EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Northern Territory National Emergency Response (Other Areas) Declaration 2007 (No. 4)
Summary
The Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 (the Emergency Response Act) provides for special emergency measures to apply in prescribed areas. These measures relate to the sale and consumption of alcohol, the requirement to audit publicly funded computers and the licensing of community stores. Additional measures dealing with prohibited material, in new Part 10 of the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995, also apply in prescribed areas.
The term ‘prescribed area’ is defined in section 4 of the Emergency Response Act and covers the areas set out in subsection 4(2). Paragraph 4(2)(c) provides for areas known as Aboriginal community living areas to be prescribed areas. For the avoidance of doubt, this instrument sets out that any area created or granted as an Aboriginal community living area, as well as all roads, rivers, streams and estuaries within, or adjacent to, such an area, is a prescribed area for the Emergency Response Act.
Explanation of the provisions
Section 1 of the Declaration provides that it is called the Northern Territory National Emergency Response (Other Areas) Declaration 2007 (No. 4).
Section 2 provides that the Declaration commences on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.
Section 3 of the Declaration provides that each area listed in Schedule 1 is a ‘prescribed area’ for the purposes of the Emergency Response Act.
Schedule 1 states that any ‘Aboriginal community living area’ that is not already a ‘prescribed area’ under the Emergency Response Act, including any roads, rivers, streams or estuaries that are within, or adjacent to, that area, is a ‘prescribed area’ for the purposes of the Emergency Response Act.
Consultation
No consultation was necessary in preparing the Declaration.