EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2008 No. 150

 

Export Market Development Grants Act 1997

 

Export Market Development Grants Amendment Regulations 2008 (No. 1)

 

The Export Market Development Grants Act 1997 (the Act) provides for grants to specified Australian businesses which have incurred specified expenses promoting the export of their Australian goods, services, intellectual property rights and know-how. The grant is a partial reimbursement of the expenses incurred.

 

Subsection 106(1) of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or prescribing matters necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act. The Export Market Development Grants Regulations (1997 Regulations) were made under subsection 106(1) of the Act on 9 July 1997.

 

The Export Market Development Grants Amendment Act 2008 (the Amendment Act) amended provisions in the Act to allow bodies representing the interests of an industry or of a substantial part of an industry to be able to apply to be approved bodies and to provide that all non-tourism services are eligible for Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) support unless specified in the Regulations.

 

The Export Market Development Grants Regulations 2008 (the 2008 Regulations) were made on 24 June 2008 to give effect to these two amendments. The 2008 Regulations commenced on 1 July 2008 and repealed the 1997 Regulations.

 

During the drafting of the 2008 Regulations, the fact that some sections of the 1997 Regulations should have continued to apply to applications received for 2007-08 and earlier grant years was overlooked. The 2008 Regulations should not apply to EMDG applications made in respect of the 2007-08 and earlier grant years because the Amendment Act provides for its changes to only apply to applications received for the 2008-09 grant year and later grant years.

 

The Regulations contain transitional provisions to remedy this oversight. For 2007-08 and earlier grant year EMDG applications, the Regulations provide that the CEO of Austrade must consider an application for approved body status in accordance with the 1997 Regulations and with a set of guidelines made under the Act as in force immediately before 1 July 2008. For these applications, the Regulations also specify that the rules contained in the 1997 Regulations are to be used to determine the eligibility of services under the EMDG Act.

 

The Regulations commence on the day after they are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

 

Austrade has not consulted with other organisations during the preparation of these Regulations because they implement the policy implicit in the Amendment Act.

 

Austrade’s decisions under the Regulations are subject to review in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

 

This instrument is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 and is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.