EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 26
QUARANTINE (GENERAL) 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.
Regulation 80 and Schedule 2 of the Quarantine (General) Regulations specify the fees payable by masters, owners or agents of a vessel for the application of quarantine treatments to vessels and goods under their control. These treatments include fumigation, disinfection, disinsecting, the application of rodent control measures and the levying of charges for the disposal of refuse and galley scraps from vessels.
Due to successful programs of containment and eradication of contagious disease in recent years, as well as improved standards of shipboard hygiene, the probability of ships’ crews introducing human quarantine diseases into Australia has been reduced. The quarantine treatment of ships and goods has therefore become less frequent. On the few occasions when treatment has been considered necessary the work has been undertaken by professional pest control firms under contract to the ship owner, but under quarantine supervision.
The decreasing need for shipboard treatments, the use of contractors to carry out the work, and the small amount of revenue recovered have indicated that the present system of charging should be reviewed. In addition, most of the fees have not been increased since 1956. A review was subsequently conducted in line with the Government’s policy of cost recovery and strict financial restraint.
The new regulations have embodied the outcome of that review by repealing Schedule 2 and substituting
a new Schedule 2 to provide both a revised scale of fees payable by the master, owner or agent of a vessel for quarantine services and a revised structure of the matters in respect of which these fees are payable. A transitional provision has also been incorporated into the amendments to provide that vessels already en route to Australia or in quarantine, at the commencement of the regulations would attract fees at the old rate. The revised fees would take effect from 1 March 1984.