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2010-2011
THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
SENATE
BANKRUPTCY AMENDMENT (EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES EXIT
PACKAGE) BILL 2011
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
(Circulated by authority of Senator N Xenophon)
Bankruptcy Amendment (Exceptional Circumstances Exit Package) Bill 2011
1. Short Title
This clause is a formal provision and specifies the short title of Bill, once enacted, as the Bankruptcy
Amendment (Exceptional Circumstances Exit Package) Act 2011.
2. Commencement
This clause provides for the Act to commence the day after it receives Royal Assent.
3. Schedules
This clause states that each Act and each set of regulations specified in a Schedule to this Act is
amended or repealed according to the provisions of this Act, according to its terms, and also provides
that regulations so amended are still regulations and can still be repealed or amended by the
Governor-General.
4. Schedule 1 - Amendment of the Bankruptcy Regulations 1996
Item 1 under this Schedule inserts a definition of the Exceptional Circumstances Exit Package into
Subregulation 1.03(1) of the Bankruptcy Regulations 1996, defining it as the scheme which is known
by the same name and administered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
The Exceptional Circumstances Exit Package was introduced in 2007 and revised in November 2010.
Under the 2011-12 Budget it is set to end on 30 June 2012.
The Exceptional Circumstances Exit Package is a one-off taxable payment of up to $150 000 for
farmers who choose to leave their long-term family farm to enable them to relocate and re-establish
and retrain for alternative employment.
Items 2 and 3 insert into regulations 6.04A and 6.04B, which relate to rural support schemes,
references to the Exceptional Circumstances Exit Package.
The existing Bankruptcy Regulations already provide for the exemption of two regional grants (no
longer available) from bankruptcy proceedings and this amendment inserts the Exceptional
Circumstances Exit Package into the list of exemptions under the regulations.
Item 4 provides that these amendments apply only to grants made on or after 1 July 2010 where a
final order in bankruptcy has not been made, that is, the orders have not been finalised by the courts or
the debts paid.