EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules No 312 of 1987
Australian Citizenship Regulations (Amendment) Issued by the authority of the Minister for Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs
Section 53 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 (the Principal Act), so far as is relevant, provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
The amendments amend the Regulations to include the following provisions:
• prescription of the class of resident return visas as a class of visas for the purposes of subsection 5A(1) of the principal Act. Resident return visas have replaced return endorsements which are no longer issued. The intended effect is that for the purposes of that provision, as with holders of return endorsements, holders of resident return visas can be considered to be permanent residents while outside Australia.
• as a consequence of the repeal of certain regulations which took effect on 1 June 1987, references in some other regulations and associated forms have become redundant. These amendments formally repeal those redundant references.
• as a consequence of the extension of the operation of the Migration Act 1958 to the Territory of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Coral Sea Islands Territory by proclamation on 11 May 1987, the reference in regulation 21 of the Australian Citizenship Regulations became redundant and it was convenient to delete the regulation at the time of the next amendments to the Regulations.
• formal amendments have removed sex-specific language from the Regulations.
Details of the regulations are as follow:
• Regulation 1 provides that these amendments come into operation on 1 January 1988.
• Regulation 2 defines “Principal Regulations” to mean the Australian Citizenship Regulations.
• Regulation 3 inserted a new regulation 5 into the Principal Regulations. This regulation prescribed that the new resident return visa is a class of visa for the purposes of subsection 5A(1) of the Principal Act.
• Regulation 4 repealed the redundant regulation 21 of the Principal Regulations.
• Regulation 5 omitted paragraph (1)(a) of regulation 22 of the Principal Regulations.
• Regulation 6 made amendments to Forms 9 and 10, and omitted Form 12, in the Second Schedule to the Principal Regulations.
• Regulation 7 removed, by way of a Schedule, sex-specific language from the Principal Regulations.