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Call for Submissions

Submissions closed on Wednesday, 3 October 2012.

Consultation

The Government has undertaken some consultation on certain aspects of the Bill. For further information please refer to the Explanatory Notes.

Objective

The main objective of the Bill is to amend the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 to provide additional powers to strengthen the independence of the Public Advocate to assist in the performance of systems advocacy.  

Other objectives of the Bill are to amend: 

• the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 to provide additional powers to strengthen the independence of the Public Advocate to assist in the performance of systems advocacy;
• the Electoral Act 1992 to remove administrative funding for political parties and independent members;
• the Electrical Safety Act 2002 to replace the statutory ‘Commissioner for Electrical Safety’ with a ‘chairperson’ and remove the standing committee status of the Electrical Safety Education Committee and the Electrical Equipment Committee from being nominated statutory committees;
• the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 to exclude an offence under section 33 of the Bail Act 1980 from the imposition of the offender levy;
• the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2009 to remove some restrictions on the exercise of stated tribunal’s powers and to enable former judges who are senior or ordinary members to sit as judicial members on a broader range of matters; and
• the Trustee Companies Act 1968 to facilitate voluntary transfers of trustee company business and compulsory transfers of trustee company business to the Public Trustee of Queensland.

The Bill also makes consequential amendments and minor and technical amendments to legislation within the justice portfolio.

Other Information

The Guardianship and Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 and Explanatory Notes are available from the Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel at www.legislation.qld.gov.au.

The Hansard transcript of the explanatory speech for the Bill can be found at: www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/HALnks/120911/Guardianship.pdf.

Reasons for the Bill

As the Bill is an omnibus bill and contains amendments to a range of Acts, the Explanatory Notes setting out the reasons for the Bill are quite lenghy.

Readers are therefore directed to the Explanatory Notes to understand the Government's reasons for the Bill.

Referral

On 11 September 2012, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, the Hon Jarrod Bleijie MP, introduced the Guardianship and Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 into the Queensland Parliament. 

In accordance with Standing Order 131 of the Standing Rules and Orders of the Legislative Assembly, the Bill was referred to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee (the Committee) for detailed consideration.

Report

On 6 November 2012, the Committee tabled its Report No. 14, Guardianship and Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012. A copy of the report is available here or can be accessed at Related Publications.

As the Committee made a single recommendation for the Legislative Assembly to pass the Bill, there is no requirement for the Government to table a response.

The Guardianship and Administration and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 was passed by the Legislative Assembly on 15 November 2012.