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CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer and Copyright Details
National Residue Survey Levies Regulations (Validation
and Commencement of Amendments) Bill 1999
Date Introduced: 22 September 1999
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Commencement: On Royal Assent
To confirm that the levy system for sheep and
lamb sales purported to have been introduced by the Primary
Industries Levies and Charges (National Residue Survey Levies)
Regulations 1998 (Amendment) should be taken to have commenced
on 1 August 1998.
The National Residue Survey (NRS) scheme
monitors chemical residues in Australian agricultural products,
including sheepmeat. Such monitoring is generally required as part
of access agreements for both export and Australian domestic
markets.
In June 1998, an agreement was reached between
the Sheepmeat Council of Australia and the government on a new NRS
levy system for sheep and lamb transactions. The agreement
calculated the levy on an 'ad valorem' (by value) rather than a
'per head' basis. The agreement was incorporated into the NRS
scheme via the Primary Industries Levies and Charges (National
Residue Survey Levies) Regulations 1998 (Amendment) (otherwise
known as Statutory Rules 1998 No.182, 'SR 182').
In July 1998, amendments were made to the
commencement date of Primary Industries Levies and Charges
(National Residue Survey Levies) Regulations (Amendment)
1998. It was apparently thought that these changes would
carry over to SR 182 without actually having to redraft SR 182. The
Government's intention was that the new levy was to start from 1
August 1998 and on this basis the levy was collected from that
date.
However, following concerns expressed by the
Standing Committee on Regulation and Ordinances about inconsistency
of starting dates,(1) advice from the Attorney-General's Department
in May 1999 concluded in effect that SR 182 should have been
redrafted. As a consequence, the opinion found that SR 182 never
actually commenced and hence legally the proper levy rate was that
which applied under the old levy system.
The practical result is that since 1 August 1998
some lamb traders have paid more and some sheep traders paid less
than legally bound to.
While a precise figure on the under/overpayments
has not been calculated, Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Australia estimates indicate that the amount of underpayments has
been substantially greater than overpayments - ie generally farmers
would owe money to the NRS scheme. There has apparently no affect
on NRS operations as a result of the problems with SR 182 as the
scheme had budgeted for the new levy rate to come into effect on 1
August 1998.
In July 1999 the Sheepmeat Council wrote to
Senator Troeth, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, requesting that amending
legislation be passed to correct the situation and validate the
levy collected from 1 August. The Bill does this by declaring that
SR 182 is to be taken to have commenced and have effect from 1
August 1998. (if any)
Subclause 3(1) declares that
that SR 182 is taken to have commenced on 1 August 1998. This
changes the legal situation of lamb and sheep traders such that
under the Bill they are no longer considered to have paid more/less
than bound to do so and so are not subject to any reimbursement /
collection activities by the government. As indicated in the
footnote to the Bill, this does not create a legal retrospectivity
problem under subsection 48(2) of the Acts
Intepretation Act 1901. It is considered quite permissible
for an amending Act to declare that a legislative instrument such
as a regulation should commence at date earlier that the Act itself
commences.(2)
Subclause 3(2) is a
consequential amendment. It provides that any regulations that
amend the Primary Industries Levies and Charges (National
Residue Survey Levies) Regulations 1998 are to operate as if
SR 182 and the new levy scheme had commenced on 1 August 1998.
-
- Correspondence from Committee to Senator Troeth, Parliamentary
Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
dated 27 August 1998.
- See Pearce and Geddes, Statutory Interpretation in
Australia,3rd Edition Butterworths 1996 at p.
244.
Angus Martyn
14 October 1999
Bills Digest Service
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 1999
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