I support the Better Regulation, Fair Trading and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024. I commend the Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading for bringing the bill to the House. Today I focus on the amendments in schedule 7 to the bill. That schedule contains various miscellaneous but important reforms that seek to reduce unnecessary regulatory burden, ensure the laws remain fit for purpose and operate efficiently, and clarify and support the intended operation of the law.

I will speak about the amendments to the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 that aim to increase privacy protections for committee members and public officers. Associations represent a diverse range of small‑scale non‑profit and non-commercial bodies, including sporting clubs, charities and migrant support services. Firstly, the current laws require an association's official address to be an address at which the association's public officer can generally be found. That means that members of an association can discover the public officer's personal address, as it is the same as the association's official address. That information can also be accessed by any person who searches the public register, which is a privacy concern.

The majority of people would be uncomfortable knowing that the address at which they can generally be found is recorded on a public register. The bill addresses the matter by removing that link and requiring that the official address be an address in New South Wales at which documents can be served on the association by post. That reform will improve the privacy of public officers and will remove the risk to those who have concerns for their safety.

Secondly, the bill removes the requirement for committee members to provide their date of birth and residential address. That information is currently required to be recorded in the register of committee members, and any person can inspect that register free of charge. The requirement that associations make the register of committee members available for inspection is also not necessary and has been removed. Information in the register is mainly relevant to people involved in an association, and not to the public. Similarly, the bill removes the requirement for a new public officer to provide their date of birth when they are notifying the Secretary of the Department of Customer Service of their appointment. A copy of the notification can be made available to any person who searches the public register. A public officer's date of birth is unnecessary for the proper administration of the Act. A declaration on the notice of appointment that the public officer is aged 18 years or older is sufficient.

That outdated requirement is a violation of privacy and increases the risk of identity theft and associated fraud. It also exposes private individuals to potential doxxing or other forms of intense harassment. Stakeholders, including women's refuges, associations with members who are judicial officers, corrective services staff and staff who work in child protection, have raised concerns about those requirements. Many people in those fields do not ordinarily disclose their personal details to the general public due to safety concerns. The proposed amendments seek to uphold the privacy of committee members and public officers, and to reduce the risk of harm. Those reforms are critical to ensuring the law remains fit for purpose in the modern world and continue to support the intended operation of the law.

I now turn to another important amendment to the Associations Incorporation Act 2009, which will remove an impractical governance procedure and allow an association's assets to be distributed. Section 77 of the Act currently sets the process following the involuntary cancellation of an association's registration. It provides that the association's property comes under the control of the Secretary of the Department of Customer Service. The provision also empowers the secretary to deal with the finalisation of an association's affairs and the distribution of surplus assets.

However, the provision uses the term "winding up", which potentially misrepresents the function of the secretary. The term "finalisation" is more appropriate for that process, as the process of winding up an association is different. That is because the applied provisions of the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth apply when an association is winding up its affairs. Removing the term "winding up" from section 77 of the Act will clarify the process for finalising an association's affairs. Importantly, that reform will ensure that an association's assets can be distributed as intended following involuntary cancellation.

I now turn to the amendments to the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 that aim to reduce red tape and expenses when carrying out ballots. Currently associations are restricted to choosing one method to conduct voting ballots of its members, which is to use the electronic ballot process or the postal ballot process but not both. That is impractical and simply does not reflect the modern ways in which voting can be conducted. The voting system for State elections in New South Wales would be highly impractical if our citizens did not have access to multiple methods of voting on election day. There is no reason that associations and their members cannot have the same flexibility. The proposed amendment will allow more associations to use combined electronic and postal ballots. Removing that red tape will provide flexibility and is likely to reduce unnecessary costs for the administration of associations.

The proposed amendments will remove unnecessary provisions relating to statutory declarations. I understand that only three Acts in the Fair Trading portfolio still refer to and require submission of statutory declarations. While statutory declarations have use in certain situations, such measures are not always needed. For instance, making a false or misleading declaration is already a general offence under the Crimes Act 1900. Additionally, some Acts have specific provisions making it an offence to make a false or misleading statement on a form.

Under the Truck Industry Act 1998, the secretary can require that additional information be verified by statutory declaration as part of an application. However, separately, it provides that it is an offence to make a false or misleading statement as part of the application, whereas under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 and the Co-operative Housing and Starr‑Bowkett Societies Act 1998 a person can provide a statutory declaration to fulfil certain requirements instead of completing the mandatory approved form, which has its own declaration section. These Acts' requirements to use statutory declarations are unnecessary, and removing them will ensure clarity and consistency with other laws in the portfolio. The amendments will also reduce any administrative and compliance burdens of completing and lodging such declarations.

The amendment to the Co-operative Housing and Starr-Bowkett Societies Act 1998 will enable members to interact with their boards by electronic means rather than only in person. Digital adoption took a quantum leap during the pandemic. It accelerated the use of digital technologies and changed how we interact with each other. The Government is responding to this momentum by ensuring that all our laws are modern, to ensure better outcomes for the people of New South Wales. This includes improving the ways in which co-operative society members can interact with their boards to fulfil their obligations. Amendments to the Co-operative Housing and Starr-Bowkett Societies Act 1998 and the Funeral Funds Act 1979 will remove an archaic requirement to keep a hard copy of the regulating statutes and make it available for inspection. Those provisions are outdated and redundant, as copies of all Acts and regulations are now readily accessible online for free. Removing those requirements will provide a small saving for those businesses, which will not need to purchase or print new copies each time the relevant statues are updated.

Lastly, I turn to amendments that will improve clarity of the law to ensure that it operates as intended. The bill will update a recent amendment to the Motor Dealers and Repairers Act 2013, which is yet to commence, to clarify that parties can make claims on the compensation fund to enforce a tribunal order, not just a judgement or order of a court. Finally, the bill will amend the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 to clarify that the period in which a person can be disqualified from being involved in directing, managing or conducting a business can be either temporary or permanent. That amendment will provide certainty and enable NSW Fair Trading to implement disciplinary decisions more effectively. I am confident that the outcome of the amendments in this bill will be in the best interests of the people of New South Wales. Once again, I commend the Minister for bringing the bill to the House.