Australian Capital Territory Numbered Acts Australian Capital Territory Numbered Acts16. After section 31A of the Principal Act the following sections are inserted:
“31B. (1) Where a testator by will devises or bequeaths property to, or appoints property in favour of, his or her issue then, unless a contrary intention appears from the will or from evidence admitted pursuant to section 12B, the testator is presumed to have intended that, subject to subsection (2), the devise, bequest or appointment is to be distributed in equal shares between only those issue of the testator who—
(a) are his or her nearest issue; and
(b) survive the testator for a period of 30 days (in this section referred to as ‘the specified period').
“(2) If a person who is one of the nearest issue of the testator dies before the end of the specified period, leaving issue who survive the testator for the specified period (in this section referred to as ‘surviving issue'), the testator shall be presumed to have intended that any surviving issue of that deceased nearest issue take, if more than 1 in equal shares, the share in the testator's estate which that deceased nearest issue would have taken had he or she survived the testator for the specified period.
“(3) Subsection (2) does not operate to entitle any surviving issue remoter than the children of any deceased nearest issue to take unless the death of a parent who would have taken as surviving issue occurred before the end of the specified period, and then the testator shall be presumed to have intended that the remoter issue take, if more than 1 in equal shares, the share which that parent would have taken.
“31C. (1) Subject to section 31, where—
(a) a testator by will devises or bequeaths property to, appoints property in favour of, or confers the power to appoint property on, any person; and
(b) that person does not survive the testator by 30 days;
then unless the contrary intention appears from the will, or from evidence admitted pursuant to section 12B, that person shall be deemed to have predeceased the testator and the devise, bequest, appointment or power shall lapse.
“(2) A general requirement or condition in a will that a beneficiary survive the testator shall not be taken to be an expression of a contrary intention for the purposes of this section.”.