Madam Speaker, the Bill that was presented before the committee basically was a technical amendment that dealt with the issues of the definition of a family, and we have agreed that the family should be defined not by ourselves, but by the sending state and they will therefore be able to communicate as to who are the members of the diplomat's family that they have sent to us, and who are the members that must be accredited.
The second aspect that the Bill dealt with was the issue that related to the list that the Minister was required in the previous Act to publish in the Government Gazette, containing the names and the details of diplomats. That required that every year they should be published in the Government Gazette but the reality of the situation was that, by the time the Government Gazette was published, already in fact it was outdated because there would have been changes in the diplomats' situation. We have agreed that the requirement for the publication of the list remains. However, that list will now be maintained on the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs, which must be updated on a continuous basis so that it can be as up to date as possible.
The second aspect that we have dealt with in this Bill and agreed to as the committee is the fact that there is no requirement that the director- general can only issue a certificate to clarify the status of a diplomat when the matter reaches court. He could actually be asked to do that and provide that certificate long before the matter reaches court. However, it is the court that could make the final determination as to whether the certificate is sufficient to prove that the diplomat enjoys certain immunities. Those are the basic three aspects that we were dealing with in the Bill, and we want to suggest that the House should adopt and pass the Bill. Thank you.
There was no debate.
Bill read a second time.