Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

[Index] [Search] [Download] [Related Items] [Help]

AIRPORTS (CONTROL OF ON-AIRPORT ACTIVITIES) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1998 NO. 118

STATUTORY RULES 1998 No. 118

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Transport and Regional Development

Airports Act 1996

Airports (Control of On-Airport Activities) Regulations (Amendment)

Section 252 of the Airports Act 1996 (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 172 of the Act provides that regulations may be made to deal with control of vehicle movements.

Part 4 of the Airports (Control of On-Airport Activities) Regulations (the Regulations) regulate the parking and operation of vehicles on the airside of the airport. The airside of an airport is the aircraft movement area of the airport, adjacent terrain and buildings or portions of the airport marked as such in an airport's "Airside Vehicle Control Handbook". The remaining area, especially the area open to public access, is the landside of an airport.

Existing provisions of the Regulations allow airport operators at Phase 1 airports (Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth Airports) to designate no parking and no standing zones airside and to enforce the correct use of those zones. Stopping or parking in a designated no-parking or no-standing area is an offence of 3 penalty units. In addition, an authorised airport-operator employee is able to direct that a vehicle incorrectly parked or stopped be moved. He or she has the power, under certain conditions, to move the vehicle.

The purpose of the Amendment to the Regulations is to apply these existing provisions for Phase 1 airports to the airside operations of the majority of the soon to be leased Phase 2 airports. These airports are Alice Springs, Darwin, and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, Hobart in Tasmania, Archerfield, Mount Isa, and Townsville in Queensland; Moorabbin in Victoria; and Jandakot in Western Australia.

A new Division 4.3 covers airside operations at all Phase 1 and Phase 2 airports, with the temporary exception of Adelaide, Canberra, Coolangatta, Launceston, and Parafield airports. The Minister is consulting with these five airports before making any regulations to cover their airside operations. .

The new Division repeats most of the airside parking provisions for Phase 1 airports that already exist in Division 4.2. Some minor amendments to the Division 4.2 are necessary to limit the application of that division to the landside of the Phase 1 airports only.

Details of the amendments to the Regulations appear in the Attachment.

The Regulations commenced upon notification in the Gazette. 9821580A

ATTACHMENT

Item 1 - Commencement

Proposed item 1 provides that the Regulations will commence on gazettal.

Item 2 - Amendment

Proposed item 2 provides that the Airports (Control of On-Airport Activities) Regulations are amended as set out in these Regulations.

Item 3 - Division 4.2 (Vehicle parking at Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth Airports)

Proposed item 3 omits the heading and substitutes a new heading "Division 4.2-Landside vehicle parking'

Item 4 - Regulation 4.03 (Definitions for Division)

Proposed item 4 omits several definitions concerning Phase 1 airports and parking at them, and inserts a new definition to cover them, referring to them as "regulated major airports" (Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth Airports).

Item 5 - Regulation 4.04 (No-parking areas)

Proposed item 5 substitutes a new regulation 4.04 which allows major regulated airports (Phase 1 airports) to set up designated no parking areas landside.

Item 6 - Regulation 4.05 (No-standing areas)

Proposed item 6 substitutes a new regulation 4.05 which allows major regulated airports (Phase 1 airports) to set up designated no standing areas landside.

Item 7 - Regulation 4.09 (Authorized person may move vehicle)

Proposed item 7 omits references to the landside of Phase 1 airports.

Item B- New division 4.3

Proposed item 8 inserts a new Division after 4.2 which largely repeats existing 4.2 parking provisions but limits them to airside operations at all regulated airports (that is, Phase 1 and Phase 2 airports) except Adelaide, Canberra, Coolangatta, Launceston, and Parafield.

It will allow an airport operator to designate no-parking and no-standing areas airside, and will make it offence of 3 penalty units to park or stop in those areas. However, an authorised person may direct a vehicle to be parked or stopped in them. An authorised person may direct a driver parked or stopped in contravention of these provisions to move the vehicle. The Secretary of the Department may appoint a range of persons, including employees of the airport-operator company as authorised persons for the purposes of the Division.