EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
BOUNTY (SHIPS) ACT 1980
BOUNTY (SHIPS) (RESERVATION OF BOUNTY) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
STATUTORY RULES 1988 NO. 359
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR INDUSTRY, TECHNOLOGY AND COMMERCE
Following recent representations from various local shipbuilders, the Government has decided to amend the current reservation regulations to effectively obviate the current payment delay being experienced by shipbuilders on the reservation waiting list while claims in respect of vessels for which a reservation has been granted are finalised.
The current reservation arrangements have been varied to permit the settlement of any valid bounty claim for which an amount of bounty has been reserved, irrespective of when the reservation application was lodged.
Details of the Regulations are as follows:
Regulation 1: is a machinery provision which provides that the amendments included in these Regulations shall be taken to have commenced on 15 June 1987. This is the date of the gazettal of Statutory Rules 1987 No 116 which were the Statutory Rules which gave effect to the reservation policy for the Bounty Ships regime introduced as a result of amendments to the Bounty (Ships) Act 1980 in the Bounty and Subsidy Legislation Amendment Act (No.2) 1986 (119 of 1986).
Regulation 2: is a machinery provision which provides that the Bounty (Ships) (Reservation of Bounty) Regulations are the “Principal Regulations” for the purposes of these Statutory Rules, and as such are the Regulations which are being amended.
Regulation 3: amends regulation 2 of the Principal Regulations by omitting the definitions of “available amount”, “maximum amount available” and “prescribed period”. This reflects the fact that these terms are no longer necessary to the reservation regime, as there is no longer any necessity to rank reservation applications according to how much money is left in the Scheme. This is because all valid bounty claims under the Bounty (Ships) Act 1980 will be able to be satisfied within the $144 million statutory ceiling applying to this scheme.
In addition, the words “or 7” are omitted from the definition of “proposed amount”, as regulation 7 of the Principal regulation is being repealed (see regulation 5 below).
Regulation 4: repeals the existing regulation 6 of the Principal Regulations and substitutes a new regulation 6 which no longer refers to the maximum amount of bounty available and other related provisions, but merely provides that the Comptroller-General shall
reserve a certain amount of bounty in the name of the applicant, and notify the applicant of that, as required by subsection 6(3BA) of the Principal Act.
Regulation 5: repeals regulation 7 of the Principal Regulations, as under the revised reservation regime it is no longer necessary to go through the process of reserving additional amounts of bounty.
Regulation 6: amends regulation 8 of the Principal Regulations by adding a new subregulation 8(2) which provides the Comptroller-General with the facility to vary the amount of bounty reserved by increasing that amount where the amount that has been reserved is less than the amount of bounty which subsequently becomes payable on a valid claim for bounty.
Regulation 7: amends regulation 9 of the Principal Regulations by omitting the words “or an associate of the owner” from paragraph 9(1)(b). Statutory Rules 1988 No. 176 amended subregulation 3(3) of the Principal Regulations to allow registered shipbuilders who are “associates of the owner” to reserve amounts of bounty. At the same time, the reference to an “associate of the owner” should also have been removed from paragraph 9(1)(b), and paragraph
10(1)(d) (see regulation 8 below). These changes are being effected now, and are made retrospective to 15 June 1987. A separate set of Statutory Rules is designed to ensure that the change effected by Statutory Rules 1988 No. 176 will date back to 15 June 1987.
Regulation 8: amends regulation 10 of the Principal Regulations by omitting the words “or an associate of the owner” from paragraph 10(1)(d), for the reasons outlined above in Regulation 7.
Regulation 9: repeals regulation 11 of the Principal Regulations as it is no longer necessary to provide for the situation where an amount of bounty has been reserved, and then becomes available for redistribution to other persons.
Regulation 10: amends regulation 12 of the Principal Regulations by omitting subregulation (1) as it relates to subsection 6A(2) of the Act, a provision which no longer has any operative effect.
Regulation 11: repeals regulation 13 of the Principal Regulations for the same reason as subregulation 12(1) is omitted, that is, the order of approval system no longer has any operative effect.
Regulation 12: amends regulation 14 of the Principal Regulations which relates to appeals to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to take account of the fact that regulation 7 is now repealed, and so appeals under that regulation are not necessary (thus, paragraph
14(1)(b) is deleted), and to accommodate the introduction of a new subregulation in regulation 8 (thus, the existing paragraph 14(1)(c) becomes paragraph 14(1)(b), and a new paragraph 14(1)(c) is inserted to cover decisions made under new subregulation 8(2)).