Fire Service Amendment Act 1999 (TAS)

Fire Service Amendment Act 1999

An Act to amend the Fire Service Act 1979

[Royal Assent 24 November 1999]

Be it enacted by His Excellency the Governor of Tasmania, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, in Parliament assembled, as follows:

1Short titleThis Act may be cited as the Fire Service Amendment Act 1999 . 2CommencementThis Act commences on 1 July 2000. 3Principal ActIn this Act, the Fire Service Act 1979 is referred to as the Principal Act. 4Section 74 amended (Interpretation of Part VI) Section 74(1) of the Principal Act is amended as follows: (a) by omitting the definition of insurance company and substituting the following definition: insurance company means – (a) a body corporate, partnership, association, underwriter or other person that or who, whether in Tasmania or elsewhere, issues or undertakes liability under policies of risk insurance against the loss of, or damage to, property in Tasmania; or (b) an agent of a body corporate, partnership, association, underwriter or person referred to in paragraph (a) ; (b) by inserting "or calculated" after "prescribed" in the definition of minimum fire service contribution . 5Section 77B substituted Section 77B of the Principal Act is repealed and the following section is substituted: 77BReturns required to be lodged by insurance companies (1)  An insurance company must, not later than 14 days after the end of each month, furnish the Commission with a return in accordance with this section.

Penalty:  Fine not exceeding 200 penalty units and, in the case of a continuing offence, a further fine not exceeding 2 penalty units for each day during which the offence continues.

(2)  The return is to – (a) be in a form approved by the Commission; and (b) contain such particulars as the Commission requires of the premium income that is payable to the company for prescribed classes of insurance during that month; and (c) contain a declaration by an officer of the company that, according to the company’s books and to the best of the officer’s knowledge and belief, the return contains a true account and statement of the matters referred to in it. 6Section 77E amended (Payment of contributions) Section 77E of the Principal Act is amended as follows: (a) by omitting from subsection (1) "shall be paid to the Commission by quarterly" and substituting "are to be paid to the Commission by monthly"; (b) by omitting from subsection (2) "shall, not later than 14 days after the end of each quarter" and substituting "must, not later than 14 days after the end of each month"; (c) by omitting from subsection (2) "quarter" second occurring and substituting "month"; (d) by inserting the following penalty after subsection (2) :

Penalty:  Fine not exceeding 500 penalty units and, in the case of a continuing offence, a further fine not exceeding 5 penalty units for each day during which the offence continues.

(e) by omitting subsection (3) . 7Section 77G amended (Powers, &c., of inspectors) Section 77G of the Principal Act is amended by omitting subsection (3) and substituting the following subsection: (3)  A person must not – (a) prevent or attempt to prevent an inspector from exercising any power conferred on the inspector by subsection (1) ; or (b) hinder or obstruct an inspector in the exercise of any such power; or (c) fail to comply with a request of an inspector under subsection (1) (b) .

Penalty:  Fine not exceeding 500 penalty units.

8Section 77GA insertedAfter section 77G of the Principal Act , the following section is inserted in Division 2B: 77GAInsurance records (1)  In this section, insurance policies means insurance policies, for precribed classes of insurance, that an insurance company issues or undertakes liability for. (2)  An insurance company must keep such records relating to its insurance policies as the Commission, by written notice to the company, requires for the purposes of monitoring compliance with this Division.

Penalty:  Fine not exceeding 500 penalty units and, in the case of a continuing offence, a further fine not exceeding 5 penalty units for each day during which the offence continues.

(3)  An insurance company must, on request, furnish the Commission with a record or a copy of or extract from a record kept under subsection (2) within 21 days after receipt of the request or within such longer period as the Commission, within the 21 days, allows.

Penalty:  Fine not exceeding 500 penalty units and, in the case of a continuing offence, a further fine not exceeding 5 penalty units for each day during which the offence continues.

9Section 77H amended (False or misleading statements) Section 77H of the Principal Act is amended as follows: (a) by omitting from subsection (1) "a declaration verifying" and substituting "the declaration to"; (b) by omitting from subsection (1) "26 penalty units or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months, or both" and substituting "500 penalty units"; (c) by omitting from subsection (2) "26 penalty units or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months, or both" and substituting "500 penalty units". 10Section 79A amended (Minimum assessed annual value) Section 79A(2)(c) of the Principal Act is amended by inserting "of land" after "value". 11Section 79B substituted Section 79B of the Principal Act is repealed and the following section is substituted: 79BMinimum fire service contribution (1)  In this section, financial year means a financial year after the financial year ending on 30 June 2000. (2)  The minimum fire service contribution that each local council is to collect for a financial year in respect of a rateable parcel of permanent brigade rating district land, composite brigade rating district land, volunteer brigade rating district land or general land in its municipal area is an amount calculated in accordance with the following formula: where – a is the amount of the minimum fire service contribution for the financial year calculated to the nearest cent and then rounded to the nearest dollar in accordance with subsection (4) ; and b is the minimum fire service contribution for the financial year immediately preceding the financial year, calculated to the nearest cent; and c is the CPI figure for the December quarter immediately preceding the financial year; and d is the CPI figure for the December quarter immediately preceding the December quarter referred to in the preceding paragraph defining "c" for the purposes of the formula in this section. (3)  For the purposes of this section – CPI means the Consumer Price Index: All Groups for Hobart published by the Australian Statistician under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 of the Commonwealth; and December quarter, in relation to a financial year, means the months of October, November and December in that financial year. (4)  An amount which is dollars and a number of cents is rounded to the nearest dollar by – (a) where the number of cents is 50 or more, increasing that amount to the next whole dollar; or (b) where the number of cents is less than 50, taking those cents off that amount. 12Section 81C amended (Collection by local councils of contribution)Section 81C of the Principal Act is amended by omitting subsections (3), (4) and (5) and substituting the following subsections: (3)  If the assessed annual value of a rateable parcel of land in a local council’s municipal area is greater than the land’s minimum assessed value, the fire service contribution that the council must collect for that land is to be calculated in accordance with the following formula: where – a is the amount of the fire service contribution to be collected in respect of the rateable parcel of land; and b is the assessed annual value of the rateable parcel of land; and c is the minimum assessed annual value of land for the rating district in which the rateable parcel of land is located; and d is the total fire service contribution that the local council is required to collect for the rateable parcels of land in that rating district; and e is the total number of the rateable parcels of land in that rating district; and f is the minimum fire service contribution; and g is the combined total assessed annual value of all of the rateable parcels of land in that rating district that have an assessed annual value greater than the minimum assessed annual value; and h is the total number of parcels of land in that rating district that have an assessed annual value greater than the minimum assessed annual value. (4)  If the assessed annual value of a rateable parcel of land in a local council’s municipal area does not exceed the land’s minimum assessed annual value, the fire service contribution that the council must collect for that land is the minimum fire service contribution. (5)  A council that, for technical reasons, is unable to comply with subsection (3) for the financial year commencing on 1 July 2000 may, notwithstanding that subsection or subsection (4) , collect the fire service contribution (for the rateable parcels of land in its municipal area) for that financial year under the Local Government Act 1993 . (6)  Notwithstanding subsection (5) , the minimum fire service contribution that a council relying on that subsection must collect for the financial year commencing on 1 July 2000 (for a rateable parcel of land in its municipal area) is the amount prescribed for the purposes of that subsection.

[Second reading presentation speech made in:

House of Assembly on 5 OCTOBER 1999

Legislative Council on 4 NOVEMBER 1999]