Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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PRIMARY INDUSTRIES LEVIES AND CHARGES COLLECTION (NASHI) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 424

STATUTORY RULES 1994 No. 424

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy

Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Act 1991

Horticultural Levy Act 1987

Horticultural Export Charge Act 1987

Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection (Nashi) Regulations (Amendment)

Sections 30, 14 and 14 respectively of the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Act 1991, the Horticultural Levy Act 1987 and the Horticultural Export Charge Act 1987 provide that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Acts.

The Horticultural Research and Development Corporation (HRDC) co-ordinates research and development for many horticultural industries. Most of these industries contribute funds to this process by way of statutory levies and export charges, whilst some others contribute in an ad hoc manner through voluntary contributions.

Similarly, the Australian Horticultural Corporation (AHC) carries out marketing and promotion activities for many horticultural industries, in the main funded by statutory levies and export charges.

The Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection (Nashi) Regulations (Amendment) (the Regulations), alter the funding arrangements for the nashi industry's participation in the AHC. The Australian Nashi Growers Association requested, and the AHC and HRDC recommended, that the nashi industry's funding formulae for the AHC and HRDC be altered to reflect the more general needs of the industry. The nashi industry has decided to cease in-store promotion by the AHC and to seek assistance from the HRDC with technology acquisition by the industry to meet the quality assurance and disinfestation protocol requirements of new markets.

The Regulations will increase funding for the HRDC but result in a commensurate decrease in funding for the AHC. They will decrease funding for the AHC, by way of levy and export charge, from 17 cents per tray to 12 cents per tray for fresh fruit, from $1.53 per tonne to $1.08 per tonne for juicing nashi and from $3.06 per tonne to $2.16 per tonne for processing fruit. Simultaneously funding for the HRDC by way of levy and export charge will increase from 3 cents per tray to 8 cents per tray for fresh fruit, 27 cents per tonne to 72 cents per tonne for juicing nashi and 54 cents per tonne to $1.44 per tonne for processing fruit.

The Regulations also include some other minor amendments. These include a change from the use of penalties being expressed in dollar values to being expressed as penalty units, a penalty unit currently being one hundred dollars. This will allow, over time, omnibus changes to penalties expressed in Commonwealth Acts and Regulations to more easily be amended to reflect inflation.

Another minor amendment requests that where companies are the providers of information for the purpose of the Regulations, they must also provide their Australian Company Number (ACN).

The Regulations also removes all references to "minor first purchaser". Under the previous Regulations "minor first purchasers" were exempt from paying levy if they purchased less than 500 boxes of nashi and they were exempt from providing monthly returns. These exemptions were introduced into the Regulations to exclude people who, through their businesses, were first purchasers of leviable produce but were not substantially involved in the selling or processing of horticultural products. This unintentionally included large supermarket chains, from whom industry wanted to collect levy. Therefore the exemptions for "minor first purchasers" have been deleted by the Regulations.

The Regulations commenced on 1 January 1995.