Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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WOOL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1992 NO.115

STATUTORY RULES 1992 No. 115

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

Primary Industries and Energy Research and Development Act 1989

Wool Research and Development Corporation Regulations (Amendment)

Section 149 of the Primary Industries and Energy Research and Development Act 1989 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act.

Under the Act the Wool Research and Development Corporation (WRDC) is required to hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) of wool-tax payers. The major purposes of an AGM is to provide woolgrowers the opportunity to review the performance of the WRDC over the previous financial year, and to allow them to vote on a number of issues including the rate of wool tax which they think is appropriate to pay for the purposes of the WRDC for the next financial year.

A woolgrower cannot vote at an AGM unless entered on the register of wool-tax payers. Section 57 (1A) of the Act provides that the register of wool-tax payers prepared by the Australian Wool Corporation (AWC) for the purposes of AGMs of the AWC, shall be taken to be a register of wool-tax payers for the purposes of the WRDC AGM.

Section 61 of the Act provides for regulations to cover administrative matters related to the running of an AGM. In particular, it details that regulations can be made on procedures to be undertaken by the WRDC in notifying registered persons of a forthcoming meeting.

Proposed amendments to the AWC Regulations will allow the AWC additional flexibility in processing woolgrowers applications for registration forwarded prior to but received after the cutoff date. This has implications for the timeframe in which notices of a forthcoming AGM of the WRDC can be then sent to those wool-tax payers on the register.

Details of the amendment to the Regulations is as follows:

Regulation 1 provides for amendment to the WRDC Regulations.

Regulation 2 inserts an extra provision into existing regulation 6B.

New subregulation 6B(1A) provides that if the AWC processed the application of a wool-tax payer after the cut-off period for application for registration, and for that reason the normal 28 day time limit for sending notices of a forthcoming meeting cannot be met, then the WRDC must give the notices and other documents to the registered tax payer as soon as practicable.