Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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CRIMES (OVERSEAS) (DECLARED FOREIGN COUNTRIES) REGULATIONS 2003 2003 NO. 291

Section 9 of the Crimes (Overseas) Act 1964 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

The purpose of the Regulations is to declare Iraq and the Solomon Islands to be 'declared foreign countries' for the purposes of the Act on and from 1 July 2003 and ceasing on 1 July 2005.

Paragraph 3C(1)(a) of the Act states that the regulations may provide that a foreign country is a declared foreign country for the purposes of the Act. Subsection 3C(3) provides that the regulations must specify the day on which the foreign country is to start being a declared foreign country, and the day on which the foreign country is to cease being a declared foreign country for the purposes of the Act. Subsection 3C(5) provides that regulations made for the purposes of subsection 3C(1) within 3 months after the day on which the Crimes (Overseas) Amendment Act 2003 receives the Royal Assent may provide that a foreign country is taken to have been a declared foreign country on and from 1 July 2003. The Crimes (Overseas) Amendment Act 2003 received the Royal Assent on 15 October 2003.

The Act extends the criminal law of the Jervis Bay Territory extraterritorially over various categories of Australians working in foreign countries. One of these categories is Australians working in a foreign country where that foreign country has been declared by regulation to be a 'declared foreign country' for the purposes of the Act. Subsection 3C(5) was intended to allow the retrospective application of Australian criminal law to Australians deployed on Commonwealth operations to Iraq and the Solomon Islands.

There are currently no 'declared foreign countries' under the Act.

The Regulations apply the Act to a person in relation to an act or omission if the person is an Australian undertaking a task or project or performing a function on behalf of the Commonwealth, or pursuant to commitments or directions given by or on terms determined by the Commonwealth, in the Solomon Islands or Iraq. The Regulations commenced on gazettal, but provide that Iraq and the Solomon Islands are declared foreign countries on and from 1 July 2003.

Subsection 3C(4) of the Act provides that before regulations are made for the purposes of subsection 3C(1), the Minister, after consulting the Minister for Foreign Affairs, must be satisfied that it is appropriate to do so having regard to whether this Act would apply to Australians in the foreign country even if the regulations were not made, the nature of activities engaged in by Australians in the foreign country, the number of Australians likely to be engaging in those activities, the circumstances in which Australians engaging in activities in the foreign country are subject to or immune from the foreign country's criminal laws, and any other relevant matter.

The Minister was satisfied that it was appropriate to make the Regulations having regard to these factors. The Minister for Foreign Affairs was involved in the Government decision to make the Regulations.

The Regulations commenced on gazettal, but provide that Iraq and the Solomon Islands are declared foreign countries on and from 1 July 2003.

Details of the Regulations are as follows:

Regulation 1 names the Regulations.

Regulation 2 provides that the Regulations commence on gazettal.

Regulation 3 defines the term 'Act' to mean the Crimes (Overseas) Act 1964.

Regulation 4 provides that Iraq is taken to have been a declared foreign country for the purposes of the Act from 1 July 2003 and will cease to be a declared foreign country for the purposes of the Act on 1 July 2005.

Regulation 5 provides that the Solomon Islands is taken to have been a declared foreign country for the purposes of the Act from 1 July 2003 and will cease to be a declared foreign country for the purposes of the Act on 1 July 2005.