EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULE 1987 NO. 336 ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
Subsection 19(1) of the Satellite Communications Act 1984 (‘the Act’) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act or for carrying out the objects of AUSSAT Pty Ltd (‘Aussat’).
Subsection 18(1) of the Act provides that a person, other than Aussat or an eligible person, shall not use a facility in an Aussat satellite for the purpose of carrying on a business of providing facilities for telecommunications between other persons. Paragraph 18 (3)(d) of the Act provides that an “eligible person” means a person declared by the regulations to be an eligible person for the purposes of section 18 of the Act.
Regulation 3 of Satellite Communications Regulations currently declares the Postmaster-General of New Zealand to be an eligible person for the purposes of section 18 of the Act.
There have been administrative rearrangements in New Zealand that have resulted in the creation of a number of agencies to carry out the functions of the former Postmaster-General’s Department. The telecommunications function is now performed by the Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Limited.
The statutory rule amends regulation 3 by substituting the Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Limited for the Postmaster-General of New Zealand.