Civil Law and Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2017
The Bill would make amendments to ten Commonwealth Acts1 and consequential amendments to a number of others to 'modernise, simplify and clarify the legislation, and to repeal redundant provisio ns.' 2
The Law Council's comments on the Bill are confined to Schedule 3 (amendments to the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cthl (the BA)), Schedule 6 (amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cthl (the FLA)), Schedule 7 (amendments to the International Arbitration Act 1974 (Cthl (the IAA)l and Schedule 10 (amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cthl (the SDAll.
The Law Council's recommendations in relation to the Bill include:
- Subsection 4(1l of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cthl should include the following definition: bankrupt and bankrupt party to a marriage means a person who is bankrupt and includes, for the avoidance of doubt, a person who has been discharged from bankruptcy but whose estate remains vested in the trustee of their estate;
- Proposed subparagraph 44(5)(a)(iil and subparagraph 44(3B)(c)(iil of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cthl should include the words'... was set aside, or found not to be binding, as the case may be ...';
- Australia should become a party to the United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration 2014 (the Mauritius Convention) in order to put Australia in alignment with the international standard for transparency in investor-state arbitration;
- The words 'settle' and 'taxable' in section 27 of the IAA be replaced with the words 'fix' and 'may be fixed'; and
- Section 43 of the SDA should be repealed.
You can read the full submission below.