Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee

Annual Review 2007, April 2008

Chairperson's Foreword

[Table of Contents]

I am pleased to introduce the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee’s Annual Review covering the calendar year 2007. There were 2 Committees during 2007, comprising an interim Committee established in December 2006 immediately following the State election and the Committee established in March 2007 for the remainder of the 56 th Parliament.

In brief, the functions of the Committee are to review all Bills introduced into Parliament, to review regulations, to review and report on redundant or unclear Acts and to undertake specific inquiries that may be referred to the Committee either by a House of the Parliament or by a Minister.

From 1 January 2007 the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (the ‘Charter’) commenced operation giving the Committee a new human rights focus in the scrutiny of primary and subordinate legislation. The Charter requires the Committee to report to Parliament on any provision in a Bill or in regulations which is incompatible with the civil and political rights in Chapter 2 of the Charter. The enactment of the Charter and its new scrutiny reporting responsibility has presented challenging and interesting work for the Committee in its first year of operation.

In August 2007 the Speaker approved the appointment of Dr Jeremy Gans of the University of Melbourne as the Committee’s Human Rights Adviser.

The Committee has been fortunate to have the continued and dedicated support of a professional secretariat, and I take this opportunity to thank our Senior Legal Adviser, Andrew Homer, for effectively leading our team during 2007. The Committee is also indebted to Helen Mason for her experienced guidance in the scrutiny of regulations, and to Simon Dinsbergs and Sonya Caruana for their efficient management and administrative support during the year.

Carlo Carli MP
Chairperson

March 2008