House in Committee — Clauses 1 and 2

Members, we now come to the final debate, which is clauses 1 and 2, “Title” and “Commencement”.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a very quick question for the Minister of Justice on clause 2, commencement. Now, I’m interested on why the Minister chose four months after Royal assent for this particular bill, noting that in bills that are presumably much more onerous in terms of core administration and raising awareness that this is not the case. To give an example: the Sentencing (Reform) Amendment Bill, the commencement date was three months after Royal assent, and other comparable bills were six months. In terms of justice bills, we have seen this term, they move in three-month blocks, as opposed to four months. I guess the question just simply is: is this due to court systems? Is this due to raising awareness? Is this due to backlog of cases? Why four months when we’ve seen other areas being three?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, I can give the member the answer that we thought four months was the appropriate length of time.

I move, That debate on this question now close.