EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1988 NO 155
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Transport and Communications
Subject - Navigation Act 1912
Navigation (Marine Council and Committees of Advice)
Regulations (Amendment)
Subsection 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.
Subsection 424(9) of the Act provides that the regulations may make provision for and in relation to the manner in which the Marine Council may exercise its powers and functions.
The Navigation (Marine Council and Committees of Advice) Regulations (the Regulations) are made pursuant to those subsections.
Section 6 of the Transport Legislation Amendment Act 1988 (the Amendment Act) was proclaimed to commence on 1 July 1988.
Section 6 of the Amendment Act amends the Act by inserting new section 47 which provides:
(1) The Marine Council may determine that the character of a person is such, or the conduct of a person has been such, that the person is unsuitable for engagement as a seaman.
(2) The Marine Council shall revoke the determination if it is satisfied that the person is no longer unsuitable for engagement as a seaman.
(3) The Marine Council shall exercise its powers under subsections (1) and (2) in accordance with prescribed principles.
The amending regulations will insert at the end of the Regulations new regulation 9 which prescribes, for the purposes of subsection 47(3) of the Act, the principles in accordance with which the Marine Council shall exercise its powers under subsections 47(1) and (2) of the Act.
As section 47 of the Act did not come into operation until 1 July 1988, it was necessary for the amending regulations to be made pursuant to section 4 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. That Act provides that regulations may be made as if the empowering provision of the Act had come into operation but the regulations shall not come into effect until the empowering provision of the Act comes into operation.