CIVIL AVIATION REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 173

CIVIL AVIATION REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 173

STATUTORY RULES 1994 No. 173

ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT

Civil Aviation Act 1988

Civil Aviation Regulations (Amendment)

Subsection 98(1) of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 (the Act) provides that the GovernorGeneral may make regulations for the purposes of the Act and in relation to the safety of air navigation.

The amending regulations contain what are essentially technical drafting and law reform provisions. The most important of these provisions are consequential on the enactment of section 4AA of the Crimes Act 1914 (the Crimes Act). Under section 4AA of the Crimes Act, penalties are to be expressed in terms of penalty units rather than dollars. Section 4AA also provides that penalties expressed as dollars in previous Commonwealth legislation are to be read as if they were expressed in penalty units.

The amending regulations change the manner in which penalties are expressed in the Civil Aviation Regulations (the Regulations). The Regulations contained many penalties expressed in terms of dollars. Rather than requiring readers to translate the amounts as penalty units, and in order to ensure consistency with later amendments that refer to penalty units, those penalties have been replaced with penalties expressed as penalty units. The necessary amendments have been prepared in accordance with section 4AB of the Crimes Act, which provides the formula for converting penalties expressed in dollars to penalty units.

The amending regulations also correct certain technical anomalies and inconsistencies in the setting out of some of the penalties. They also replace the previous Schedule of on-thespot penalties with a more up-to-date Schedule.

The amending regulations do not create any new liability or increase any existing penalty.

DETAILS OF THE AMENDMENTS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

REGULATION 1

This regulation provides that the Civil Aviation Regulations (the Regulations) are amended as set out in the amending regulations.

REGULATION 2

This regulation replaces the penalty at the foot of subregulation 149(3) with a penalty at the foot of subregulation 149(1). This is because the only offence created by the regulation is for contravention of subregulation (1).

REGULATION 3

This regulation amends regulation 173 by replacing the previous general penalty at the foot of subregulation (3) with separate penalties for subregulations (1), (2) and (3). This makes it clear that a penalty does not apply to the administrative duty that the Authority has under subregulation (2A).

REGULATION 4

This regulation amends regulation 207 by replacing the previous general penalty at the foot of subregulation (4) with separate penalties for subregulations (1), (2) and (3). This makes it clear that a penalty does not apply to the administrative duty that the Authority has under subregulation (4).

REGULATION 5

This regulation amends regulation 257 by replacing the previous general penalty at the foot of subregulation (6) with separate penalties for subregulations (3) and (4). This makes it clear that a penalty does not apply to the administrative duty that the Authority has under subregulation (2).

REGULATION 6

This regulation substitutes a new schedule for the previous Schedule 2 to the Regulations. Schedule 2 contains the on-the-spot penalties that would be payable in relation to certain offences under the Regulations if a person were to comply with an infringement notice. The penalties are expressed in dollars because the system of penalty units established under the Crimes Act only applies to penalties that are imposed by a court or a service tribunal. The new schedule is a more accurate and upto-date version of the previous Schedule 2 and takes account of amendments of the Regulations made since the previous Schedule 2 came into operation.

REGULATION 7

This regulation further amends the Regulations by omitting references to pecuniary penalties and replacing them with references to penalty units. In a few cases the penalty has not been replaced if, for legal technical reasons, it has not been necessary to do so.

The amending regulations commenced on gazettal.