Legislation (ACT Self-Government Instruments) Sunset-altering Declaration 2017 [F2017L00942]-Advice only [2017] AUSStaCSDLM 310 (16 August 2017)

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Instrument	Legislation (ACT Self-Government Instruments) Sunset-altering Declaration 2017 [F2017L00942]
Purpose	Aligns the sunsetting dates of eight instruments relating to the establishment and functioning of the Australian Capital Territory as a self-governing territory to enable their inclusion in a thematic review
Authorising legislation	Legislation Act 2003
Department	Attorney-General's
Disallowance	15 sitting days after tabling (tabled Senate 8 August 2017) Notice of motion to disallow currently must be given by 16 October 2017
Scrutiny principle	Standing Order 23(3)(a)

Deferral of sunsetting

Unless otherwise provided by an enabling Act, all legislative instruments made on or after 1 January 2005 are repealed on the first 1 April or 1 October that falls on or after their tenth anniversary of registration (section 50 of the Legislation Act 2003 (Legislation Act)). This process is called 'sunsetting', and the relevant date of repeal is known as the 'sunsetting date'.

Section 51A of the Legislation Act allows the Attorney-General to align the sunsetting of instruments where two or more instruments are to be reviewed together.

The Attorney-General must be satisfied that all the instruments to be reviewed would, apart from section 51A, be repealed by section 50 or 51 of the Legislation Act; that they are the subject of a single review; and that making the declaration to align their sunsetting dates will facilitate the undertaking of the review and the implementation of its findings.

The Legislation (ACT Self-Government Instruments) Sunset-altering Declaration 2017 [F2017L00942] (the declaration) aligns the sunsetting dates of eight instruments relating to the establishment and functioning of the Australian Capital Territory as

a self-governing territory, which would otherwise sunset between 1 April 2018 and

1 April 2019. The committee notes that the declaration has the effect of deferring the sunsetting of all of the instruments, which will now have a new sunsetting date of 1 April 2020.

The ES to the declaration explains that the eight instruments 'are or will be the subject of a single review' and that the declaration facilitates that review and the implementation of its findings.

The committee draws the extension of the sunsetting dates for eight instruments, to 1 April 2020, to the attention of the Senate.