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This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.
1996-97-98
The Parliament of
the
Commonwealth of
Australia
HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
Presented and read a first
time
Australian Hearing
Services Reform Bill 1998
No. ,
1998
(Health and Family
Services)
A Bill for an Act to repeal the
Australian Hearing Services Act 1991, and for related
purposes
9802520—822/23.3.1998—(25/98)
Cat. No. 97 2796 5 ISBN 0644 518472
Contents
Australian Hearing Services Act
1991 0644518472.html
Hearing Services Administration Act
1997 0644518472.html
A Bill for an Act to repeal the Australian Hearing
Services Act 1991, and for related purposes
The Parliament of Australia enacts:
This Act may be cited as the Australian Hearing Services Reform Act
1998.
(1) Subject to this section, this Act commences on the day on which it
receives the Royal Assent.
(2) The amendments made by Schedule 1 commence immediately after the
transfer time.
In this Act:
transfer time means the time notified by the Minister in the
Gazette as the transfer time for the purposes of this Act.
This Act binds the Crown in right of the Commonwealth, of each of the
States, of the Australian Capital Territory, of the Northern Territory and of
Norfolk Island.
This Act extends to all the external Territories.
This Act extends to acts, omissions, matters and things outside
Australia, whether or not in a foreign country.
(1) In this Part, unless the contrary intention appears:
asset means:
(a) any legal or equitable estate or interest in real or personal
property, whether actual, contingent or prospective; and
(b) any right, power, privilege or immunity, whether actual, contingent or
prospective.
Authority means the Australian Hearing Services Authority
established by the Australian Hearing Services Act 1991.
Commonwealth-owned has the meaning given by subsection
(2).
instrument includes a document.
land registration official, in relation to land, means the
Registrar of Titles or other proper officer of the State or Territory in which
the land is situated.
liability means any liability, duty or obligation, whether
actual, contingent or prospective.
nominated company means the company nominated under section
8.
specified means specified or identified (whether by reference
to a class or by any other means).
transferred employee means a person whose employment is
transferred to the nominated company under section 15.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, a company is
Commonwealth-owned at a particular time if, and only if, all the
shares in the company are beneficially owned by the Commonwealth at that
time.
(1) For the purposes of this Act, the Minister may, by writing, nominate a
company that:
(a) is incorporated under the Corporations Law; and
(b) has a share capital.
(2) A copy of the nomination must be published in the Gazette
within 21 days after the nomination is made.
The Minister may, by notice published in the Gazette before the
transfer time, declare that specified liabilities of the Authority will be
transferred to the Commonwealth under this Act.
(1) At the transfer time:
(a) declared liabilities vest in the Commonwealth, without any conveyance,
transfer or assignment; and
(b) the Commonwealth becomes the successor in law of the Authority in
relation to those liabilities.
(2) At the transfer time:
(a) all assets of the Authority, and all liabilities of the Authority
(other than declared liabilities), vest in the nominated company, without any
conveyance, transfer or assignment; and
(b) the nominated company becomes the successor in law of the Authority in
relation to those assets and liabilities.
(3) In this section:
declared liabilities means liabilities that are specified in
a declaration under section 9.
If:
(a) immediately before the transfer time, the Authority was a party to
proceedings that were pending in any court or tribunal; and
(b) those proceedings related, in whole or in part, to an asset or
liability that vested in the Commonwealth or the nominated company under section
10;
then the Commonwealth or the nominated company (as the case requires) is
substituted for the Authority as a party to the proceedings, to the extent to
which the proceedings relate to that asset or liability.
(1) In this section:
exempt matter means the transfer of an asset or a liability
under this Division.
(2) Stamp duty or other tax is not payable under a law of a State or
Territory in respect of:
(a) an exempt matter; or
(b) anything done (including a transaction entered into or an instrument
made, executed, lodged or given) because of, or for a purpose connected with or
arising out of, an exempt matter.
(1) This section applies if:
(a) any right, title and interest in particular land vests in the
nominated company under this Act; and
(b) there is lodged with a land registration official a certificate
that:
(i) is signed by an authorised person; and
(ii) identifies the land, whether by reference to a map or otherwise;
and
(iii) states that the right, title and interest has become vested in the
company under this Act.
(2) The land registration official may:
(a) register the matter in a way that is the same as, or similar to, the
way in which dealings in land of that kind are registered; and
(b) deal with, and give effect to, the certificate.
(3) A document that appears to be a certificate under subsection
(1) is taken to be such a certificate, and to have been properly given, unless
the contrary is established.
(4) In this section:
authorised person means:
(a) the Minister; or
(b) a person authorised by the Minister, in writing, for the purposes of
this section.
(1) To the extent that an instrument relates to a liability transferred to
the Commonwealth under this Act, the instrument has effect after the transfer
time as if references in the instrument to the Authority were instead references
to the Commonwealth.
(2) To the extent that an instrument relates to an asset or liability
transferred to the nominated company under this Act, the instrument has effect
after the transfer time as if references in the instrument to the Authority were
instead references to the nominated company.
(3) Subsections (1) and (2) have effect subject to the
regulations.
All persons who were employees of the Authority immediately before the
transfer time become employees of the nominated company at the transfer time by
force of this section.
A person who is a transferred employee is taken to have accrued an
entitlement to benefits, as an employee of the nominated company, that is
equivalent to the entitlement that the person had accrued, as an employee of the
Authority, immediately before the transfer time.
The service of a transferred employee as an employee of the
nominated company is taken, for all purposes, to have been continuous with the
service of the employee, immediately before the transfer time, as an employee of
the Authority.
In determining the rights (if any) that a transferred employee has under
Part IV of the Public Service Act 1922, that Part applies in relation to
the transferred employee, while the nominated company remains
Commonwealth-owned, in the same way as that Part applied immediately before the
transfer time.
A transferred employee is not entitled to receive any payment or other
benefit merely because he or she ceased to be an employee of the Authority as a
result of this Division.
(1) The nominated company is not subject to taxation under a law of a
State or Territory in respect of a particular period if, throughout that period:
(a) the nominated company is Commonwealth-owned; and
(b) all the activities carried on by the nominated company are activities
within the legislative powers of the Parliament.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a law of a State or Territory that is
specified in the regulations.
(1) The nominated company is not taken, for the purposes of
a law, to be:
(a) a Commonwealth authority; or
(b) established for a public purpose or for a purpose of the Commonwealth;
or
(c) a public authority or an agency or instrumentality of the
Crown;
(within the ordinary meaning of the expression concerned) unless a law
expressly provides otherwise.
(2) In this section:
law means:
(a) an Act of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory; or
(b) regulations or any other instrument made under such an Act.
(1) If:
(a) apart from this section, the operation of this Act would result in the
acquisition of property from a person otherwise than on just terms;
and
(b) the acquisition would be invalid because of paragraph 51(xxxi) of the
Constitution;
the Commonwealth is liable to pay the person a reasonable amount of
compensation in respect of the acquisition.
(2) If the Commonwealth and the person do not agree on the amount of the
compensation, the person may institute proceedings in the Federal Court of
Australia for the recovery from the Commonwealth of such reasonable amount of
compensation as the court determines.
(3) In this section:
acquisition of property has the same meaning as in paragraph
51(xxxi) of the Constitution.
just terms has the same meaning as in paragraph 51(xxxi) of
the Constitution.
Subject to section 2, each Act that is specified in a Schedule to this
Act is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule
concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this Act has effect according to
its terms.
An instrument made under this Act (other than a regulation made under
section 25) is not a legislative instrument for the purposes of the
Legislative Instruments Act 1998.
(1) The Governor-General may make regulations prescribing
matters:
(a) required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed; or
(b) necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving
effect to this Act.
(2) In particular, regulations may be made for matters of a transitional
or saving nature arising from the repeal of the Australian Hearing Services
Act 1991.
Australian
Hearing Services Act 1991
1 The whole of the Act
Repeal the Act.
Hearing
Services Administration Act 1997
2 Section 4 (definition of
AHS)
Repeal the definition.
3 Subsection 20(5)
Repeal the subsection.