Commonwealth Numbered Acts

INSURANCE LAWS AMENDMENT ACT 1991 No. 1 of 1992 - SECT 13

13. Section 52 of the Principal Act is amended:

   (a)  by omitting from subsection (1) all of the words after "why" and
        substituting "the Commissioner should not, on specified grounds:

   (c)  investigate the whole or any part of the business of the body
        corporate; or

   (d)  appoint a person to make such an investigation and report to the
        Commissioner the results of his or her investigation.";

   (b)  by omitting subsections (2), (3), (4) and (5) and substituting the
        following subsections:

"(2) If:

   (a)  the body corporate fails, within the period specified in the notice,
        to show cause to the satisfaction of the Commissioner why an
        investigation should not be made; and

   (b)  the Commissioner is satisfied that, in relation to the insurance
        business carried on by the body corporate, it is in the public
        interest that an investigation should be made; the Commissioner may:

   (c)  make the investigation himself or herself; or

   (d)  by signed instrument, appoint a person (in this Part called the
        `inspector') to make the investigation.

"(3) If:

   (a)  the Commissioner has decided that an investigation of a body corporate
        (in this section called the `first body corporate') should be made;
        and

   (b)  another body corporate (in this section called the `associated body
        corporate') is, or has at some relevant time been, associated with the
        first body corporate; and

   (c)  the Commissioner believes on reasonable grounds that it is necessary
        for the purposes of the investigation to investigate the whole or a
        part of the affairs of the associated body corporate; the Commissioner
        may:

   (d)  make an investigation into the whole or that part of the affairs of
        the associated body corporate; or

   (e)  authorise the inspector to make such an investigation.

"(4) Before commencing an investigation of a body corporate, the Commissioner
or the inspector, as the case may be, must serve on the body corporate:

   (a)  in all cases - a written notice by the Commissioner specifying the
        matters into which the investigation is to be made, being the whole or
        some part of affairs of the body corporate; and

   (b)  in the case of the inspector - a copy of the instrument appointing the
        inspector.

"(5) The inspector is to be a person resident in Australia.

"(6) The inspector is taken, for the purposes of section 126, to be a member
of the staff assisting the Commissioner.".