EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1983 No. 226
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Primary Industry
DAIRY PRODUCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
The Dairy Produce Act 1924 (the Act) establishes the Australian Dairy Corporation.
Section 13 of the Act provides that the functions of the Corporation are:
(a) to promote the export from Australia of dairy produce;
(b) to control the export from Australia of dairy produce;
(c) to control the sale and distribution of dairy produce after its export from Australia;
(d) to promote trade and commerce in dairy produce among the States, between States and Territories and within the Territories;
(e) to improve the production and encourage the consumption of dairy produce in the Territories; and
(f) such other functions in connection with dairy produce as are provided by the regulations.
Section 30 of the Act, insofar as it is relevant, provides that the Governor-General may make regulations not inconsistent with the Act prescribing all matters which are required or permitted to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
The purpose of the regulation is to provide an additional function of the Corporation in connection with dairy produce, pursuant to paragraph 13(f) of the Act. The function will enable the Corporation to sell, on the domestic market, certain cheese, produced in 1982/83, which was originally purchased by the Corporation for export to Japan and for which export markets cannot presently be found. It is necessary that the Corporation dispose of the cheese quickly before it begins to deteriorate.
It is not presently a function of the Corporation to sell on the domestic market, however, a general power to buy and sell dairy produce is provided to the Corporation by section 15 of the Act. The proposed regulation will confer a function that is specifically limited to the particular stocks of cheese as it is considered neither appropriate, nor desirable to be conferring on the Corporation a general additional function to sell on the domestic market by means of a regulation. Such a fundamental addition to the Corporation’s power would more appropriately be made by an amendment to the Act.
The reference to ‘trading corporation’, which is defined in accordance with placitum 51 (xx) of the Constitution, was included on the advice of the Attorney-General’s Department in order to secure the constitutional basis for the proposed regulation.