EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2005 No. 316

 

 

National Health Amendment (Immunisation Program) Act 2005 - Proclamation

 

National Health Act 1953

 

National Health Amendment Regulations 2005 (No. 2)

 

Proclamation

 

Subsection 2(1) of the National Health Act 1953 (the NHA) provides that Schedule 1 to the National Health Amendment (Immunisation Program) Act 2005 (the Act) commences on a day to be fixed by Proclamation.  The NHA also provides that if any of the provisions of Schedule 1 do not commence within six months of the date the Act receives the Royal Assent, then those provisions commence on the first day after the end of that six month period.  The Act received Royal Assent on 18 November 2005.

 

Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Act repeals section 9B of the National Health Act 1953. 

Section 9B empowered the Minister to provide, or arrange for the provision of, vaccine for the purpose of immunizing persons against poliomyelitis, mumps, measles, rubella, and any other disease prescribed in the National Health Regulations 1954 (the Principal Regulations).  The Act also replaces the repealed section 9B with a new section 9B that gives the Minister the power to provide, or to arrange the provision of, designated vaccines and to determine by legislative instrument that a specified vaccine is a designated vaccine for the purposes of the National Health Act 1953. 

 

Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Act increases the size of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) from up to 15 members to up to 17 members and provides for the Chairperson of the PBAC to hold the office on a full time basis.  Consistent with the Budget announcement for this policy the purpose of the Proclamation is to fix 1 January 2006 as the day on which Schedule 1 to the Act will commence.

 

Regulations

 

Subsection 140(1) of the NHA provides, in part, that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

 

The purpose of the Regulations is to omit Part 3 of the Principal Regulations which also prescribed the diseases for which vaccines had been provided and is made redundant by the amendment to section 9B of the Act.  The Regulations would also correct a typographical error in the Principal Regulations

 

The NHA specified no conditions that need to be met before the power to make the proposed Regulations was exercised.

 

The Proclamation and Regulations are legislative instruments for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

 

The Regulations commenced on 1 January 2006.

 

Authority: Subsection 2(1) of the

National Health Amendment (Immunisation Program) Act 2005

Subsection 140(1)

of the National Health Act 1953