Fisheries
Agreements (Payments) Act 1981
No.
180 of 1981
An
Act relating to payments under certain fisheries agreements
[Assented to 8 December 1981]
BE IT ENACTED by the Queen, and the
Senate and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as
follows:
Short
title
1. This Act may be cited
as the Fisheries Agreements (Payments) Act 1981.
Commencement
2. This Act shall come
into operation on the day on which the Foreign
Fishing Boats Levy Act 1981 comes into operation.
Effect
of section 4
3. Section 4 has effect
only so far as that section is a law imposing taxation or dealing with the
imposition of taxation within the meaning of section 55 of the Constitution.
Payments
under fisheries agreements
4. (1) If there is in
force an agreement between Australia and the government of another country that
contains a provision under which licences
under
sub-section 9 (2) or (3) of the Fisheries
Act 1952 or under sub-section 13 (2) of the Continental Shelf (Living
Natural Resources) Act 1968 are
agreed to be granted in respect of foreign fishing boats if an amount or
amounts specified in the provision is or are paid to Australia (whether or not
that amount or those amounts or any part of that amount or of those amounts is
or are to be paid before the grant of any of the licences), then,
notwithstanding anything contained in those Acts, the Minister or the Secretary
to the Department of Primary Industry shall, in determining whether or not to
grant any of the licences to which the provision relates, have regard only to
the terms of the agreement.
(2)
Where—
(a)
an agreement that contains a provision of a kind referred to in sub-section (1)
is in force;
(b)
a licence or licences to which the provision relates has or have been granted
under sub-section 9 (2) or (3) of the Fisheries
Act 1952 or under sub-section 13 (2) of the Continental Shelf (Living
Natural Resources) Act 1968 in
respect of a foreign fishing boat or foreign fishing boats; and
(c)
the amount or amounts specified in the provision or any part of that amount or
of those amounts is not paid to Australia in accordance with the terms of the
provision,
the
Minister may, by notice in writing given to the holder of a licence of a kind
referred to in paragraph (b), suspend the licence.
(3)
Where the Minister has suspended a licence under sub-section (2), the Minister
shall, by notice in writing given to the holder of the licence, revoke the
suspension if the amount or the amounts the failure to pay which resulted in
the suspension of the licence is or are paid to Australia.
(4)
In this section, “foreign fishing boat” has the same meaning as in the Foreign Fishing Boats Levy Act 1981