House of Representatives

Explanatory Memorandum

(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Financial Services and Regulation, the Honourable J.B. Hockey, MP)

9 Schedule 6 - Miscellaneous amendments

The purpose of Schedule 6 is to make miscellaneous amendments to Commonwealth legislation.

Commencement

9.1 Except as specified below the provisions in Schedule 6 commence upon Royal Assent.

9.2 Item 3 commences on a day to be fixed by Proclamation. A date cannot be fixed for the amendment until it is known when AFIC will be dissolved by appropriate State laws.

9.3 Item 6 is taken to have commenced on the commencement of Schedule 12 of the Financial Laws Amendment Act 1997 , which amended the Life Insurance Act.

9.4 Item 10 commences immediately prior to the commencement of Part 1 of Schedule 13 of the Financial Sector Reform (Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Act 1998 . Part 1 of Schedule 13 amended the administration of the Life Insurance Act.

9.5 Items 18 and 19 commence immediately prior to the commencement of the APRA Act to ensure that no company is adversely affected by the incorrect reference.

9.6 Item 26 will commence on the transfer date.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 1989

Item 1

9.1 This item will insert a new subsection in section 11 of the ASIC Act which will permit powers and functions to be conferred on ASIC directly by State and Territory laws. This facility can be used by States and Territories to confer powers and functions on ASIC which, prior to the transfer of functions, were performed by State and Territories or their agencies (such as AFIC and SSAs) in relation to transferring financial institutions.

9.2 This facility will permit State and Territory transitional and savings provisions in respect of laws that governed financial institutions prior to the transfer date (such as the FI Code and the FS Code) to expressly provide that a function or power which is now vested in a body such as AFIC or an SSA is, following the transfer, vested in ASIC.

9.3 The new facility for direct conferral by State or Territory laws will be in addition to the facility in subsection 11(8) which permits ASIC to perform functions and powers as agent of a State or Territory pursuant to an arrangement or agreement consented to by the Minister.

9.4 The new subsection provides that a direct conferral under State or Territory law must be:

•

in accordance with the provisions of an agreement entered into between the Commonwealth and the State or Territory concerned which has been approved by the Minister for the purposes of the subsection; or

•

approved by the Minister for the purposes of the subsection.

Item 2

9.1 This item corrects a numbering and formatting error in material inserted into the Financial Sector Reform (Consequential Amendments) Act 1998 by Parliamentary amendments.

Item 3

9.2 This item repeals existing subparagraph 127(4)(aa)(ii). That subparagraph deals with ASIC disclosing information to AFIC to assist with its functions and powers. AFIC will no longer be operational following the transfer of financial institutions and friendly societies, so the subparagraph will become redundant.

Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions Supervisory Levy Imposition Act 1998

Item 4

9.12 This item makes a minor wording change.

Authorised Non-operating Holding Companies Supervisory Levy Imposition Act 1998

Item 5

9.13 This item makes a minor wording change.

Financial Laws Amendment Act 1997

Item 6

9.14 This item corrects a drafting error to an amendment made to the Life Insurance Act.

Financial Sector Reform (Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Act 1998

Item 7

9.15 This item repeals the commencement provision for Part 3 of Schedule 4 as there is no Part 3 of that Schedule.

Items 8, 9, 11 and 12

9.16 These items update the references to legislation that were not passed in 1998.

Item 10

9.17 This item amends a drafting error in the original legislation.

Item 13

9.18 These proposed amendments correct a drafting error in item 236 of Schedule 16.

Item 14

9.19 Item 5 of Schedule 19 is being repealed. The mechanism for transferring the prudential regulation of building societies, credit unions and special service providers from the Financial Institutions Code 1992 to the Banking Act is being inserted by item 7 in Schedule 8.

Financial Sector Reform (Consequential Amendments) Act 1998

Item 15

9.20 This item repeals subsections 2(3), 2(6), 2(8), 2(9), 2(10), 2(11) and 2(12) as the APRA Act has already commenced while the Superannuation Legislation (Commonwealth Employment) Repeal and Amendment Bill 1998 was not passed in 1998.

Item 18

9.21 This item corrects a reference contained in the amendments to the Financial Corporations (Transfer of Assets and Liabilities) Act 1993 . Given that the amendment commenced on the commencement of the APRA Act, the correction will commence (retrospectively) immediately before the commencement of that legislation.

Item 19

9.22 This item corrects a misdescribed amendment.

General Insurance Supervisory Levy Imposition Act 1998

Item 20

9.23 This item makes a minor wording change.

High Court of Australia Act 1979

Items 21 - 24

9.24 Amendments to the Banking Act, that took effect from 1 July 1998, extended the coverage of the legislation from banks to a wider range of financial institutions known as ADIs.

9.25 The proposed consequential amendments replace references of 'bank' to 'ADI' and hence have the effect of extending the High Court of Australia Act 1979 .

Life Insurance Supervisory Levy Imposition Act 1998

Item 25

9.26 This item makes a minor wording change.

National Health Act 1953

Item 26

9.27 This provision deals with friendly societies that carry on health insurance business and life insurance business. These friendly societies will be jointly regulated under the amended Life Insurance Act and the National Health Act - see proposed amendments to the Life Insurance Act (item 11 of Schedule 4). The Life Insurance Act amendment will provide a regulation making power to enable modifications in the application of the Life Insurance Act in relation to these jointly regulated friendly societies.

9.28 On a consistent basis, section 82QAA of the National Health Act will be amended (by Item 26 of this Schedule) to provide a regulation making power to modify the application of that Act to jointly regulated friendly societies.

Retirement Savings Account Providers Supervisory Levy Imposition Act 1998

Item 27

9.29 This item makes a minor wording change.

Superannuation Supervisory Levy Imposition Act 1998

Item 28

9.30 This item makes a minor wording change.