High
Commissioner (United Kingdom)
No. 56 of 1966
An
Act to amend the High Commissioner (United Kingdom) Act 1909–1957, and for other purposes.
[Assented
to 28 October 1966]
BE it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent
Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of
Australia, as follows:—
Short
title and citation.
1.—(1.) This Act may be cited as the High Commissioner (United Kingdom) Act 1966.
(2.) The High
Commissioner (United Kingdom) Act 1909–1957 is in this Act referred
to as the Principal Act.
(3.) The Principal Act, as amended by this Act, may
be cited as the High Commissioner (United Kingdom) Act 1909–1966.
Commencement
2.This
Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.
Title.
3.The
title of the Principal Act is amended by omitting the words “of the
Commonwealth” and inserting in their stead the words “for Australia”.
High
Commissioner.
4.Section
2 of the Principal Act is amended by omitting the words “of the Commonwealth”
and inserting in their stead the words “for Australia”.
5.After
section 9 of the Principal Act the following section is inserted:—
Delegation
of power to appoint officers, &c.
“9aa.—(1.) The
High Commissioner may, by instrument in writing, delegate to a person, either
generally or otherwise as provided in the instrument of delegation, all or any
of his powers and functions under the last preceding section or under
regulations made for the purposes of that section.
“(2.) A power or function so delegated may be
exercised or performed by the delegate in accordance with the instrument of
delegation.
“(3.) A delegation under this section is revocable
at will and does not prevent the exercise of a power or the performance of a
function by the High Commissioner.”.
High
Commissioner to continue to hold office with new title.
6.—(1.) The person holding office under the
Principal Act, immediately before the commencement of this Act, as High
Commissioner of the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom shall, after the
commencement of this Act, continue to hold office under the Principal Act as
amended by this Act as High Commissioner for Australia in the United Kingdom as
if he had been appointed under section 2 of the Principal Act as so amended.
(2.) A reference in a law of the Commonwealth in
force immediately before the commencement of this Act, or in any other
instrument executed or made before the commencement of this Act, to the High
Commissioner of the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom shall, after the
commencement of this Act, unless the context is such that it would be
inappropriate or the contrary intention appears, be read as a reference to the
High Commissioner for Australia in the United Kingdom holding office under the
Principal Act as amended by this Act.
Validation
of appointments &c.
7.Where,
before the commencement of this Act, a person acting with the authority or
approval (whether express or implied) of—
(a) a
person holding the office of High Commissioner of the Commonwealth in the
United Kingdom;
(b) a
person appointed to act in that office; or
(c) a
Minister holding a commission under section 9a
of the High Commissioner Act 1909–1945,
or that Act as amended and in force at any time,
purported to appoint a person as an officer, or
to engage a person as a temporary employee, for the purposes of the High Commissioner Act 1909, or that Act
as amended and in force at any time, that appointment or engagement shall be
deemed to have been as validly made or effected as if it had been made or
effected by the High Commissioner of the Commonwealth in the United Kingdom in
accordance with section 9 of that Act, or that Act as amended and in force at
the time of the purported appointment or engagement.
Validation
of payments of salary, &c.
8. Where, in pursuance of the High Commissioner (Staff) Regulations
notified in the Gazette on the
twenty-seventh day of October, One thousand nine hundred and sixty, a new
office was created with a particular classification, or the classification of
an office was altered, any payment of salary or allowance made, in respect of
any period before the first day of January, One thousand nine hundred and
sixty-six, in accordance with or by reference to the classification or the
classification as altered, as the case may be, shall not be deemed to have been
invalidly made by reason only that the office was not specified in the Fourth
Schedule to those Regulations, or, if the office was so specified, by reason
only that the rate or the scale of rates of the salary allotted to the office
by virtue of the classification as varied was not a rate, or was not within the
scale of rates, specified in that Schedule in relation to that office.