EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1988 NO 168
EXPORT MARKET DEVELOPMENT GRANTS ACT 1974 REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce.
1. The Export Market Development Grants Regulations (Amendment) amends the Export Market Development Grants Regulation:
(a) to declare pursuant to subsection 43(3A) of the Export Market Developments Grants Act 1974 (“the Act”) the type of services that are eligible external governmental educational services;
(b) to declare pursuant to subsection 43(4) of the Act that specified associations and authorities are bodies to which grants are not payable, and to correct the reference to a body already so declared;
(c) to declare pursuant to subsection 43(5) of the Act that specified authorities and associations are bodies to which grants are not payable except in respect of particular activities, and to correct the reference to several bodies already so declared; and
(d) to repeal regulations which no longer have any application due to amendments to the Act.
Details of Amending Regulations
2. Regulation 1 provides for these Regulations, other than Regulation 6, to be deemed to have taken effect from 20 May 1985. Regulation 6 takes effect on 1 July 1988.
3. Subsection 43(6) of the Act provides that certain regulations including the ones in these Statutory Rules may be expressed to have taken effect from 20 May 1985, provided they are made before 1 July 1988.
4. The Export Market Development Grants Amendment Act 1985 provided for grants to be paid in respect of educational services from 20 May 1985. It was intended that Commonwealth, State and Territory Education Departments would also receive grants. However, due to an oversight, the Act did not allow for this until assent was given to the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (No 1) 1987. The retrospective amendments to Regulations 8A and Schedule 5A make them consistent with the Act, thereby allowing the Australian Trade Commission, which administers the Act, to pay grants to the various Government Education Departments who have lodged claims on the expectation they are entitled to receive grants.
5. No existing right is affected by the amendments to the other regulations deemed to have effect from 20 May 1985.
6. Regulation 2 provides that a reference to the “Principal Regulations” in these Statutory Rules is a reference to the Export Market Development Grants Regulations.
7. Regulation 3 repeals regulations 3, 4, and 4A which relate to “prescribed bodies” and “prescribed markets”, references to which were removed from the Act in 1978. All claims arising from these regulations related to claim years 1977/78 or earlier. As these were finalised several years ago the regulations are now redundant.
8. Regulation 4 inserts a new Regulation 8A which declares services of each kind specified in Schedule 5A to be eligible external governmental educational services. These services are provided by the Commonwealth, the States and the Northern Territory to students outside Australia. Expenditure incurred in respect of such services was made eligible for the purposes of the Act by amendments to the Act included in the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provision) Act (No 1) 1987.
9. Regulation 5 inserts a new Schedule 5A which defines the type of services which are to be classified as eligible external governmental educational services. These services are of the same type that can already be supplied outside Australia by non-Government Department educational institutions. An example of such a service is a correspondence course offered to students outside Australia.
10. Regulation 6 amends Schedule 6 by:
(a) replacing “Australian Broadcasting Commission” with “Australian Broadcasting Corporation” to correctly reflect that body’s name; and
(b) adding three new bodies to the list of bodies which are not eligible for a grant.
Organisations which obtain the majority of their funding directly from Governments are included in Schedule 6. This is in line with the Government’s policy of preventing double dipping into Government funds by such organisations.
11. Regulation 7 substitutes a new Schedule 7 which:
(a) corrects the references in that Schedule to particular bodies; and
(b) adds several new bodies as bodies to which grants are not payable, except in respect of particular activities (ie educational services).