Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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AUDIT REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 177

Statutory Rules 1994 No. 177

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Finance

Audit Act 1901

Audit Regulations (Amendment)

Subsection 7 1 (1) of the Audit Act 1901 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act. The regulations amend the Audit Regulations (the Principal Regulations) made pursuant to the Act.

Section 70BA of the Act provides that the Principal Regulations may declare an authority, a body or a company in which the Commonwealth has a controlling interest, to be subject to the section. The effect of such a declaration is that, where the Auditor-General is required by the Act or other legislation to submit a report on an authority, body or company, the AuditorGeneral may authorise an officer to sign that report on the Auditor-General's behalf and when the report is submitted, it shall be taken to have been submitted by the Auditor-General. Currently the Principal Regulations declare CSL Limited and one of its subsidiaries, Coselco Insurance Pty Limited, to be companies to which section 70BA applies.

Once CSL Limited is privatised, and no longer falls within the ambit of any part of the Audit Act, the reference to CSL Limited and Coselco Insurance Pty Limited in the Audit Regulations will no longer have effect and accordingly should be omitted following the sale of CSL Limited.

To this end, the regulations amend the Principal Regulations to remove the references to "CSL Limited" and "Coselco Insurance Pty Limited" from Schedule 2 of the Audit Regulations.

The commencement of the regulations is tied to the declaration of the sale day under section 4 of the CSL Sale Act 1993. The "sale day" is that day which the Minister for Finance, pursuant to section 4 of the CSL Sale Act 1993, declares to be, "the first day ... on which a majority of the voting shares in CSL are acquired by a person, or persons, other than the Commonwealth or a nominee of the Commonwealth." Retrospective operation of the regulations is allowed by section 48 of the CSL Sale Act 1993 and section 48 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.