EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rule 1988 No. 348 Issued by the Authority of the Minister 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.
Subparagraph 25(1)(g)(v) of the Act provides that a licence to operate and possess a radiocommunications transmitter is subject to the condition that the holder of the licence shall comply with any direction with respect to the operation of a transmitter given to the licensee, in a manner not inconsistent with any relevant guidelines in force under subsection 25(4) of the Act, either orally or in writing by an officer included in a prescribed class of officers, being an officer of a prescribed organisation the sole or principal purpose of which is to deal with natural disasters.
Paragraph 65(4)(a) of the Act provides that a person who, without reasonable excuse, uses a transmitter in a manner likely to interfere substantially with radiocommunications carried on by or on behalf of a prescribed organisation, being -
(i) a fire-fighting, civil defence or rescue organisation;
(ii) an ambulance service; or
(iii) any other organisation the sole or principal purpose of which involves securing the safety of persons during an emergency;
is guilty of an offence punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 5 years, or both.
Before the making of these regulations nothing had been prescribed for the purposes of subparagraph 25(1)(g)(v) or paragraph 65(4)(a) of the Act. The Minister for Transport and Communications approved the making of regulations pursuant to those provisions.
The Radiocommunications (Licensing and General) Regulations (Amendment) provide for a new Schedule 3AA listing prescribed classes of officers and prescribed organisations for the purposes of subparagraph 25(1)(g)(v) of the Act, and a new Schedule 3B listing prescribed organisations for the purposes of paragraph 65(4)(a) of the Act.
The regulations also insert a frequency range into column 2 in item 1 of Schedule 2A of the Regulations, which was omitted due to an oversight in the preparation of amendments to the Regulations made by Statutory Rules 1988 No. 156.
Details of the proposed Regulations are:
Clause 1: Principal Regulations
Provides that in the Regulations, “Principal Regulations” means the Radiocommunications (Licensing and General) Regulations.
Clause 2: Prescribed classes of officers and prescribed organisations: subparagraph 25(1)(a)(v) of the Act
Inserts a new regulation 10A to provide that each organisation and the class of officers of the organisation specified in each item in Schedule 3AA are prescribed for the purposes of subparagraph 25(1)(g)(v) of the Act.
Clause 3: Prescribed organisations: paragraph 65(4)(a) of the Act
Inserts a new regulation 18C to provide that each organisation specified in Schedule 3B is prescribed for the purposes of paragraph 65(4)(a) of the Act.
Clause 4: Schedule 2A
Inserts the frequency range “148 to 174 MHz” in column 2 in item 1 of Schedule 2A to the Principal Regulations. Clause 4 also corrects a typographical error in column 2 in item 7 of Schedule 2A by substituting “and” for “or”.
Clause 5: Schedule 3AA
Inserts a new Schedule 3AA listing the organisations and classes of officers of those organisations which are prescribed for the purposes of subparagraph 25(1)(g)(v) of the Act.
Clause 6: Schedule 3B
Inserts a new Schedule 3B listing the organisations which are prescribed for the purposes of paragraph 65(4)(a) of the Act.