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2002-2003
THE PARLIAMENT OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
AVIATION TRANSPORT SECURITY (CONSEQUENTIAL
AMENDMENTS AND TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS) BILL 2003
EXPLANATORY
MEMORANDUM
(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Transport and
Regional Services,
the Honourable John Anderson, MP)
AVIATION
TRANSPORT SECURITY (CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS AND TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS) BILL
2003
This is a Bill for an Act to deal with consequential and transitional
matters arising from the enactment of the Aviation Transport Security Act
2003. Most significantly, this Bill:
• repeals Part 3 and Part
3A of the Air Navigation Act 1920 (‘the Air Navigation
Act’) to allow Australia’s aviation security provisions to be
modernised, restructured, and improved in the Aviation Transport Security Act
2003;
• amends the Australian Protective Service Act 1987 to
extend the arrest powers of Australian Protective Service Officers under that
Act to the airport environment. This will enable law enforcement officers on
the airport to react to an incident effectively and potentially prevent a
security incident;
• provides for arrangements to be made for
provisions of the Air Navigation Act to have effect for a transitional
period for purposes of the new Act; and
• makes minor and technical
consequential amendments to various Acts: the Air Services Act 1995, the
Crimes (Aviation) Act 1991, and the Sea Installation Act.
There is no financial impact associated with this
Bill.
AVIATION TRANSPORT SECURITY (CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS AND
TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS) BILL 2003
This clause provides that the Act may be cited as the Aviation Transport
Security (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Act
2003.
This clause provides that sections 1 to 3 and any other provisions of this
Act which are not covered by the table in clause 2 commence on the day on which
this Act receives Royal Assent.
Schedules 1, 2 and 3 commence at the
same time as section 3 of the Aviation Transport Security Act
2003.
This clause provides that each Act that is specified in Schedules 1, 2 and 3
to this Bill will be amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in
the Schedule concerned.
The following items repeal provisions in the Air Navigation Act
1920 (‘the Air Navigation Act’) which will either be included
in some form in the Aviation Transport Security Act, or are no longer required
due to changes in the aviation security regulatory regime.
These items repeal a number of definitions which will no longer be
used in the Air Navigation Act due to the repeal of other provisions.
This item repeals Part 3 of the Air Navigation Act. The regulatory scheme
which is currently outlined in this Part will now be reflected in an amended
form in the Aviation Transport Security Act.
Item 31
This item
repeals part 3A of the Air Navigation Act. This part was added to the Air
Navigation Act in December 2002 and will now be moved to the Aviation Transport
Security Act.
Item 32
This item replaces “subsection
17(1); or” with “subsection 17(1)” in paragraph 23A(1)(e) of
the Act, as this will now be the final paragraph in the subsection due to
amendments under Item 34.
Item 33
This item repeals paragraphs
23A(1)(h) to (u). These provisions are no longer required as they refer to the
review of decisions made under provisions which will be repealed by this
Bill.
Item 34
This item repeals paragraph 26(2)(a). This
paragraph allows the Governor-General to make regulations under the Air
Navigation Act for the purposes of aviation security. This is no longer needed
as such regulations will be able to be made under the Aviation Transport
Security Act.
Item 35
This item repeals section 28, as this
section disapplies the Legislative Instruments Act 1995 to instruments relating
to aviation security. This was a proposed piece of legislation which was never
enacted, and therefore reference to it is now
redundant.
Schedule 2 - Amendment of other
Acts
Air Services Act 1995
Item 1
Currently Airservices Australia’s functions include those conferred on
it under the Air Navigation Act. This item adds functions conferred by the
Aviation Transport Security Act 2003 (‘the Aviation Transport
Security Act’).
Item 2
This item inserts a new paragraph into the
Australian Protective Services Act 1987 which allows an Australian
Protective Service Officer to arrest persons for offences against the Aviation
Transport Security Act or regulations made under the Act. This is in
recognition of the special role which APS officers will have along with police
officers acting as law enforcement officers under the Aviation Transport
Security Act.
This item amends Paragraph 23(2)(b) of the Crimes (Aviation) Act 1991
to include reference to the Aviation Transport Security Act or regulations made
under that Act.
This item adds reference to the Aviation Transport Security Act to the
Schedule to the Sea Installations Act 1987.
This item allows the Governor-General to make regulations prescribing matters
required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed or necessary or convenient to
be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act. In particular, it
allows regulation to be made for transitional purposes. For example, persons who
access the airside of categorised airports currently require identification
cards known as ASICs to do so. Regulations made under this provision could
provide that these ASICs may continue to be used under the new Act.
The
purpose of this item is to ensure that where the transition to a new aviation
security regulatory framework has the potential to produce unwanted anomalies,
that regulations can be made which deal with these anomalies. In particular,
this item will allow the ‘grandfathering’ of security programs which
are in force before the commencement of the Aviation Transport Security Act.
This item provides that subsection 15(2) of the Aviation Transport Security
Act does not apply to programs continued as transport security programs under
paragraph 1(2)(b) of this Schedule.
This clause has been included because
under the new Aviation Transport Security Act certain persons will have
responsibilities to comply with programs of other people where they have seen
the part of the program which applies to them. It would be unreasonable if this
were extended to persons who are covered under existing programs where they have
not consulted with on the part of the program which will apply to
them.