Second Reading Speech
Mr SNEDDEN Attorney-General - Bruce - LPMr. Deputy Speaker, I move -
That the Bill be now read a second time.
This Bill substantially completes the revision of the statute law of the Commonwealth made necessary as a consequence of the adoption by Australia of the system of decimal currency. The Currency Act 1965 which came into operation on C day, 14th Feburary 1966, requires references in acts to amounts of money in £ s. d. currency to be read as references to the equivalent amounts in decimal currency. The Currency Act 1965, however, does not effect a textual alteration of the £ s. d. references. The purpose of the Bill is to amend each reference to its decimal currency equivalent so that, when acts are reprinted, money references can be expressed in decimal currency terms. Honorable members will recall that, towards the end of last year, the Parliament passed a number of bills which amended references in acts to amounts of money that did not convert into convenient decimal currency amounts. During the current year, the opportunity has been taken to include in a number of amending acts the amendments relating to decimal currency required to be made to the principal acts amended.
Honorable members will notice that, while most of the amendments have been dealt with by means of a schedule, certain references - such as amounts in tables - that do not lend themselves readily to this type of amendment have been dealt with separately in the clauses of the Bill. The Bill converts each reference to an amount of money into its exact decimal currency equivalent; no substantive alteration is made to any amount. For example, the tax of three tenths of a penny per bushel of wheat imposed by the Wheat Tax Act is amended by the Bill to its exact equivalent - one quarter of one cent.
The only other matter to which I wish to refer is the fixing of 1st December 1966, as the main date for the commencement of the Act. This date has been chosen because it is expected that the bills currently before the Parliament that are amended by this Bill will be assented to before that date. I commend the Bill to the consideration of the House.
Debate (on motion by Mr. Daly ) adjourned.
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