EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1983 No. 136
Issued by the Authority of the Minister of State for Primary Industry
EXPORT CONTROL (GENERAL) REGULATIONS
(AMENDMENT)
Section 25 of the Export Control Act 1982 (the Act) provides for the Governor-General to make regulations for the purposes of carrying out or giving effect to the Act. The Section also enables regulations to be made for or in relation to the imposition of fees in respect of the registration of premises, vehicles, ships or aircraft; the quarantine or denaturing of prescribed goods; the analysis of samples and the extent to which a certificate of analysis is to be prima facie evidence of the facts stated in that certificate; the imposition of fees for the services of authorized officers; the keeping of records, penalties not exceeding $1,000 and the making of orders by the Minister. Section 7 of the Act provides that the regulations may prohibit the export of prescribed goods from Australia absolutely, to a specified place or unless specified conditions or restrictions are complied with. The Act came into operation on 1 January 1983.
Sub-regulation 3(1) of the Export Control (General) Regulations provides for definitions including “meat” and “dairy produce”.
The product “refined tallow” can contain all animal fat, all vegetable fat or a combination of animal and vegetable fat and is currently covered by the conditions and restrictions applicable to both meat and dairy products.
These dual controls are causing industry appreciable difficulties and it has been decided that they should be eliminated by treating refined tallow in the same manner as dairy produce.
To do this it is necessary to amend the Export Control (General) Regulations.
The proposed Regulations will make the following amendments:
a) alter the definition of “dairy produce” in existing sub-regulation 3(1) to include refined tallow
b) alter the definition of “meat” in existing sub-regulation 3(1) to exclude refined tallow
c) include a definition of “refined tallow” in existing sub-regulation 3(1)
d) alter in existing Regulation 7 the modifications of the repealed Exports (Dairy Produce) Regulations so that they are read to include refined tallow
e) amend existing Regulation 31 to include refined tallow in the fee structure of dairy produce.
It is further proposed to revise the existing regulations as follows to delete provisions that are no longer applicable:
a) repeal existing regulation 2 which provides for the repealing of Statutory Rules specified in the Schedule to the Regulations
b) amend the definition of “repealed regulations”
c) repeal existing sub-regulation 33(1) which contains a further definition of repealed regulations
d) repeal the Schedule to the Regulations which provides a list of all Regulations that regulation 2 repealed.
The proposed amendments seek to alleviate administrative difficulties and to reflect industry wishes.