Revised Explanatory Memorandum
(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, the Honourable Ian Macfarlane MP)OUTLINE
The Industry, Tourism and Resources Legislation Amendment Bill 2003 (the Bill) makes a series of minor amendments to:
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- the ACIS Administration Act 1999;
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- the Bounty (Computers) Act 1984;
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- the Bounty (Ships) Act 1989;
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- the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Legislation Amendment Act 2001;
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- the Pooled Development Funds Act 1992;
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- the States Grants (Petroleum Products) Act 1965; and
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- the Trade Practices Act 1974.
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- the Aluminium Industry Act 1960; and
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- the Management and Investment Companies Act 1983.
ACIS Administration Act 1999 Amendments
The Bill makes a minor change to the ACIS Administration Act 1999 (the ACIS Act) that will clarify the purposes for which duty credits earned under the Automotive Competitiveness and Investment Scheme (ACIS) can be used. Participants in the scheme earn incentives for eligible production and investment in plant and equipment and research and development. Incentives are paid in the form of ACIS duty credits which can either be used to offset customs duty liability on eligible imports, or sold or transferred to another person. In the early months of the scheme's operation, it became clear that, contrary to intentions, the ACIS Act did not give clear authority for duty credits to be used to gain refunds of customs duty previously paid on eligible goods. This Bill makes specific provision in the ACIS Act for this use of ACIS duty credits.
Aluminium Industry Act 1960 Repeal
The Bill repeals the Aluminium Industry Act 1960. The aluminium smelter at Bell Bay in Tasmania was established in the 1950s as a joint venture between the Commonwealth and Tasmanian Governments. The Aluminium Industry Act 1960 subsequently provided the legislative approval for the Commonwealth's interest in the smelter to be sold to a subsidiary of Comalco Limited. The Aluminium Industry Act 1960 served its purpose well, but is now redundant. There are no consequential impacts and both the Tasmanian Government and the company involved concur with the proposed repeal.
Bounty (Computers) Act 1984 Amendments
The definition of "operating software" in subsection 3(1) of the Bounty (Computers) Act 1984 refers to "the Standards Association of Australia". The Bill makes a technical correction to substitute this reference with "Standards Australia International Limited". This change reflects the incorporation of the organisation as an Australian company in 1999.
The Bill makes a series of minor changes to the Bounty (Ships) Act 1989 to enable progress payments on eligible research and development bounty, or R & D bounty. This will establish consistency between payments of both production and R & D bounties. The amendments to the Act will enable progress payments against R & D expenditure. The Bill also validates progress payments made prior to the introduction of these provisions. Currently, the Act allows for progress payments on production bounty, but does not allow progress payments for R & D bounty.
Management and Investment Companies Act 1983 Repeal
The Bill repeals the Management and Investment Companies Act 1983 (the MIC Act). The MIC Act ceased to operate in 1991 (as a result of the conclusion of the MIC Program), and the related claw-back provisions became inactive in 1995-96. The repeal of the MIC Act is in keeping with the Government's commitment to remove unnecessary and/or redundant legislation. The repeal will have no impact on business.
Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Legislation Amendment Act 2001 Amendments
The Bill makes a technical amendment to the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Legislation Amendment Act 2001 to correct a misdescription of an amendment to the principal Act, the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967. Text that was to be replaced in subsection 85(1) of the principal Act was misquoted in Item 17 of Schedule 1 of the amending Act, omitting the word "to" before the word "make". This amendment corrects that misquote.
Pooled Development Funds Act 1992 Amendments
The Bill amends the Pooled Development Funds Act 1992 (the PDF Act) to correct an error in the legislation that resulted following an amendment to the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (the SI(S) Act), which repealed, effective from 8 October 1999, the definition of an "excluded superannuation fund" in the SI(S) Act. As a consequence of that amendment, the reference in section 4A of the PDF Act to an "excluded superannuation fund" within the meaning of the SI(S) Act became inoperative. This effectively removed from the PDF Act the definition of a "widely-held complying superannuation fund" for the purposes of section 31 of the PDF Act, which relates to limits on shareholdings in a Pooled Development Fund.
States Grants (Petroleum Products) Act 1965 Amendments
The States Grants (Petroleum Products) Act 1965 contains a number of obsolete references to the Chief Executive Officer of Customs, which the Bill updates to refer to the Secretary of the Department. Administrative responsibility for the States Grants (Petroleum Products) Act 196 , which implements the Petroleum Products Freight Subsidy Scheme, was transferred from the Australian Customs Service to the forerunner of the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources on 15 April 1999.
Trade Practices Act 1974 Amendments
On 13 August 1998, the Trade Practices Amendment (Country of Origin Representations) Act 1998 came into effect. That legislation clarified the permissible use under the Trade Practices Act 1974 of the most common country of origin descriptors, including "made in" and "product of". The proposed amendments in the Bill are required to ensure that the country of origin defences available under the Trade Practices Act 1974 are extended to another existing provision prohibiting false or misleading representations under which a country of origin action might be taken.