Legislative Council Tuesday 10 September 2019

Ms  FORREST question  to LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISALTIVE COUNCIL, Mrs HISCUTT

With regard to the review of the Tasmanian cemeteries legislation, specifically, the draft Burial and Cremation Bill 2019 -

(1)     The draft bill put out for public comment does not include a time frame for the approval of a cemetery manager.  Will the time frame be considered in the final draft?

(2)     What work will be done on regulations under the draft Burial and Cremation Bill 2019 in preparation for these legislative changes?

(3)     What public consultation will be undertaken on any regulations related to the Burial and Cremation Bill 2019 and who will be consulted?

ANSWER

Mr President, I thank the member for Murchison for her question.

(1)  The final bill will include time frames for all approved processes.

(2)  Drafting of the new burial and cremation regulations will commence shortly once work to draft the bill is complete.

(3)  As with the draft bill, the new regulations will closely reflect the current legislative framework.  The draft bill and discussion paper released for public consultation dealt with all policy changes proposed under the new bill.  As the regulations will not include any significant policy changes and only minor changes to align with the policy intent and new structure of the bill, it is not proposed to release draft regulations for public consultation.  The draft regulations will be assessed in line with the Department of Treasury and Finance's Legislation Impact Assessment Guidelines before being submitted to Executive Council and will be subject to parliamentary review, as with all subordinate legislation.