The Legislative Instruments Amendment (Sunsetting Measures) Bill 2012 was introduced in the House of Reps on Wed 23.5.2012.
Under the Legislative Instruments Act 2003, all regulations (including income tax and related regs) and other legislative instruments sunset, or cease automatically, after 10 years unless action is taken to exempt or preserve them. As set out in s 49 of that Act, the purpose of sunsetting is to ensure that legislative instruments are kept up to date, and only remain in force as long as they are required.
The Bill contains measures designed to:
- efficiently repeal spent and redundant instruments and provisions up to 10 years earlier than is provided for under the existing sunsetting regime;
- provide greater certainty about what instruments sunset and when they sunset, and provide staged sunsetting dates for older instruments;
- enable the Attorney-General to align sunsetting dates of related legislative instruments to enable thematic reviews to be conducted; and
- clarify the requirements for explanatory material for instruments, including instruments that are remade following a review.
[LTN 98, 23/5]