Policy and Law Reform Updates: December 2024

Monday, 2 December 2024

Policy and Law Reform Update DECEMBER 2024

 

These policy and law reform updates are collated to ensure members are equipped for any changes that may impact the profession. If you have any suggestions or feedback please contact us here. 

11th ACT Legislative Assembly 

On 6 November 2024, Andrew Barr MLA was confirmed as Chief Minister and Tara Cheyne MLA was appointed as the Attorney-General. You can access the full 2024 Barr Ministry from here. 

The 11th ACT Legislative Assembly will sit from the 3rd to the 5th of December 2024 (dates for the 2025 sitting year are yet to be released).  

Key legislative changes 

AML/CTF Reforms 

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2024 was passed by Federal Parliament on 29/11/24 and is awaiting Royal Assent.  The Bill and Explanatory memorandum are available here. 

The reforms will expand the AML/CTF regime to assess certain high-risk services provided by lawyers, accountants, trust and company service providers, real estate professionals, and dealers in precious metals and stones – also known as ‘tranche 2’ entities. 

The reforms are subject to delayed commencement (July 2026) to enable implementation arrangements to be settled. It is crucial, however, that practitioners and firm start preparing for what will be required of them.  

For more information, please review the article in the 2024 Spring Edition of Ethos, and visit the Society’s AML/CTF Hub.  

Family Law Amendments 

The Family Law Amendment Bill 2024 was passed by Federal Parliament on 29/11/24 and is awaiting Royal Assent. The Bill and Explanatory Memorandum can be accessed here.  

Note that amendments moved during the debate have not yet been incorporated into a third reading version – this will become available in due course.   

  • Schedule 1  of the Bill includes consideration of family violence in property settlement proceedings in three ways, by: 

    • including ‘economic or financial abuse’ as a behaviour that may constitute family violence,
    • explicitly including family violence as a factor that can impact a person’s ability to make financial and non-financial contributions, and 
    • recognising the impact which family violence has, or could have, on current and future circumstances of the parties. 

The Bill also contains provisions clarifying how family pets are considered in family law. 

  • Schedule 2 of the Bill seeks to comprehensively regulate Children’s Contact Services, requiring accreditation for persons and entities who provide services to children. New civil penalty and strict liability offences are proposed for accreditation non-compliance. 
  • Schedule 3 proposes a range of case management and procedural amendments to the Family Law Act 1979. 
  • Schedule 4 contains amendments to costs orders and other general matters, including: 
  • Schedule 5 requires the Minister to arrange for the conduct of a review of the operations of the amendments after three years' operation.  

The majority of reforms commence 6 months after Royal Assent. However, some amendments commence the day after Royal Assent: 

  • Parts 2, 3 and 4 of Schedule 3; 
  • Parts 2 and 3 of Schedule 4; and  
  • Schedule 5. 

Rental reforms 
Certain reforms contained in the Housing and Consumer Affairs Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (the HCAL Act) were subject to delayed commencement.  

While the default commencement for those amendments is 9 January 2025, the Society understands that some of the amendments will commence much earlier by Ministerial notification.  

The HCAL Act amended the Residential Tenancies Act 1997  to: 

  • prevent rent increases within 12 months of a previous increase;
  • make break lease clauses mandatory;  
  • clarify bond and condition report obligations for consecutive; 
  • support victims of domestic / family violence to end their tenancy agreement early without penalty. 

Changes to Unit Title certificates 
As outlined in the August Policy & Law Reform Update, the HCAL Act enabled the Government to prescribe, by regulation, that a lessor who is renting out a unit in a unit's plan must disclose to their tenant when entering into a residential tenancy agreement.  Complementary amendments were made to the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011 (UTMA) to ensure information required to rent out a unit can be obtained from the owners' corporation via an updated ‘unit title rental certificate’. Consequently, the previous iteration of the ‘unit title certificate’ was renamed to ‘unit title sale certificate’ and ‘unit title sale update certificate’. 

It is anticipated that to support the new ‘disclosure’ requirements, changes will be made to the various certificates issued under the UTMA. 

Reviews and inquiries 

Statutory Review of the Crimes (Consent) Amendment Act 2022 

The ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate is undertaking a review of the Crimes (Consent) Amendment Act 2022 after two years of operation.  The reforms effectively introduced an affirmative (communicative) consent model into the ACT.  The Society intends to make a submission to the Review, informed by its Criminal Law Committee.  

Second Stage – Independent Review into Over-Representation of First Nations People in the Criminal Justice System (the Review)

The first stage of the Review, conducted by the Jumbunna Institute (located at the University of Technology in Sydney) assessed how the ACT Government has actioned recommendations from the 2018 Australian Law Reform Commission’s Pathways to Justice – Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.  The first report of the Jumbunna Review is available from here. 

Stage two of the Review seeks to identify strategies to address over-representation, with the second report due in early 2025.   

Statutory Review of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021 

The federal Attorney-General has appointed the Hon Linda Dessau AC CVO and Professor Helen Rhoades OAM to conduct a review of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021 (FCFCOA Act) after three years' operation.  

The Terms of Reference for the Review can be accessed here. Submissions close on 12 December 2024.  

The Review team are keen to hear from legal practitioners who regularly interact with FCFCOA (Division 1) and/or the FCFCOA (Division 2) and want to share their individual experiences of the impact of the structural reforms.  

Members are encouraged to provide their feedback to the Review via this link.