EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2009 No. 311

 

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government

 

National Transport Commission Act 2003

 

National Transport Commission (Model Amendments to the National Driver Licensing Scheme (Supporting Principles) – Package No. 1) Regulations 2009

 

Section 52 of the National Transport Commission Act 2003 (the Act) provides 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 provisions of the Act are supported by the Inter-Governmental Agreement on Regulatory and Operational Reform in Road, Rail and Intermodal Transport (IGA), which serves to formalise the cooperative arrangements between the Commonwealth, States and Territories and define the roles and responsibilities of the National Transport Commission, the Australian Transport Council and the jurisdictions. Clause 14 of the IGA requires the Commonwealth to submit model legislation for inclusion in schedules to regulations under the Act. The Regulations would implement this commitment.

 

The purpose of the Regulations is to make various amendments to the Supporting Principles of the National Driver Licensing Scheme for nationally consistent implementation in each State and Territory. The amendments are in model form to allow for implementation in each jurisdiction using the most convenient and effective regulatory manner available – for instance, the provisions may be incorporated into the law of a jurisdiction by way of amendment of existing legislation.

 

The objects of the Regulations are to:

 

(a)    amend the Supporting Principles to allow jurisdictions to refer to their own privacy legislation for the purposes of regulating the release of information held in databases and other registries; and

(b)   to make changes to the demerit points which are set out in the demerit points table. The changes relate to the inclusion of a number of new heavy vehicle driver fatigue offences and their applicable demerit points which were introduced by the National Transport Commission (Model Legislation – Heavy Vehicle Driver Fatigue) Regulations 2006. Additional changes to the table include demerit points for offences related to trams, driving in the path of a police or emergency vehicle, the use of mobile phones and excessive speed when approaching children’s or pedestrian crossings.

 

The National Transport Commission developed the Regulations in partnership with the Registration and Licensing taskforce, which comprises representatives from the States, Territories and the Commonwealth.

 

The Regulations were granted an exemption by the Office of Best Practice and Regulation and did not require a supporting Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) as the amendments are minor and mechanical in nature, and do not substantially alter existing arrangements or the regulatory burden on any parties.

 

The National Transport Commission submitted the draft Regulations to the Transport Agency Chief Executives (TACE) group in May 2008 under an expedited approvals process. That process, under the Guidelines for Expedited Approval of Minor and Non-Contentious Amendments to Agreed Reforms, provides that National Transport Commission amendments that are unanimously and unconditionally endorsed by TACE can be implemented without requiring Australian Transport Commission (ATC) approval.

 

Whilst all jurisdictions endorsed the amendments to the privacy provisions, there was a dissenting vote in relation to the changes to the demerit points. Because of the requirements for unanimity in the expedited approvals process, the dissenting vote with respect to the Regulations constituted a failure to gain unanimous TACE endorsement. Therefore, the Regulations required approval by the ATC. The Regulations were submitted to the ATC for voting in September 2008, and were unanimously approved on 7 November 2008.

 

Section 7 of the Act provides that regulations may set out model legislation, being legislation developed by the NTC in accordance with the IGA. Paragraph 7(2)(a) provides that model legislation does not have the force of law. The schedules to the regulations serve only as a repository for nationally agreed reforms, which may then be implemented by jurisdictions.

 

Item 44 of the table to subsection 44(2) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 together with item 7 of Schedule 2 to the Legislative Instruments Regulations 2004 operate to provide that the proposed Regulations are not subject to disallowance. In addition, item 51 of the table to subsection 54(2) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 together with item 4 of Schedule 3 to the Legislative Instruments Regulations 2004 operate to provide that the Regulations are not subject to sunsetting.