EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rule 1988 No. 349 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.
Subsection 66A(1) of the Act provides that the Minister may, by notice published in the Gazette, declare that the operation, supply, or possession for the purpose of the operation or supply, of a specified device, being a device that:
(a) is designed to have an adverse effect on radiocommunications; or
(b) would be likely to interfere substantially with radiocommunications, or otherwise substantially to disrupt or disturb radiocommunications, in a manner likely to endanger the safety of another person or to cause another person to suffer substantial loss or damage;
is prohibited, for the reason set out in the notice.
Subsection 66A(2) of the Act provides that the Minister shall, before making a declaration, publish a notice in accordance with the regulations describing the device under consideration, setting out his reasons for proposing to make the declaration and giving interested parties at least one month to comment on the proposed declaration. Subsection 66A(2) was inserted into the Act by section 16 of the Communications Legislation Amendment Act 1988.
Subregulation 3(1) of the Radiocommunications (Publication) Regulations (the Regulations) previously provided that notices under subsection 9(2), 16(4) or 20(1) of the Act shall be published in the Gazette.
The Minister for Transport and Communications decided that notices under subsection 66A(2) of the Act shall be published in the Gazette.
The regulation amends regulation 3 of the Regulations by substituting a new subregulation (1) to provide that a notice under subsection 9(2), 16(4), 20(1) or 66A(2) of the Act shall be published in the Gazette.