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Australian Year Book of International Law |
Sama Payman[*]
This Act provides the legislative framework for granting of leases to airport specific companies and the transfer of assets and obligations associated with those airport operations from the Federal Airports Corporation to the companies. Under the proposed airports regime, Australia will require airport operators to meet international airservice obligations, and, if necessary, specific regulations can be made to this effect. A specific object of the Act is to implement international obligations relating to airports such as those contained in the Convention on International Civil Aviation concluded at Chicago on 7 December 1944.
One provision of this Act requires the Law Reform Commission to aim at ensuring that the laws, proposals and recommendations it reviews, considers or makes are, as far as practicable, consistent with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and that in performing its functions it pays regard to all of Australia’s relevant international obligations.
This Act amends the Australian Sports Drug Agency Act 1990. This amendment allows the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA), amongst other things, to work more cooperatively with international sports organisations to conduct tests both at major sporting events and out of competition on an annual basis. It further enhances the role of ASDA in aiming to eliminate drugs in sport in line with anti-doping agreements that Australia has concluded with other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, New Zealand and Norway, and the Council of Europe Anti-Doping Convention to which Australia has acceded.
This Act amends the Crimes Act 1914 to exempt from criminal liability certain law enforcement officers who engage in ‘controlled operations’ to obtain evidence of offences relating to narcotic goods and related purposes. The Act gives effect to certain provisions in the UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances 1988, which deal with controlled operations to counter organised and sophisticated traffickers.
The Customs Tariff Act 1995 replaced the Customs Tariff Act 1987. The 1995 Tariff Act reflected some 350 changes to the International Convention on the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System of the World Customs Organisation in 1993. Australia became a party to the Convention in 1987. The 1995 Tariff Act gave effect to Australia’s obligations to align its tariff structure with the international standard. The 1987 Tariff Act was repealed by Part 3 of the 1995 Tariff Act with effect from 1 July 1996. Schedule 1 of this Act allows for the update of all references from the 1987 Tariff Act to the 1995 Tariff Act and its corresponding provisions to ensure their continued effectiveness. Schedule 2 allows a similar update to several types of instruments such as by-laws and Tariff Concession Orders.
This Act complements the Dairy Produce Levy (No 1) Amendment Act 1996 in providing the legal framework for the current administration of the dairy market support scheme by the Australian Dairy Corporation. The provisions of the Act revise the definitions of market milk and manufacturing milk, by reference to the Dairy Produce Levy (No 1) Amendment Act 1996 to allow the established milk payment practices of the dairy industry to continue unchanged and to remain consistent with the World Trade Organisation Agreement.
The purpose of this Act is to introduce minor but necessary amendments to ensure consistency between current industry milk payment practices and the dairy market support legislation. Following the Uruguay round of trade negotiations, Australia introduced new arrangements from 1 July 1995 which deliver assistance to dairy producers through a clearly defined and transparent domestic support scheme. Current administration of the scheme by the Australian Dairy Corporation (ADC) is on the basis of industry milk payment practices and is not consistent with the legislation as it now stands. This Act retrospectively aligns the market support legislation with the existing administrative arrangements of the ADC. The market support arrangements remain consistent with the World Trade Organisation Agreement.
The purpose of this Act is to amend the Hazardous Waste (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1989 to ensure that Australia can discharge its obligations under international instruments relating to the control of transboundary movements of hazardous waste. The Basel Convention was drafted to cover the process of final disposal and recovery operations of hazardous waste, and both kinds of processes are included in the Convention definitions under the single term ‘disposal’. The principal Act does not cover a wide range of hazardous wastes from which valuable materials are to be recovered. The major purpose of amending the Act is to remedy the discrepancy between our international obligations and our domestic legislation.
This Act regulates the provision by Australia of international assistance in criminal matters when certain requests are made by a foreign country, and it facilitates the obtaining by Australia of international assistance in criminal matters. The Act applies to all foreign countries unless the Regulations provide that it is subject to any mutual assistance treaty between that country and Australia and any multilateral mutual assistance treaty (being a treaty to which that country is a party).
The purpose of this Act is to introduce amendments to various Acts including the Offshore Minerals Act 1994 (Minerals Act). Section 15 of the Minerals Act is amended to preserve the integrity of licences granted under the Act, the boundaries of which might be affected by changes in the location of the territorial sea baseline. At present the section applies only where changes to the baseline might be caused by natural processes such as tides or storms. The amendment expands the section to apply it to changes in the location of the baseline resulting from acquisition of new data or reconsideration of existing data. The amendment has been made necessary by the possibility that the integrity of licences would be brought into question by a change in the location of the baseline caused by reconsideration of old data.
The purpose of this Act is to introduce amendments to various Acts. It repeals the International Sugar Agreement Act 1978. The latter Act approved appropriations for the purpose of giving effect to the International Sugar Agreement 1977.
A number of proposed amendments are collectively concerned with the management by the Department of Primary Industries and Energy of chemicals subject to import and export restrictions under international obligations such as the prior informed consent procedures. The obtaining of information from the National Registration Authority for Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals is a factor in that management.
This Act gives legislative force to the provisions of the double taxation agreement between the Australian Commerce and Industry Office and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office signed on 29 May 1996 in Canberra. The Act inserts the text of the Agreement into the Income Tax (International Agreements) Act 1953 as a schedule to that Act.
This amendment to the Telecommunications (Carrier Licence Fees) Act 1991 allows the Government to collect the full telecommunications carriers’ share of the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) contribution. The unamended Act would not have allowed this as the collection of the full telecommunications carriers’ share of the ITU contribution would have exceeded the amount provided for under the Act.
The ITU is a UN specialised agency which is concerned with international cooperation in the use of telecommunications and the radio frequency spectrum.
The principal object of this Act is to provide a framework for cooperative workplace relations which promote the economic prosperity and welfare of the people of Australia by, inter alia, respecting and valuing the diversity of the work force through the prevention and elimination of discrimination and by assisting in giving effect to Australia’s international obligations in relation to labour standards.
These Statutory Rules omit Schedule 1A (Prohibition on Smoking on International Passenger Services). These Statutory Rules extend the ban on smoking in aircraft, in line with a resolution of the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Schedule 1A, which listed parties to a trilateral agreement banning smoking on international flights, is repealed as unnecessary now that the smoking ban has been extended to all international flights by Australian operators. The ban now extends also to open-use charter aircraft, not only regular public transport aircraft, on all international passenger flights by Australian carriers and on all passenger flights between airports in Australia by any carrier.
These Statutory Rules omit regulation 311F (Aircraft Flying to or from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) — Prohibition). The prohibition was lifted, following the lifting of the relevant sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council.
The object of these regulations is to establish a system for the protection of airspace at, and around, airports in the interests of the safety, efficiency and regularity of existing or future air transport operations into or out of airports. The airspace provisions give effect to procedures set down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation which develops standards and recommended practices in accordance with the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.
These Statutory Rules set out the procedures by which the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA) can work more competitively with international sports organisations to conduct tests both at major sporting events and out of competition on an annual basis. This enhances ASDA’s role in aiming to eliminate drugs in sport in line with anti-doping agreements concluded by Australia.
Section 6 of the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945 provides that the Governor-General may make regulations giving effect to decisions of the Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations which Article 25 of the Charter requires Australia to carry out. These Statutory Rules implement a decision of the Security Council to suspend certain sanctions imposed against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under Resolution 942.
Section 6 of the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945 provides that the Governor-General may make regulations giving effect to decisions of the Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations which Article 25 of the Charter requires Australia to carry out. These Statutory Rules repeal Statutory Rules 1994 No 448 and 1996 No 30 which implemented sanctions imposed by the Security Council against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Those sanctions have been lifted.
The Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations control the export of goods specified in the various Regulations or the Schedules to the Regulations. These Statutory Rules amend Regulation 13CC (Exportation of goods owned or controlled by Yugoslavia) so that the exportation of goods owned or controlled directly or indirectly by Yugoslavia or a public utility of Yugoslavia is prohibited unless the written permission of an authorised person is produced to a collector at or before the time of exportation. When deciding whether to grant permission, the authorised person must take into account Australia’s relations with other countries and its obligations under international law. Regulation 13CD (Exportation of Goods to Bosnia and Herzegovina or Croatia) is omitted.
This Statutory Rule provides for the omission of Regulation 13CC (Exportation of goods owned or controlled by Yugoslavia) which prohibited the exportation of goods owned or controlled directly or indirectly by Yugoslavia or a public utility of Yugoslavia, unless the written permission of an authorised person was produced to a collector at or before the time of exportation. This followed the lifting of the relevant UN sanctions.
These Statutory Rules amend Schedule 6 (Requirements for the Importation of Firearms, Firearm Accessories, Firearm Parts, Firearm Magazines and Ammunition). One of the effects of the amendment is that if the article is ammunition to be imported for the purposes of re-exportation, the Attorney-General must be satisfied that the person in Australia has made a contract with the intention of shipping the ammunition to a person outside Australia, in a manner that will not contravene Australia’s international obligations.
These Statutory Rules insert a new regulation 5J (Importation of Goods containing certain Chemical Compounds) which gives effect to certain obligations under the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. Part 2 of Schedule 11 provides a list of the chemical compounds.
These Statutory Rules amend the Design Regulations to update the list of ‘Convention Countries’ in Schedule 2A.
Paragraph 11(1)(a) of the Extradition Act 1988 provides that regulations may apply the Act to a specified extradition country to give effect to a bilateral extradition treaty between Australia and that country. An extradition treaty between Australia and the Federal Republic of Brazil was signed at Canberra on 22 August 1994. These Statutory Rules enabled Australia to give domestic effect to the Treaty.
These Statutory Rules amend the list of countries, or parts of countries, declared to be ‘Prescribed Overseas Jurisdictions’ for certain purposes in Schedule 1A, the list of ‘Reciprocating Jurisdictions’ in Schedule 2, and the list of ‘Convention Countries’ in Schedule 4 being parties to the Convention on the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance.
These Statutory Rules further amend the regulations to ensure that the words of the regulations more closely reflect the provisions of the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
The object of this Statutory Rule is to make regulations for the purposes of Section 13C of the Hazardous Waste (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1989 giving effect to the Decision of the Council of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) concerning the control of transfrontier movements of wastes destined for recovery operations (adopted by the Council at its 778th Session on 30 March 1992). OECD countries are countries that are members of the OECD under the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development done at Paris on 14 December 1960. These Statutory Rules also give effect to certain obligations under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
These Statutory Rules give effect to certain obligations under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna is established under Article 6 of the Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna
These Statutory Rules prescribe the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a safe third country in relation to a person who has been a Vietnamese refugee settled in the PRC, or related to such a person, and entered Australia without lawful authority on or after 1 January 1996. The Rules insert the text of a Memorandum of Understanding between Australia and the PRC together with the exchange of letters between representatives of Australia and the PRC into the Migration Regulations.
This Statutory Rule repeals Statutory Rules 1994 No 266 and 1996 No 13 which implemented sanctions imposed by the Security Council in relation to Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) which have now been lifted.
These Statutory Rules amend Regulation 3 (Application of the Act) so that the whole of the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1987 now applies to the USA. Part VIA of the Act did not previously apply in relation to the USA. Regulation 3 is also amended so that the Act now applies to the USA in respect of the multilateral mutual assistance treaty for access to Financial Transaction Report information for the purposes of international assistance in criminal matters.
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office is declared to be a designated overseas mission by these Statutory Rules and as such certain privileges and immunities apply.
These Statutory Rules amend the Patents Regulations to update the list of ‘Convention Countries’ in Schedule 4.
These Statutory Rules revise the definitions of ‘market milk’ and ‘manufacturing milk’ to allow the established milk payment practices of the dairy industry to continue unchanged and to remain consistent with the World Trade Organisation Agreement.
These Statutory Rules amend the regulations to provide a formula for the collection by the Government of the full telecommunications carriers’ share of the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) contribution. The ITU is a UN specialised agency which is concerned with international cooperation in the use of telecommunications and the radio frequency spectrum.
These Statutory Rules amend the Trade Marks Regulations to update the list of ‘Convention Countries’ in Schedule 10.
The object of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (Prevention of Proliferation) Act 1995 is to ensure, as far as possible, that goods and services were not supplied or exported from Australia or by Australian citizens, residents or companies in circumstances where they would or might be used in the development, production, acquisition or stockpiling of weapons that are capable of causing mass destruction or of missiles that are capable of delivering such weapons. The Act implemented in part Australia’s obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention, the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Various Statutory Rules have prescribed the particulars that must appear in applications and notices under the Act and the basic procedures for safe storage of goods seized or condemned under the Act. These Statutory Rules further prescribe the particulars that must appear in notices under the Act and further qualify the procedure for safe storage of goods seized.
These Statutory Rules continue to give effect to certain obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora done at Washington on 3 March 1973.
[*] Prepared by Sama Payman, Government Lawyer, Office of International Law, Attorney-General’s Department, Canberra
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUYrBkIntLaw/1997/8.html