Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE COUNCIL REGULATIONS 2003 2003 NO. 353

Section 25 of the Australian Heritage Council Act 2003 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

Subsection 21(1) of the Act provides that the Australian Heritage Council (the Council) must keep a register of places and their heritage values, to be called the Register of the National Estate (the Register).

Sections 22 and 23 of the Act specify the persons that the Council must consult or inform when including places in, or removing places from, the Register. Subsection 21(2) of the Act provides that the regulations may specify additional persons the Council must consult or inform about the listing of places in the Register and the content, form of keeping, and inspection, publication and copying requirements for the Register.

The purpose of the Regulations is to prescribe additional specified persons the Council must consult or inform about the or actual inclusion or removal of places or parts of places in the Register; and to specify the content, method of keeping and publication requirements for the Register.

The Regulations provide that the appropriate authority of the State or Territory government and the local government (if any) be informed and given reasonable time to comment on a proposal to include in, or remove from, the Register a place or part of a place. The same bodies are be required to be informed of Council's decision to include in, or remove from, the Register a place or part of a place.

The Regulations also specify that the Register:

•       must contain a description of each place entered and the date on which the entry is made;

•       may be kept electronically; and

•       must be published on the internet with provision made for information about the location of the place not to be disclosed by internet publishing, where such public disclosure could result in the place being damaged.

The Act specifies no conditions that need to be met before the power to make the Regulations may be exercised.

The Act received Royal Assent on 23 September 2003. Those parts of the Act which did not commence on Royal Assent will commence on 1 January 2004.

Section 4 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 provides for the exercise of statutory powers between passing and commencement of the Act. Therefore, even though the provisions of the Act which the Regulations would give effect to have not yet commenced, the proposed Regulations may be made as long as they are not expressed to commenced prior to the commencement of the enabling legislation.

The Regulations commence on 1 January 2004.