Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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COMMISSION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF ANTARCTIC MARINE LIVING RESOURCES(PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1997 NO. 394

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Statutory Rules 1997 No. 394

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Foreign Affairs

International Organisations (Privileges and Immunities) Act 1963

Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (Privileges and Immunities) Regulations (Amendment)

Section 13 of the International Organisations (Privileges and Immunities) Act 1963 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for the carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources ("the Commission") was established by an agreement concluded at Canberra on 20 May 1980 and which entered into force on 7 April 1982.

The Headquarters Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Commission ("the Headquarters Agreement") giving effect to the decision of the Commission to establish its Secretariat and headquarters in Hobart has been in force since 1986.

The purpose of the Regulations is to give effect to an outstanding provision in the Headquarters Agreement concerning the exemption from sales tax of certain goods purchased by the Commission. Although regulations were made under the Act in 1983 - the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (Privileges and Immunities) Regulations ("the principal Regulations"), the Act did not until recently permit the exemption from sales tax of goods purchased by international organisations such as the Commission, so that the provision has hitherto been implemented by means of a taxation ruling issued by the Commissioner of Taxation. The Foreign Affairs and Trade Legislation Amendment Act 1997, which received the Royal Assent on 17 October 1997, inserted into the Act a new section 11A, subsection (1) of which permits regulations to be made providing for sales tax not to be payable in respect of goods sold to an international organisation with its headquarters in Australia, if the goods purchased by the organisation are necessary for its official use.

The Regulations give effect in Australian law to this remaining provision of the Headquarters Agreement by exempting goods sold to the Commission from liability to sales tax, if the goods purchased by the Commission are necessary for its official use. They also effect a number of minor technical amendments.

Details of the Regulations are as follows:

Regulation 1 provides for the principal Regulations to be amended by these Regulations.

Regulation 2 updates the principal Regulations by inserting a definition of "serious offence" in the interpretation provisions, whose effect is to replace the existing reference to the law of the Australian Capital Territory with a reference to the law of the Jervis Bay Territory.

Regulation 3 is a consequential amendment to Regulation 4, amending existing regulation 5 (hitherto the source of all the Commission's privileges and immunities) to make clear that newly inserted regulation 9AA is now also to be such a source.

Regulation 4 inserts into the principal Regulations a new regulation 9AA exempting from liability to sales tax goods purchased by the Commission for its official use that are necessary for the conduct of its business.

Regulations 5 and 6 are consequential to Regulation 2, repealing provisions in the principal Regulations substantially reproduced by the amendment effected by Regulation 2.

Regulation 7 rectifies a drafting error in the principal Regulations.

Regulation 8 updates the principal Regulations to reflect an orthographical change in the name of the Act brought about by the Foreign Affairs and Trade Legislation Amendment Act 1997.

The Regulations commence on Gazettal.


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