Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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RADIOCOMMUNICATIONS REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1995 NO. 259

STATUTORY RULES 1995 No. 259

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Communications and the Arts

Radiocommunications Act 1992

Radiocommunications Regulations (Amendment)

Section 314 of the Radiocommunications Act 1992 (the Act) provides that the GovernorGeneral may make regulations, required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

Section 97 of the Act provides for apparatus licences to be issued to enable persons to operate specified types of radiocommunications devices.

Paragraph 107(1)(f) of the Act provided that conditions for apparatus licences may be specified in the Radiocommunications Regulations (the Regulations). This provision was amended by the Communications and the Arts Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1) 1995 (the Amendment Act) to enable licence conditions for apparatus licences to be determined by the Spectrum Management Agency (the SMA) instead of being specified in the Regulations. Additionally the Amendment Act provided for the determination made by the SMA to be a disallowable instrument, The Amendment Act commenced on 12 April 1995, but the amendments related to paragraph 107(1)(f) only commenced on proclamation.

The purpose for the amending Regulations was to amend regulations 3, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the Regulations as a corollary to the establishment of the legislative instrument necessary for the SMA to determine licence conditions.

On 8 December 1993, the then Minister for Communications, the Honourable David Bedall MP, acting under subsection 256(1) of the Act, directed the SMA to conduct a public inquiry into the apparatus licence system. In response to submissions made by the public in the course of the inquiry, the SMA is in the process of effecting a number of reforms to the apparatus licence system, The making of the licence conditions determination and the consequential amendments to the Regulations are a necessary element of the reforms.

The commencement date for the Regulations was critical in that it needed to coincide with the making of the proclamation and the determination on 8 September 1995.

For further details of the amending Regulations, please see the Attachment.

ATTACHMENT

Details of Proposed Regulations

Regulation 1 provides for the commencement of the Regulations on a particular date.

Regulation 2 provides that the Regulations be amended as set out in the amending Regulations.

Regulation 3 provides for the omission of a number of definitions in regulation 3 of the Regulations.

Regulation 4 provides for the omission of regulation 7 of the Regulations.

Regulation 5 provides for the omission of regulation 8 of the Regulations.

Regulation 6 provides for the omission of regulation 9 of the Regulations.

Regulation 7 provides for the omission of regulation 10 of the Regulations.

Regulation 8 provides for the omission of regulation 11 of the Regulations.