EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULE NO. 210 OF 1984
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRANSPORT
Navigation (Construction) Regulations (Amendment)
Sub-section 425(1) of the Navigation Act 1912, (the Act), provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters which by the Act are required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed, for carrying out or giving effect to the Act or for the conduct of any business under the Act.
Sub-section 190B(1) of the Act further provides that the regulations may:
(a) specify the requirements with which the construction, hull, equipment and machinery of ships shall comply; and
(b) make provision for or in relation to the survey and inspection of ships.
The previous definition of ‘length’ in sub-regulation 4(1) of the Navigation (Construction) Regulations, whilst appropriate for determining the length of a passenger ship, was inappropriate for determining the length of a cargo ship.
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In sub-regulation 4(1) ‘length’ meant the length measured between the perpendiculars at the extremities of the deepest subdivision load waterline of the ship. The deepest subdivision load waterline is determined in accordance with such of the provisions of the First Schedule to the regulations as apply to the ship. The First Schedule to the regulations applies only to passenger ships and consequently length, in relation to a cargo ship, was not defined for the purposes of the Navigation (Construction) Regulations.
The amendment of the Navigation (Construction) Regulations corrects this anomaly by omitting ‘length’ from sub-regulation 4(1) and inserting, in the form of new regulation 4A, a new definition of length into the Navigation (Construction) Regulations.
Sub-regulation 4A(1) defines the method of ascertaining the length of passenger ships; sub-regulation 4A(2) defines the method of ascertaining the length of cargo ships generally, and sub-regulation 4A(3) defines the method of ascertaining the length of a cargo ship designed with a rake of keel.