EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 25
QUARANTINE (ANIMALS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Health
Section 87 of the Quarantine Act 1908 (‘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. Under paragraph 87(1)(o), the Governor-General may make regulations for prescribing the fees payable in respect of examinations, services or certificates by quarantine officers and the persons by whom the fees are payable.
Section 64 of the Act provides, inter alia, that the expenses connected with the examination of any animals or plants or goods, and of their conveyance to a quarantine station, and of their detention, maintenance and treatment in quarantine or under quarantine surveillance, and the expenses connected with the removal, disposal, and destruction of any animals, plants or goods ordered to be destroyed in pursuance of the Act shall be
paid by the importer or owner of the animals or plants or goods to the Commonwealth, and shall be a charge upon the animals or plants or goods or may be recovered as provided for in the Act.
To recover the above expenses in respect of animals, fees are prescribed under the Quarantine (Animals) Regulations. The Government has decided that quarantine fees should be set at a level which would enable the recovery of direct operating costs. In view of continually rising costs, the existing fees are now regarded as inadequate. Consequently, it has been proposed that the fees charged under the Quarantine (Animals) Regulations be increased by 50%.
The regulations give effect to this by amending Regulation 95 and Schedules 3 and 4 to provide for the new fees. Also incorporated into the amendments is a transitional provision which provides that animals, animal products and other goods which are in a quarantine station, or have been consigned
for delivery to Australia, at or before the commencement of the regulations, respectively, would attract fees at the current rate. The amendments to the regulations are expressed to come into effect on 1 March 1984.