EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
Issued by authority of the Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business
Notice of Declaration
Notice No 5 of 2001
The purpose of the notice to which Explanatory Statement relates is to declare Snowy Hydro Limited (SHL) to be a “Commonwealth authority” for the purposes of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (the SRC Act).
Paragraph (c) of the definition of “Commonwealth authority” in subsection 4(1) of the SRC Act defines that term to include:
“(c) a body corporate:
(i) that is incorporated under a law of the Commonwealth or a law in force in a State or Territory”;
(ii) in which:
(A) the Commonwealth has a controlling or substantial interest; or
(B) a Territory (other than the Australian Capital Territory or the Northern Territory), or a body corporate referred to in paragraph (a) or (b), has a controlling interest; and
(iii) that is declared by the Minister, by notice in writing, to be a body corporate to which this Act applies”.
Paragraph (c) enables the Minister to declare a body corporate, incorporated under a law of the Commonwealth and in which the Commonwealth has a controlling or substantial interest, to be a body corporate to which the SRC Act applies. The definition of “substantial interest” in subsection 4(1) of the SRC Act is:
“…an interest (other than a controlling interest) in the body corporate that enables the person holding the interest to cast, or control the casting of, a number of votes at a general meeting of the body corporate that is equal to or greater than the number of votes which may be cast, or whose casting may be controlled, by any other single person”.
By virtue of this definition SHL may be declared to be a Commonwealth authority for the purposes of the Act.
SHL was incorporated in New South Wales on 27 June 2001 in preparation for the corporatisation of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority (the SMHEA), expected in the first part of 2001/02. Directors of the company are to be appointed from the date of corporatisation and other employees will subsequently be transferred from SMHEA. Following the declaration of SHL as a Commonwealth authority, directors and employees are covered by the provisions of the SRC Act.
By virtue of section 121 of the SRC Act, the Notice is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.
TA