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This Bill amends the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and other Acts and instruments to improve the NSW planning system. The Building Professional Amendments Bill 2008 and the Strata Management Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 are cognate with this Bill. The expressed intent of the amendments is to simplify, speed up, and make cheaper the processing of development applications and appeals, improver certifier accountability, and also impose greater accountability on Councils in the collection and subsequent application of Section 94 contribution monies.

The objectives of the Medical Practice Amendment Bill are to amend the Medical Practice Act 1992 and the Health Care Complaints Act 1993. The purpose of the Bill is intended to improve public protection within the health system by providing the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission and the NSW Medical Board with improved powers to deal quickly and effectively with complaints about medical practitioners.

This bill has two objectives. The first is concerned with amending the Jury Act 1977, to put into effect a number of recommendations from the NSW Law Reform Commission’s January 2008 Report regarding jury selection. The other is to amend the Criminal Appeal Act 1912 to enable appeals to be made regarding decisions made in the discharge of a jury.

The Christian Democratic Party support the Education Amendment Bill 2008. The Bill amends the Education Act 1990 with respect to overseas students and admission to government schools; and for other purposes. The objectives of the Bill are as follows: Firstly, it confirms that overseas students may be required to pay fees in order to attend government schools.

The object of this Bill is to establish a 12-month trial scheme commencing on 1 May 2008, and limited to certain indictable proceedings being heard in certain courts, that will: codify the discounts on sentence to be allowed by the courts in respect of guilty pleas; reduce the maximum amount of sentence discount that may be allowed for guilty pleas in those proceedings; and require the legal representative of an accused person and the prosecution to participate in a compulsory conference for the principal purpose of determining whether there is any offence to which the accused person is willing to plead guilty before the accused person is committed for trial or sentence.

Ensuring the safety of our food supply is an essential part of protecting and promoting the health of the community. Food is the most fundamental of needs and the NSW community has a right to expect that their food will be safe. Food safety guarantees a healthy, and therefore, a more productive society and it reduces sickness in the community, and reduces the load placed on hospitals and other medical resources.

The Crimes Amendment (Drink and Food Spiking) Bill introduces a new summary for drink and food spiking, and modernises existing offences relevant to drink spiking to ensure that they apply to alcohol.

The objective of this Bill is to amend the Crimes Act 1900 so as: To create a new summary offence of spiking a person’s drink or food with an intoxicating substance intent to harm the person

The object of the Electricity Supply Amendment (Offences) Bill 2007 is to amend the Electricity Supply Act to strengthen the protection of vital electricity infrastructure. The bill amends the Electricity Supply Act in two important ways.

The Gene Technology (GM Crop Moratorium) Act 2003 provides for the management of genetically modified (GM) food plants in NSW in accordance with market requirements. The Commonwealth deals with human health and environmental issues under the Gene Technology Act 2000 (Cth). The Act is due to expire in March 2008. Without amendments, all GM crops would be allowed to be cultivated in NSW. In July 2007, a panel of experts recommended the NSW Government to remove the moratorium orders on the cultivation of GM canola and make amendments to the Act to provide a clear ‘path to market’ for GM food products.

The object of this Bill is to make various amendments to the World Youth Day Act 2006 (the Principal Act) to make further provision in relation to the planning, coordination and delivery of services in relation to World Youth Day in 2008 and related events.