Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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PRIMARY INDUSTRIES (EXCISE) LEVIES AMENDMENT (FOREST GROWERS AND BEES) REGULATION 2014 (SLI NO 105 OF 2014)

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Select Legislative Instrument No. 105, 2014

Issued by Authority of the Minister for Agriculture

Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Act 1999

Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Amendment (Forest Growers and Bees) Regulation 2014

Legislative Authority

Section 8 of the Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Act 1999 (the Levies Act), provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by that Act to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to that Act. The Act provides for the ability to impose levies on logs and queen bees produced in Australia.

Purpose

The purpose of the Regulation is to amend the statutory levies as follows:

(1)   for forest growers:

*         to establish a Plant Health Australia (PHA) membership levy on plantation forest logs only (i.e. not native forest logs) set at 0.5 cents per cubic metre of the log; and

*         to establish an Emergency Plant Pest Response (EPPR) levy on plantation forest logs only (i.e. not native forest logs) set at zero.

(2)   for queen bees:

*         to decrease the research and development (R&D) levy for each queen bee sold within Australia for $20 or less from 0.5% of the sale price to zero;

*         decrease the R&D levy for each queen bee sold within Australia for more than $20 from 10 cents to zero.

Background

Levies and charges are introduced, administered and collected by the Australian Government at the request of industry. The Department of Agriculture disburses:

*         forest growers levies to Forest & Wood Products Australia (FWPA) for primarily R&D;

*         queen bee levies/charges to the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) for queen bee breeding R&D;

*         PHA and EPPR levies to PHA.

The peak industry bodies for: forest growers, the Australia Forest Products Association (AFPA) and queen bees, Australian Honey Bee Industry Council have lodged submissions requesting amendments to the existing levy arrangements. The levy amendments are reflected in (1) and (2) above.

Separate regulations have been made to amend:

*         the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection Regulations 1991 to require information on each category of log, plantation and other, to be kept and included in a return provided to the Department of Agriculture.

*         the Primary Industries (Customs) Charges Regulations 2000 to amend the statutory export charge on queen bees to nil.

Impact and Effect

The PHA levy on forest growers will help enable AFPA to meet its membership costs to PHA. The EPPR levy, set to zero, would be activated if necessary following an agreed nationally cost-shared response to an emergency plant pest incident affecting the forest industry.

The annual revenue raised by the queen bee levy/charge has decreased to the point where the cost of collecting the levy/charge now exceeds revenue. If the levy/charge continues to be collected it will result in a net loss to RIRDC's Honeybee Research and Development Program. Setting the rate to zero will prevent any further loss of R&D funds from RIRDC's Honeybee Research and Development Program. Rather than removing the levy/charge in its entirety, setting the rate to zero will provide the industry with the flexibility to consider activating the levy/charge again under current arrangements (for example who pays the levy/charge, how the levy/charge is collected) in the future.

Consultation

AFPA consulted forest growers who pay the levy about the change to the forest growers levy. AHBIC consulted queen bee breeders who pay the levy about the change to the queen bee levy. The Department consulted the departments of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Treasury in preparing the Regulation. The Office of Best Practice Regulation has agreed that Regulation Impact Statements are not required for these proposals (forest growers ID 17032, queen bee ID 17034).

Details / Operation

Details of the Regulation are set out in the Attachment A.

The Regulation is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared under section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011. A full statement of compatibility is set out in the Attachment B.

The Regulation is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

The items of the Regulation relating to the forest growers levy commence on 1 July 2014 and the items relating to the queen bee levy commence on 1 August 2014.

Attachment A

Details of the Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Amendment (Forest Growers and Bees)

Regulation 2014

Regulation 1 - Name of Regulation

This regulation provides for the title of the Regulation to be the Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Amendment (Forest Growers and Bees) Regulation 2014.

Regulation 2 - Commencement

This regulation provides for regulations 1 to 4 to commence on the day after registration, item 1 of Schedule 1 (relating to the queen bee levy) to commence on 1 August 2014 and items 2 to 6 of Schedule 1 (relating to the forest growers levy) to commence on 1 July 2014.

Regulation 3 - Authority

This regulation provides for the legislative authority for making the Regulation as the Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Act 1999.

Regulation 4 - Schedule

This regulation provides for the Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Regulations 1999 to be amended as set out in Schedule 1.

Schedule 1 - Amendments

(Queen bees)

Item 1 amends the rate of levy on queen bees to nil.

(Forest growers)

Item 2 inserts a new subheading to divide the part into divisions and labels the first 'Division 8.1 - Product levy'.

Item 3 inserts a definition for plantation to make it clear where plantation forest logs derive from. This definition is required because the Plant Health Australia (PHA) and Emergency Plant Pest Response (EPPR) levies only apply to plantation forest logs.

Item 4 substitutes references to 'this Part' with 'this Division' because the part has been divided into divisions.

Item 5 substitutes references to 'this Part' with 'this Division' because the part has been divided into divisions.

Item 6 inserts a second division 'Division 8.2 - Special purpose levies' and clauses there under to establish a PHA membership levy (set at 0.5 cents per cubic metre of the log) and a EPPR levy (set at zero) on plantation forest logs only (i.e. not native forest logs). It also prescribes that these levies are payable by the producer of the logs.

Attachment B

Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights

Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011

Primary Industries (Excise) Levies Amendment (Forest Growers and Bees) Regulation 2014

This Legislative Instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.

Overview of the Legislative Instrument

The purpose of the Regulation is to amend the statutory levies on forest growers and queen bees.

Human rights implications

This Legislative Instrument does not engage any of the applicable rights or freedoms.

Conclusion

This Legislative Instrument is compatible with human rights as it does not raise any human rights issues.

The Hon. Barnaby Joyce MP

Minister for Agriculture

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