EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULE 1987 NO. 332
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
Subsection 93(1) of the Radiocommunications Act 1983 (‘the Act’) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Subsection 8(1) of the Act provides that, with certain exceptions not presently relevant, sections 11, 23, 37 and 65 of the Act do not apply in relation to any act or thing done or omitted to be done by a member of the Defence Force, or by an officer of the Department of Defence, in the performance of his or her functions or duties as such a member or officer, as the case may be, in relation to command and control, intelligence or weapons systems.
Subsection 8(8) provides that the reference in subsection (1) to a function or duty of a member of the Defence Force, or of an officer of the Department of Defence, in relation to command and control, intelligence or weapons systems is a reference to a function or duty that, under the regulations, is to be taken, for the purposes of that subsection, to be a function or duty in relation to command and control, intelligence or weapons systems, as the case may be.
The regulations provide that a function or duty of a member of the Defence Force, or of an officer of the Department of Defence, in relation to:
(a) the control, administration, operation or use of the Defence Force or of any unit of the Defence Force;
(b) the collection or dissemination of information for a purpose relating to the security or defence of Australia; or
(c) the control or operation of any system, equipment, weapon or thing intended for use in combat;
is to be taken to be a function or duty in relation to command and control, intelligence or weapons systems, as the case may be.