EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1986 No. 400
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Transport
Subject: Navigation Act 1912 - Navigation (Orders) 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, inter alia, matters for and in relation to the imposition of penalties, including imprisonment, for a contravention of or failure to comply with a provision of the regulations or a provision of any of the orders made in pursuance of the regulations.
The Navigation (Orders) Regulations (‘the Regulations’) are made pursuant to that sub-section.
Regulation 4 of the Regulations has, until now, provided that a natural person who contravenes or fails to comply with an order or a provision of an order that is a penal provision, is guilty of an offence and is punishable, upon conviction by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months, or both.
Imprisonment is considered to be an excessive penalty for an offence against orders, obligations under such orders being limited to the observance of technical standards and procedures on and in relation to ships and their equipment.
The amending statutory rules will omit from paragraph 4(a) of the Regulations the provision of a penalty of imprisonment.