Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2)

I move, That the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a third time.

By their very nature, statutes amendment bills do not address significant policy matters. These amendments are technical; they are short and non-controversial. They make amendments that individually would not receive the necessary priority to be progressed, and they are a very important and vital part of the Government’s legislation programme—the Government of the day—and they allow us to keep the law up to date and accurate. Many of the amendments in the bill are designed to correct drafting errors, omissions, and incorrect references. Some amendments make improvements to how some Acts work in practice. Other amendments—changes—make technical changes to facilitate functions of governance.

Following consideration by the Governance and Administration Committee, the bill was reported back with two parts removed and one new part inserted, as well as a number of minor tweaks to existing amendments. The bill before the House has had a further part inserted by a Supplementary Order Paper, and this brings the final total to 29 Acts administered by 12 different Government agencies. As you will be aware, the committee voted to include Supplementary Order Paper 55, that I tabled, in the bill. This Supplementary Order Paper makes minor but urgent changes. It amends the Customs and Excise Act 2018, which is expected to come into force on 1 October this year. Without this amendment, champagne would have been inadvertently exempted from excise-equivalent duty, which represents approximately $2.7 million per year in revenue for the Crown. This amendment remedies that omission.

The amendments in this Supplementary Order Paper are suitable for inclusion in a statutes amendment bill. All parties were consulted on this Supplementary Order Paper and they supported the inclusion in the bill at this later stage. I just want to summarise by saying that these Supplementary Order Papers are important. They do not change policy in a significant way. They are minor, they are short, and they fix a range of legislation, and they are the key way that the Government ensures that legislation keeps up with changes and remains fit for purpose.

I want to acknowledge a number of people who were instrumental in the passage of this Statutes Amendment Bill. I, firstly, want to acknowledge members of the Governance and Administration Committee for their time and effort, and for including amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act in the bill. Secondly, I want to thank the committee of the whole House for voting in favour of the Supplementary Order Paper that I tabled. Finally, I want to thank all parliamentary parties for their backing of the amendments contained in the bill. This bill was supported by every party at each stage of the process and does demonstrate the importance of working together as members and representatives of this House. I commend this bill to the House.

Bill read a third time.