EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1986 NO 37
ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH
QUARANTINE ACT 1908
QUARANTINE (GENERAL) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Sub-section 87(1) 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. Paragraphs 87(1)(k) and (s) further provide for the making of regulations for regulating the discharge from vessels of any water, ballast, or refuse and for prescribing penalties not exceeding $2,000 for breaches of the regulations.
Statutory Rules No. 345 of 1985, which were notified in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 19 December 1985, amended, among other things, sub-regulation 33C(1) of the Quarantine (General) Regulations (‘the Regulations’). Sub-regulation 33C(1) requires the master or owner of a vessel to which regulation 33C applies to make all animal waste,
organic refuse, galley scraps or waste from that vessel available for collection by an authorized person. The amending Statutory Rules inadvertently removed the penalty of $2,000 for not complying with sub-regulation 33C(1) from the end of that sub-regulation.
The Statutory Rules re-insert the penalty of $2,000 at the foot of sub-regulation 33C(1). The Statutory Rules commenced operation on the date of their notification in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette.