EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1985 No. 370
Regulations under the Export Market Development Grants Act 1974
Issued under the Authority of the Minister for Trade
Section 43 of the Export Market Development Grants Act 1974 provides that the Governor-General may make Regulations not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Regulation 2 is amended to include new definitions as a consequence of introducing educational and health services and deleting tourist services.
Regulation 7 is repealed as a consequence of deleting tourist services and a new provision introduced to allow for the collection of information of a statistical nature.
Regulation 8 is proposed to introduce eligible internal educational services into the scheme.
Regulation 9 is proposed so as to exclude statutory authorities from the scheme.
Regulation 10 is proposed so as to exclude statutory authorities from the scheme except those that supply eligible educational services.
Schedule 4 to the Principal Regulations is proposed to be amended to bring the wording into line with the text of the Export Market Development Grants Act, to clarify the eligibility of technical services in the field of transport and to include educational and health care services as eligible.
The decisions to amend the EMDG scheme and the date of introduction were taken in the context of the initial expenditure savings measures for the 1985-86 Budget, announced by the Treasurer in his Economic Statement to Parliament on 14 May 1985. In order to secure savings over the full financial year commencing on 1 July 1985, every Government program was subjected to extensive review and cuts were made across many programs at that time.
Section 43(6) of the EMDG Act provides that Regulations made after the day on which the Export Market Development Grants Amendment Act 1985 received the Royal Assent and before 1 January 1986 are to have taken effect from 20 May 1985.
These Regulations therefore have retrospective application to enable suppliers of these services to receive benefits under the Act in relation to eligible expenditure incurred since 20 May 1985. On the basis that the announcement of the changes was made prior to the commencement of the 1985-86 grant year, it is considered the proposed Regulations do not prejudice the rights nor impose any liabilities on any person and their retrospective application therefore is not precluded by sub-section 48(2) of the Acts Interpretation Act.