EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

                                                                                                 

Select Legislative Instrument 2005 No. 68

 

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

 

Farm Household Support Act 1992

 

Farm Household Support Amendment Regulations 2005 (No. 1)

 

 

 

The Farm Household Support Act 1992 (the Act) establishes the Farm Help Income Support programme and enables the Farm Help Advice and Training Scheme and the Farm Help Re-establishment Grant Scheme.  These schemes are designed to grant financial assistance to eligible farmers to obtain advice on their financial outlook and seek further advice and training and provide financial assistance on the sale of their farm enterprises.

 

Subsection 58(1) of the Act provides that the Governor‑General may make regulations prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary and convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

 

Subparagraph 8B(1)(d)(i) of the Act provides that to be a qualified person for Farm Help income support a person must obtain advice from a prescribed adviser that there is no reasonable likelihood, immediately before the period begins, that the person would obtain a loan from a financial institution given the person’s financial situation.  Paragraph 8B(1)(e) requires a person to obtain advice from a prescribed adviser on whether there is a reasonable likelihood of improving the financial performance of the farm enterprise.

 

The Regulations introduce a note after subregulation 5(1) to define the type of qualifications a person should hold for the purpose of providing the advice as specified in subsection 8B(1).  The note specifies that a person can obtain relevant financial qualifications by completing a course of post-secondary study that is relevant to giving financial advice and recognised by a professional association whose members normally give financial advice.

 

The proposed Regulations would be a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

 

Consultation was undertaken with the Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances, the Attorney General’s Department (Office of Legislative Drafting), the Office of Regulation Review and Centrelink during the development of this note.