City and Environment Legislation Amendment Act 2026

The central operational concept in the cemetery amendments is the “retention period”. Under Cemeteries and Crematoria Act s 25(2), the licensee must make cremated remains available to the applicant for three years after the day the applicant is notified. The clock therefore runs from notification, not expressly from the cremation date. The applicant is defined by s 25(6) as the person who applied under s 22. The Act does not reproduce s 22, so it does not provide the full application process or any rules about changing the applicant.

A “suitable person” is narrowly defined in s 25(6): the person must be a family member of the deceased and over 16. If the applicant has not collected the remains during the first year, s 25(3) requires the licensee to make them available to a suitable person until the retention period ends. That extends the possible collection route; it does not shorten the three-year period.

The Act also distinguishes ordinary availability from a later request to collect. If the remains are still uncollected after two years, s 25(4) requires contact on at least two days using the last known telephone number, plus a written notice to the last known postal or email address. Under s 25(5), that written notice must state the retention-period end date and that disposal may occur after that date.

For road penalties, the regulation amendment uses “P” in its calculation but the supplied Act does not define P. For the accuracy tolerances, the supplied words are “2% or 2km/h”; they do not explain how to apply the alternatives in a particular measurement or device context. Those details require the amended underlying instruments and relevant operational material.

The cemetery provisions directly regulate a crematorium “licensee”. The duties attach to the licensee, not expressly to the applicant or the family. Licensees must notify applicants, maintain availability, make remains available to a suitable person after the first year if the applicant has not collected them, make follow-up contact after two years, and keep the specified register. The new offences in ss 25A and 25B are framed as offences by a person who is the licensee and fails to comply with specified requirements or disposes of remains in the stated circumstances.

Applicants are affected because the licensee must notify them within seven days of cremation and make the remains available for the defined period. Family members over 16 may become relevant as “suitable persons” after the first year if the applicant has not collected the remains. The Act does not impose a collection obligation on either group. It also does not prescribe how family relationships are established or how competing requests from multiple suitable persons are resolved.

The Electoral Act amendment affects the statutory timing rule in s 37(1)(a), but the supplied text does not reproduce the surrounding rule or identify the body responsible for conducting a redistribution. It is therefore possible to identify the changed interval, but not to describe all affected decision-makers or the full triggering circumstances from this source alone.

The heavy-vehicle changes concern offences under the Heavy Vehicle National Law (ACT) as applied through the 2013 Act. Their practical significance is for people charged with relevant offences and those administering or prosecuting them, but the supplied amendment does not list affected offences. The corporate infringement-penalty formula applies to corporations receiving notices for covered offences. The speed-tolerance changes concern the testing and maintenance requirements for specified speed-measuring devices and police vehicle speedometers. The Act does not identify particular operators, equipment models or enforcement agencies.

For crematorium licensees, s 25(1) requires notification to the applicant within seven days after cremation. Section 25(2) requires availability for collection for three years from notification. If the applicant has not collected the remains within the first year, s 25(3) requires availability to a suitable person until the end of that period. These are separate steps: the later family-member route does not replace the applicant’s initial notification or the three-year availability period.

After two years without collection, s 25(4) requires the licensee to ask the applicant or a suitable person to collect the remains. The required methods are contact with the person’s last known telephone number on at least two days, and written notice sent to the last known postal or email address. The written notice must include the end date and explain that disposal may occur after that date. The Act does not prescribe the exact wording of the notice, the spacing between telephone attempts, or what happens if contact details are invalid.

The licensee must also keep the register required by s 63A. For notified applicants, it must record the notification date, name and contact details. For people asked to collect under s 25(4), it must record the contact date, name and contact details. For collected remains, the register must record the collector’s name and contact details, their relationship to the deceased, whether all or some remains were collected, and the collection date. If remains are disposed of, the disposal date must also be recorded.

The provisions establish a period during which collection must remain possible and a later point after which disposal may be allowed, subject to the statutory requirements. They do not state a general right to disposal before the period ends. Nor do they specify the method of disposal or address disputes over who may collect.

The Act creates express maximum penalties for specified crematorium offences. Under new s 25A(1), failure by a licensee to comply with the seven-day notification requirement in s 25(1) carries a maximum of 20 penalty units. Under s 25A(2), failure to comply with the two-year follow-up requirements in s 25(4), where remains have not been collected within the first two years, also carries a maximum of 20 penalty units.

New s 25B sets a maximum of 50 penalty units for each of three disposal-related offences. Section 25B(1) applies where the licensee fails to comply with s 25(1) and disposes of the remains. Section 25B(2) applies where remains have not been collected within the first two years, the licensee fails to comply with s 25(4), and the licensee disposes of them. Section 25B(3) separately makes disposal before the end of the retention period an offence. These offence elements are cumulative as written: the first two provisions require both a specified failure and disposal, while the third focuses on disposal before the period expires. The Act gives maximum penalties in penalty units; it does not state their monetary value here.

The road transport amendment changes a corporate infringement notice penalty calculation. For a heavy vehicle infringement notice offence, the penalty payable by a corporation is P × 5. For other covered offences, it is (P × 5) − 240. The multiplier does not apply to offences against Part 12 of the Road Transport (Road Rules) Regulation 2017, concerning restrictions on stopping and parking. The base value P and the treatment of any resulting calculation are not defined in this amending text.

The source does not set out investigation powers, prosecution procedures, review rights, or enforcement agency practice. Those matters cannot be determined from these amendments alone.

The Act operates by amending existing legislation and regulations, rather than reproducing them. Section 3 identifies five instruments amended. As a result, the amendments must be read with the provisions left in place in those instruments. The supplied text does not include complete consolidated versions, so it cannot show every relevant definition, procedure, exception or cross-reference.

The cemetery amendments refer to s 22 of the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act, which is the application provision used to identify the applicant. They also modify s 63A and the references to that register in s 64. Section 9 updates the description used in s 64 from “Register,cremation collections” to “Register,collection of cremated remains”. The amendment does not reproduce s 64’s offences or penalties; it makes a consequential reference change. Section 7 also alters text in ss 59 to 61, replacing “keep” with “comply with”. Without those sections’ full wording, the exact resulting duties cannot be reconstructed safely.

For heavy vehicles, s 11 removes from s 6 the words making the application of the Criminal Code subject to s 21. Section 12 then omits s 21, which was headed “Offences for which person charged does not have benefit of mistake of fact defence”. Mechanically, the specific exception in s 21 and the express qualification in s 6 are removed. The precise relationship with the Heavy Vehicle National Law and the Criminal Code requires their current text.

The road-transport amendments refer to the Road Transport Act dictionary and s 24(2)(b), but do not reproduce those provisions. The Electoral Act change similarly alters only s 37(1)(a). No broader interaction or inconsistency rule is stated in the supplied Act.

The supplied Act records a short legislative history. The presentation speech was made in the Legislative Assembly on 25 March 2026. The Bill was passed on 27 May 2026, according to the Clerk’s certification. It was notified under the Legislation Act on 5 June 2026. The instrument is identified as the City and Environment Legislation Amendment Act 2026, Act A2026-11.

The commencement provision, s 2, says the Act commences on the seventh day after its notification day. On the stated notification date, that points to 12 June 2026. The note to s 2 adds that the naming and commencement provisions automatically commence on notification day under Legislation Act s 75(1). The supplied text does not give a separate commencement date for each Part or provision. On its face, the general commencement rule applies to the substantive amendments as well.

The amendments themselves are grouped into six Parts. Part 1 contains preliminary provisions. Part 2 changes the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act. Part 3 changes the Electoral Act. Part 4 changes the Heavy Vehicle National Law (ACT) Act. Parts 5 and 6 amend the two road transport regulations.

This history is limited to what appears in the enacted text and its endnotes. The Act does not include an explanatory statement, a second-reading speech transcript, committee material, a list of earlier versions, or an amendment-by-amendment account of policy rationale. The presentation speech’s date is recorded, but its content is not. Accordingly, the source establishes passage and notification dates and the amendments enacted; it does not establish the full legislative debate, the policy evidence relied on, or any earlier law reform history.

The supplied legislation contains no reported case names, court decisions, tribunal decisions, litigation summaries or references to proceedings. It therefore provides no direct evidence about how a court has interpreted the amended provisions, whether any provision has been challenged, or how enforcement has operated in practice. That is a limit of this source, not evidence that no relevant litigation exists.

The text does identify matters that could become questions of construction if disputes arise, but it does not resolve them. For example, s 25(4) requires telephone contact “on at least 2 days” and written notice to a last known postal or email address. It does not specify the interval between contact attempts or what counts as successful contact. Section 25(6) defines a suitable person by family relationship and age, but the Act does not explain how a disputed relationship is to be established. The phrase “2% or 2km/h” in the speed-tolerance amendments is also reproduced without an interpretation rule explaining how the alternatives operate.

The text also does not identify decisions that may be reviewed, courts with jurisdiction, limitation periods, evidentiary rules, or available remedies. Those matters may be addressed in other legislation, procedural rules or case law, none of which is supplied here. No case can responsibly be attributed to this Act on the basis of this text alone.

For a litigation-focused assessment, the relevant primary materials would include the current consolidated versions of the amended instruments and any judgments or tribunal decisions interpreting them. This deep dive does not draw on those materials and makes no claim about the existence or outcome of proceedings. Its account is confined to what the amending Act says and the questions its wording leaves open.

The cemetery retention period begins on the day the applicant is notified, not expressly on the cremation date. That makes the notification date significant both for calculating the three-year period and for establishing the deadline by which the licensee must act. The Act does not specify a method for calculating days or periods in this context, so general interpretation rules may matter.

The one-year and two-year points perform different functions. At the one-year point, s 25(3) requires availability to a suitable person if the applicant has not collected the remains. After two years without collection, s 25(4) requires specified attempts to ask the applicant or suitable person to collect. Neither provision says that the remains may be disposed of at those points. Section 25(5) requires the notice to state that disposal may occur after the three-year period ends, and s 25B(3) makes disposal before the end of that period an offence.

The register has distinct recording requirements for notification, follow-up contact, collection and disposal. For collection, it must record whether all or only some of the remains were collected. For disposal, the stated additional entry is the disposal date. The amendment does not specify a retention period for register entries, access rights, or a required format.

In the corporate penalty formula, the road-rules parking exception is express, but P is not defined in the amending Act. The formula for non-heavy-vehicle offences subtracts 240 after multiplying P by five. Without the existing regulation’s definitions and surrounding provisions, the complete calculation and any practical limits cannot be confirmed. Likewise, “2% or 2km/h” should not be silently rewritten as “whichever is greater” or “whichever is less”: the amendment does not say that.

For the cemetery provisions, a useful compliance map follows the sequence in s 25. It distinguishes the cremation date, the date the applicant is notified, the first-year point, the two-year point and the end of the three-year retention period. The notification record should be capable of showing the date, applicant’s name and contact details required by s 63A(2)(a). If the remains remain uncollected after two years, the evidence relevant to the statutory steps includes the last known telephone number, the days on which contact was attempted, and the postal or email address to which written notice was sent. The notice’s stated end date and disposal warning correspond to s 25(5).

The collection and disposal records have separate fields under s 63A(3) and (4). A record of collection needs the collector’s name and contact details, relationship to the deceased, whether all or some remains were collected, and the date. A disposal entry must include its date. The Act does not prescribe a template, record-retention duration or verification procedure.

For road transport matters, analysis of a corporation’s infringement notice requires the offence category, the applicable value of P under the underlying regulation, and confirmation that the offence is not within the Part 12 stopping-and-parking exception. Assessing a speed-measuring device or police vehicle speedometer requires the full amended testing and maintenance provisions, not only the tolerance wording in this Act.

These are source-based compliance considerations, not a determination that any particular organisation has complied. This is general legal information, not legal advice. Zoe can make mistakes. Before acting on or relying on this analysis, have a qualified Australian lawyer check it.