Senator ROBERT RAY (4:03 PM) —I lay on the table Scrutiny of Bills Alert Digest No. 10 of 2006, dated 13 September 2006. I move:

In tabling the committee’s Alert Digest No. 10 of 2006, I would like to draw senators’ attention to two bills on which the committee has made comment: the Fuel Quality Standards (Renewable Content of Motor Vehicle Fuel) Amendment Bill 2006 and the Law and Justice Legislation Amendment (Marking of Plastic Explosives) Bill 2006. The committee has noted that both bills provide for indefinite commencement of certain provisions. The committee’s longstanding view is that parliament is responsible for determining when laws are to come into force and that the commencement provisions should contain appropriate restrictions on the period during which provisions might commence.

The Fuel Quality Standards (Renewable Content of Motor Vehicle Fuel) Amendment Bill 2006 provides that the amendments in schedule 1 to that bill would commence only on ‘a day or days to be fixed by proclamation’. The committee is wary of provisions which enable legislation to commence on a date to be ‘proclaimed’ rather than on a determinable date or within a specified time.

The committee’s preferred approach is reflected in the Office of Parliamentary Counsel Drafting Direction No. 1.3, which states that a clause which provides for commencement by proclamation should also specify a period or date after which the act either commences or is taken to be repealed. It also provides that any proposal to defer commencement for more than six months after assent should be explained in the explanatory memorandum.

The committee is equally wary of provisions which link commencement to an uncertain event. The committee accepts the need to defer commencement in certain circumstances, such as the entering into force of an international convention—as in the case of the Law and Justice Legislation Amendment (Marking of Plastic Explosives) Bill 2006—or the passage of complementary legislation. However, the committee generally expects to see a fixed date, or a period of time, by which that event must occur to trigger either commencement or repeal. The committee also expects the explanatory memorandum accompanying a bill to explain the reasons for including uncertain commencement provisions.

The committee also notes that, in this particular case, the government announced its intention to accede to the convention—the Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection—in 2004, some two years ago. While the committee appreciates that such processes can be lengthy, this merely underscores the committee’s concern regarding the degree of uncertainty created in the wider community by such open-ended commencement provisions. The committee would prefer to see appropriate safeguards incorporated in the bill itself or a clear statement of the time frame within which the convention is expected to come into force included in the explanatory memorandum.

Question agreed to.