EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1987 No. 45
Conciliation and Arbitration Regulations (Amendment)
(Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations)
Existing regulation 141 provides for the general powers of a Registrar for the purpose of giving effect to the Act. This regulation prescribes the powers of a Registrar in respect of any application or proceeding with which the Registrar is authorised to deal.
At present a Registrar has no power to require the production of documents. The amendment to subregulation 141(1) will correct this omission by empowering the Registrar to require the production by a witness of documents in a hearing before the Registrar for inspection by the Registrar or by such of the parties as the Registrar determines. This entails the insertion of a revised paragraph 141(1)(a) and new paragraph 141(1)(ab).
No provision is made for the form of a summons. This is left to the Registrar to determine.
A penalty of $500 is provided by subregulation 141(1A) for non-compliance without reasonable excuse with a summons. This is permitted under paragraph 198(1)(e) of the Act which allows the prescription of penalties for offences against the Regulations. The amount of $500 is in line with existing penalties in the regulations and the penalty under section 184 of the Act for non-compliance with a summons in relation to proceedings before the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission. There is also a minor change to subregulation 141(2) to clarify its meaning.