Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

[Index] [Search] [Download] [Related Items] [Help]

AIRPORTS REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1998 NO. 51

STATUTORY RULES 1998 No. 51

Airports Act 1996

Airports Regulations (Amendment)

Section 252 of the Airports Act 1996 (the Act) provides that the GovernorGeneral may make regulations prescribing matters:

(a)       required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed; or

(b)       necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.

Section 5 of the Act defines an airport site to be, inter alia, a place "declared by the regulations to be an airport site; and a Commonwealth place".

The Airports Regulations specify the airports to be declared "airport sites", and the land titles or plan particulars which define the relevant airport sites. Prior to the Airports Regulations (Amendment), the Regulations only provided for three airport sites, Brisbane, Melbourne (Tullamarine) and Perth. These three airports were leased by private consortia from the Commonwealth in July 1997.

As part of the Government's ongoing airport privatisation process, the Commonwealth is now offering leases of a number of other airports, namely Adelaide, Alice Springs, Archerfield, Canberra, Coolangatta, Darwin, Essendon, Hobart, Jandakot, Launceston, Moorabbin, Mount Isa, Parafield, Tennant Creek and Townsville Airports. Regulation 4 deletes the current regulation 1.03 (which only declares the airport sites for Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth airports), and replaces it with a substantially increased list of airport sites that are Commonwealth places, including the airports mentioned above. The declarations of airport sites also refer to descriptions of the land comprising the sites which appear in Schedule 1 to the regulations, and regulation 5 omits the current Schedule 1 and replaces it with descriptions of all airport sites. These site descriptions are in accordance with the land registration system in use in the States and Territories where the airports are situated.

The Airports Regulations (Amendment) will commence on 1 April 1998.