EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Sex Discrimination (Operation of Legislation) (No. 2) Regulations (Amendment)
Statutory Rules 1988 No. 3
Issued by the Authority of the Attorney-General
Section 116 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (“the Act”) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing matters that are 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.
Divisions 1 and 2 of Part II of the Act provide that it is unlawful to discriminate against a person on the ground of sex, marital status or pregnancy in certain areas of activity. Paragraphs 40(1)(a) and 40(1)(b) in Division 4 of Part II of the Act are exemption provisions which provide that nothing in Division 1 or 2 of Part II affects anything done by a person in direct compliance with -
(a) any other Act, any State Act, or any law of a Territory in force at the commencement of the Sex Discrimination Act; or
(b) a regulation, rule, by-law, determination or direction in force at the commencement of the Sex Discrimination Act made under an Act, State Act or law of a Territory.
Sub-section 40(2) provides that, except to the extent that regulations made for the purposes of sub-section 40(2) otherwise provide, paragraphs 40(1)(a) and 40(1)(b) shall cease to be in force at the expiration of 2 years after the
commencement of the Act. The date of the commencement of the Act was 1 August 1984. Sub-section 40(3) provides that regulations made for the purposes of sub-section 40(2) may make provision in relation to the application of paragraphs 40(1)(a) and 40(1)(b) either generally or in relation to specified legislation.
Regulation 2
By virtue of regulation 4(1)(a) of the Sex Discrimination (Operation of Legislation) (No.2) Regulations 1987 (‘the Principal Regulations’) section 26 of the Closer Settlement Act, 1904 and section 277 of the Crown Lands Consolidation Act, 1913 of the State of New South Wales are exempt from the operation of the Sex Discrimination Act until 31 January 1988. Those Sections are discriminatory on the grounds of sex and marital status.
Regulation 2 amends regulation 4(1)(a) of the Principal Regulations to extend the exemption until 31 July 1988. The extension of the exemption has been sought by the New South Wales Government to allow sufficient time for consideration of a proposal for legislation which would effectively repeal these two provisions.
Regulation 3
By virtue of regulation 5(2) of the Principal Regulations, regulation 6 of the Occupational Health and Safety (General Safety) Regulations 1986 and regulation 23 of the Labour and Industry (Lead Processes) regulations 1966 are exempt from operation of the Sex Discrimination Act until 31 January 1988.
Regulation 3 extends the operation of the exemption provided in regulation 5(2) of the Principal Regulations until 31 July 1988.
Regulation 6 of the Occupational Health and Safety (General Safety) Regulations 1986 and Regulation 23 of the Labour and
Industry (Lead Processes) Regulations 1966 deal with manual handling (prohibition against females lifting certain weights) and lead processing (females not to be employed in lead processing). The Victorian Government has advised that the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Commission has developed new standards in regard to these matters. However these standards were not finalised until December 1987. The State Government has advised that it has not been possible for the Commission’s recommendations to be considered and new regulations made prior to expiration of the exemptions. Accordingly, an extension of 6 months for the exemptions for these regulations has been sought by the Victorian Government to allow time for appropriate replacement regulations to be made.