EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 267
FIRST HOME OWNERS REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued by Authority of the Minister for Housing and Construction
Statutory Rule No. makes Regulations under the First Home Owners Act 1983, to provide the formulae to be used in deflating incomes, where an applicant’s income is required to be reduced by reason of the circumstances described in section 22 of the Act. Ordinarily an applicant will be eligible for assistance only if his income in the year preceding his “prescribed date” (that being, the date he entered the contract to purchase his home, or, as an owner-builder, commenced the construction of his home) is below certain limits. Section 22, however, permits in some circumstances, an applicant’s income during the year in which his prescribed date falls, or the following year, to be used as the basis for assessing his eligibility under the Act. However, where an applicant’s income in those years is used to assess his eligibility, it is deflated, to ensure equity with other applicants, whose income during the earlier year is being tested.
The amending Regulations also enable officers of the Department to divulge information acquired by them in consequence of their administration of the Act to the Australian Taxation Office and the Department of Social Security.
Details of the amending Regulations are as follows -
Regulation 1 repeals Regulation 4A of the Principal Regulations and substitutes a new Regulation 4A, to provide the formulae for deflating an applicant’s income where -
(a) the applicant’s prescribed date falls before 30 June 1984 and his relevant year of income, for the purposes of the Act, is the 1983/84 year [Regulation 4A(a)];
(b) the applicant’s prescribed date falls before 30 June 1984 and his relevant year of income, for the purposes of the Act, is the 1984/85 year [Regulation 4A(b)]; or
(c) the applicant’s prescribed date falls between 1 July 1984 and 30 June 1985 and his relevant year of income, for the purposes of the Act, is the 1984/85 year [Regulation 4A(c)].
Regulation 2 inserts into the Principal Regulations a new Regulation, Regulation 27, which prescribes the Commissioner of Taxation and the Secretary to the Department of Social Security (and any person for the time being performing the duties of those positions) as persons to whom information, acquired by Departmental officers in their administration of the Act, may be released.