EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2010 No. 293

 

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Finance and Deregulation

 

Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997

 

Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1)

 

The Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 (the CAC Act) contains reporting, accountability and other rules for Commonwealth authorities and Commonwealth companies.

 

Subsection 49(1) of the CAC Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the CAC Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the CAC Act.

 

The Regulations amend the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Regulations 1997 (the Principal Regulations) to remove Australian Technology Group Limited (ATG) and Tuggeranong Office Park Pty. Limited (TOP) from the list of companies for which the Finance Minister is the responsible Minister.

 

Legislative Instruments Act 2003

 

The Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

 

No consultation was undertaken in relation to these Regulations. In accordance with paragraph 18(2)(a) of the Legislative Instrument Act 2003, consultation was considered unnecessary because the instrument is machinery in nature.

 

Best Practice Regulation Preliminary Assessment

 

A Best Practice Regulation Preliminary Assessment was undertaken in accordance with the guidance issued by the Office of Best Practice Regulation. This assessment indicated that a regulation impact statement was not required, as the Regulations only affect Commonwealth authorities and Commonwealth companies under the CAC Act, and do not affect the private or not-for-profit sectors.

 

Commencement

 

The Regulations commence on the day after they are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

 

 

Details of the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1)

 

Regulation 1 – Name of Regulations

 

1.        This regulation provides that the title of the Regulations is the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1).

 

Regulation 2 – Commencement

 

2.        This regulation provides for the commencement of the Regulations to be the day after they are registered.

 

Regulation 3 – Amendment of Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Regulations 1997

 

3.        This regulation provides that Schedule 1 amends the Principal Regulations.

 

Schedule 1

 

4.        Item [1] omits ATG from the list of companies that the Finance Minister is prescribed as the responsible Minister for in subregulation 4A(1). ATG can be removed as it was deregistered as a company by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on 9 March 2010.

 

5.        Item [2] renumbers item 4 of the list in subregulation 4A(1) as item 3 to keep the list in sequential order.

 

6.        Item [3] omits TOP from the list of companies that the Finance Minister is prescribed as the responsible Minister for in subregulation 4A(1). TOP can be removed as it was deregistered as a company by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on 2 September 2010.

 

7.        Item [4] is a table of amendments to the headings of 10 existing regulations. The regulations are expressed in the form:

 

X Heading of regulation (Act s Y)

Where X is the regulation number and Y is the relevant section of the CAC Act.

 

The amendments involve:

·               deleting commas in the headings; and/or

·               replacing references to subsection or paragraph numbers of the CAC Act with references to section numbers of the CAC Act.

 

These are technical drafting style amendments that have no impact on the operations of the Principal Regulations.