Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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STEVEDORING INDUSTRY FINANCE COMMITTEE REGULATIONS 2001 2001 NO. 35

Statutory Rules 2001 No. 35

Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government

Stevedoring Industry Finance Committee Act 1977

Stevedoring Industry Finance Committee Regulations 2001

The Stevedoring Industry Finance Committee (the Committee) is a Commonwealth body established under the Stevedoring Industry Finance Committee Act 1977 (the Act) to control the disposal of stevedoring levies collected to fund waterfront reform initiatives, which involved redundancy payments to waterside workers.

Section 31 of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters that are required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or that are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

Section 19 of the, Act provides that:

The Committee shall not, except with the approval of the Minister, enter into a contract involving the payment or receipt by the Committee of an amount exceeding $100,000 or, if a higher amount is prescribed, that higher amount.

The purpose of the Regulations is to prescribe a higher amount for the purposes of section 19.

The courts recently determined that the Committee is liable for payment of a share of the compensation to waterfront workers who have suffered an illness resulting from exposure to asbestos from the 1940s to the 1970s. The Committee inherited this liability from its predecessor, the Australian Stevedoring Industry Authority, which had a regulatory role on the Australian waterfront.

The Committee has received legal advice that section 19 extends to making settlements in asbestos compensation claims. As there are potentially hundreds of such claims, it is appropriate that the limit of $100,000 set in 1977 be increased in line with inflation since 1977. This regulation will facilitate speedier resolution of such claims.

The regulations specify that:

* The prescribed amount for section 19 be $350,000        (Regulation 3)

The Regulations commenced on gazettal.