Sugar Bounty Act 1912 (Cth)

SUGAR BOUNTY.

No. 12 of 1912.

An Act to amend the Sugar Bounty Act 1905-1910.

[Assented to 29th October, 1912.]

BE it enacted by the King’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 Sugar Bounty Act 1912.

(2.) The Sugar Bounty Act 1905-1910, as amended by this Act, may be cited as the Sugar Bounty Act 1905-1912.

2.—Section nine of the Sugar Bounty Act 1905-1910 is repealed, and the following section substituted in its stead:—

Conditions of employment and rates of wages.

“9.—(1.) The Minister may make application to the President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, or to any Judge of a Federal or State Court or to any person or persons who compose a State Industrial Authority, for a declaration as to what wages and conditions of employment are fair and reasonable for labour employed in the production of white-grown sugar-cane or beet.

“(2.) On the hearing and determination of the application, the President, Judge, person or persons shall have all the powers which under the Excise Procedure Act 1907 belong to the President of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, and all witnesses and persons summoned to appear or appearing before him or them shall be entitled to the same privileges and protection, and be subject to the same liabilities and penalties, as witnesses or persons summoned to appear or appearing before the President on an application within the meaning of that Act, and the provisions of that Act shall, so far as they are applicable apply accordingly, mutatis mutandis, as if the application were an application within the meaning of that Act.

“(3.) Every grower of white-grown sugar-cane or beet who claims the bounty payable under the Act shall, in making his claim, certify to the Minister the conditions of employment and the rates of wages paid to any labour employed by him, other than the labour of members of his family.

“(4.) If the Minister finds that the rates of wages and conditions of employment, or any of them—

(a)are below the standard rates and conditions of employment prescribed by any Commonwealth or State Industrial Authority, or

(b) are below the standard rates and conditions applicable to the locality and agreed upon between representatives of associations of employers and employees registered under any Commonwealth or State Act, or

(c) are below the rates and conditions declared, as in the first sub-section of this section mentioned, to be fair and reasonable,

the Minister may withhold the whole or any part of the bounty payable.”