EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1983 NO 129
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR DEFENCE
DEFENCE FORCE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Section 8 and Part III of the Defence Acts Amendment Act 1981 repeal Parts III and IV of the Defence (Visiting Forces) Act 1963 and remake the provisions as a new Part IXA of the Defence Act 1903. The provisions concerned relate to the forces of other countries. They deal with attachment of personnel and mutual powers of command between Australian forces and those forces, as well as the treatment of absentees without leave from those forces.
This Statutory Rule, together with associated amendments to the Defence (Visiting Forces) Regulations, transfers from the Defence (Visiting Forces) Regulations to the Defence Force Regulations matters prescribed for the purposes of the above-mentioned provisions.
Regulation 2 of the Statutory Rule amends sub-regulation 3(1) of the Defence Force Regulations to add a definition of “the Act” as the Defence Act 1903.
Regulation 3 of the Statutory Rule inserts a new Part X - Visiting Forces.
The new regulation 44, which corresponds to the former regulations 4 and 5 of the Defence (Visiting Forces) Regulations, declares countries to which each provision of the new Part IXA of the Defence Act applies. This enables any provision of Part IXA to be applied to any of those countries. The new list removes the distinction between Commonwealth countries and the United States of America contained in the Defence (Visiting Forces) Regulations (where the distinction is still necessary because of the scheme of the Defence (Visiting Forces) Act).
The countries listed are reduced to those in respect of which there is some prospect of exchanges, whether through visiting forces or attachments.
The new regulation 45 together with a Schedule added by the Statutory Rule prescribes a form of warrant for the apprehension of an absentee without leave. Regulation 45 and the Schedule replace a similar form that was prescribed by regulation 5A of and the Schedule to the Defence (Visiting Forces) Regulations.
The new regulation 46 provides for the execution or enforcement in Australia of a sentence passed or punishment imposed on a member of the Defence Force while he is attached temporarily, under the new section 116B of the Defence Act, to the forces of another country. (Under section 116B, the Chief of Naval Staff, the Chief of the General Staff or the Chief of the Air Staff may, by order in writing, place a member who is under his command at the disposal of the service authorities of a country to which that section applies for attachment to their forces). Sub-regulation 46(2) prohibits the carrying into effect of a sentence of death. Regulation 46 replaces regulation 7 of the Defence (Visiting Forces) Regulations.
The new regulation 47 enables the Minister, for the purposes of legal proceedings in Australia, to certify in writing that on a specified date a member of the Defence Force was attached temporarily to the forces of a specified country, that a service tribunal of that country had passed a sentence or imposed a punishment set out in the certificate on a person named in the certificate, and that the sentence or punishment, or a specified part of it, has not been executed or enforced. That certificate would be sufficient evidence of the certified facts unless the contrary were proved. Regulation 47 replaces
regulation 8 of the Defence (Visiting Forces) Regulations.
The Statutory Rule comes into operation on 15 August 1983, the date from which sections 8 and Part III of the Defence Acts Amendment Act 1981 will be proclaimed to commence.