Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CIVIL AVIATION REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1991 NO. 147

STATUTORY RULES 1991 No. 147

CIVIL AVIATION REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)

(ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR SHIPPING AND AVIATION SUPPORT)

Section 98 of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act and in particular in relation to the imposition of penalties, not exceeding a fine of $5,000, for a contravention of a provision of the regulations or a direction, instruction or condition issued, given, made or imposed under, or in force by virtue of, the regulations.

The purpose of the regulations is to replace the general offence provisions in the Civil Aviation Regulations (the Principal Regulations) with specific penalties for each offence in the Principal Regulations.

Subregulation 281(1) as in force before these amendments provided that it was an offence for a person to contravene a provision of the Principal Regulations. Subregulation 281(5) as in force before these amendments provided that if no other penalty was prescribed by the Regulations the penalty for contravening a provision of the Regulations was $2500 if the offence was prosecuted summarily and $5000 if the offence was prosecuted upon indictment.

The Principal Regulations have been amended by omitting subregulations 281(1) and (5) and instead providing a specific maximum penalty of $500, $1000, $2500 or $5000 for the various offences in the Regulations. In many instances this simply requires the inclusion of a penalty at the foot of the relevant regulation or subregulation. In other cases, however, it has been necessary to restructure particular regulations to create a specific offence. For example regulation 22B which empowers the Authority to issue a certificate of type approval subject to conditions has been amended by the insertion of subregulation 22B(4). The subregulation makes it an offence to contravene a condition to which a certificate of type approval is subject.

Other consequential amendments have also been necessary. Certain regulations needed to be amended to specifically refer to the person who will be guilty of an offence if the regulation is not complied with. Generally this will be the holder of the certificate of registration for the aircraft or the pilot in command of the aircraft.

It has also been necessary in some cases to provide an exception to particular offences for a person who has a reasonable excuse for contravening certain regulations. This exempts a person who fails tocomply with a provision or a direction for a legitimate reason, such as in an emergency.

The amendments have been recommended by the Attorney-General's Department because the previous scheme was contrary to criminal law policy. This is because the Regulations did not provide the Courts or the public with any guidance as to the relative seriousness with which the Legislature regarded particular offences.

The amendments commenced on the day of gazettal.