

(a)

correct technical errors that have occurred in laws as a result of drafting and clerical mistakes (see Schedules 1 and 2); and

(b)

make clear on the face of Acts that the Crown in right of the Australian Capital Territory and of the Northern Territory is bound and modernise the form of provisions about whether the Crown is liable to be prosecuted for an offence (see Schedule 3); and

(c)

modernise language by replacing references to "reference base" with references to "index reference period" and by removing gender-specific language (see Schedule 4); and

(d)

repeal spent and obsolete provisions and Acts, which will result in the repeal of approximately 85 pages of spent and obsolete provisions, including 6 spent Acts (see Schedules 5 and 6).

The corrections and repeals are desirable in order to improve the quality of the text of Commonwealth legislation and to reduce the regulatory burden by making the statute book clearer and more efficient to use. They facilitate the publication of consolidated versions of Acts by the Commonwealth and by private publishers of legislation.

None of the corrections makes any change to the substance of the law.

Financial impact statement

This Bill will have no financial impact.