Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1995 NO. 326

Statutory Rules 1995 No. 326

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Justice

Freedom of Information Act 1982

Freedom of Information (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations (Amendment)

These regulations made under section 94 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 ('the FOI Act') amend the Freedom of Information (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations ('the Regulations').

Section 94 of the FOI Act empowers the Governor-General to make regulations for the purposes of the Act.

Subsection 4(1) of the FOI Act includes definitions of "prescribed authority", "principal officer" and "responsible Minister".

Prescribed authority is defined to allow all statutory bodies and other agencies performing functions of the Commonwealth Government to come within the scope of the Act. It includes, amongst other things, bodies corporate or unincorporated bodies, other than incorporated companies or associations, established for a public purpose in accordance with an enactment or an Order-in-Council;

Principal officer means in relation to an agency which is not a Department or an 'eligible case manager' as defined in the FOI Act (ie. a prescribed authority under the FOI Act)

•       the person who constitutes that authority or, if the authority is constituted by 2 or more persons, the person who is entitled to preside at any meeting of the authority at which he or she is present, or

•       the person holding or performing the duties of an office prescribed in the Regulations.

(Schedule 2 of the Regulations prescribes offices for this last category of principal officer.)

The amendments to the Regulations amended Schedule 2 to delete the item referring to the Trade Practices Tribunal and to substitute an item referring to the Australian Competition Tribunal. The amendments have been made necessary by the Competition Policy Reform Act 1995 which continues the Trade Practices Tribunal as it existed immediately before the commencement of the relevant provision in that Act as the Australian Competition Tribunal.

The Freedom of Information (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations (Amendment) commenced on the date of commencement of Part 3 of the Competition Policy Reform Act 1995.