Mitchell Mark: Electronic Transactions (Contract Formation) Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: Electronic Transactions (Contract Formation) Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17106. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney):I am very happy to take a call on the second clause the commencement clause in what is a very good bill the Electronic Transactions (Contract Formation) Amendment Bill brought to this House by my colleague Paul Goldsmith. He made a very good explanation around the title and I now clearly understand why we have the words “contract formation” in there. It is really the heart of the bill.The commencement date is very important in this bill. Mr Goldsmith has already indicated very clearly that he wants the commencement date to be the date after it receives the Royal assent. I support this position completely. It was interesting because I guess I did have a question around whether or not this should be retrospective legislation and the member made it very clear that he has decided that he does not want it to be retrospective. In fact as he said he is a member of this House who is not in favour generally of retrospective legislation for his own very good reasons. In actual fact this bill probably does not lend itself to being retrospective in nature.This is a very good bill and I think that Paul Goldsmith made a very good point which is that there is a sense that we do live in an electronic age now. He sort of went back in time and said that once upon a time a contract was formed through the preparation the mailing and the receiving of a letter. The contract was formed when it was put into the envelope the stamp was put on it and it was put in the mail—that was when the contract was formed. It was very clear. The reason why I mention this is that it relates directly to the commencement date and to why the member is pushing very hard for a commencement date that will be the day after the bill receives the Royal assent. But now in the modern age—hello Barbara—we live in an entirely different era where electronic transactions—Carol Beaumont: The member is better than this.MARK MITCHELL: —are a part of daily life. I would invite Ms Beaumont to take a call so we can actually hear what the Opposition feels about this bill.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: No no we’re listening to you.MARK MITCHELL: I would be very interested to hear that and I am sure that there would be an amazing contribution from Mr Cosgrove. I invite him to take a call as well.In these modern times a lot of our transactions are electronic and I think Mr Goldsmith raises a very good point. It comes to the heart of this bill and it comes to the reason why the commencement date is so important. I keep coming back to the fact that the member in the chair has highlighted the day after the Royal assent is given and I fully support that bit. But the thing is that now in these electronic times he is quite right to ask when the contract is formed. Is it when an email arrives in the server when the email arrives in your in-box or when you open the email? There does have to be certainty and there does have to be clarity around this. I come back—Carol Beaumont: Commencement.MARK MITCHELL: Well the commencement date is critical.Hon Todd McClay: No no but the contract forms when it commences—like the commencement date.MARK MITCHELL: That is right. The contract does form on the commencement—you are absolutely right. We keep coming back to it and we keep highlighting it but listen I think it is very important to continue to highlight that Mr Goldsmith has stated very clearly that he wishes the commencement date to be from the day that the bill receives the Royal assent.I would like to come back to a comment that my colleague the Hon Chris Tremain made because he made some very very good observations. When we are talking about transactions it actually does come to the heart of our economic growth does it not? There are thousands of transactions being made every day in this country.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Really? Is that right?MARK MITCHELL: Yes that is right Mr Cosgrove. I know that you might be a little bit disconnected from what is happening in the country but actually there are thousands of transactions happening every day. So finally I would just like to come back and finally state and support Mr Goldsmith’s comments and statements around his preferred commencement date—that is the day after this bill receives the Royal assent. Thank you.Clause 2 agreed to.