Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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

FARM HOUSEHOLD SUPPORT AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2004 (NO. 1) 2004 NO. 206

The Farm Household Support Act 1992 (the Act) establishes the Farm Help Income Support programme and enables the Farm Help Advice and Training Scheme and the Farm Help Re-establishment Grant Scheme. These schemes are designed to grant financial assistance to eligible farmers to obtain advice on their financial outlook and seek further advice and training and provide financial assistance on the sale of their farm enterprises.

Subsection 58(1) of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary and convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

The Act is amended by the Farm Household Support Amendment Act 2004, with effect from 1 July 2004, to extend the operation of the schemes until the end of June 2008, and to make other refinements to the schemes.

Subparagraph 8B(1)(d)(i) of the Act provides that to be a qualified person for Farm Help income support a person must obtain advice from a prescribed adviser that there is no reasonable likelihood, immediately before the period begins, that the person would obtain a loan from a financial institution given the person's financial situation. Paragraph 8B(1)(e) requires a person to obtain advice from a prescribed adviser on whether there is a reasonable likelihood of improving the financial performance of the farm enterprise.

The purpose of the Regulations is to prescribe who a qualified farmer can obtain access advice on financial outlook from, for the purposes of establishing eligibility for Farm Help income support under subsection 813(1) of the Act.

The Regulations specify the qualifications required of a person who provides advice on financial outlook for the purposes of subsection 813(1) of the Act. These qualifications are broader for a person providing advice to applicants who, due to the remoteness of their location, have difficulty accessing this type of advice.

The Regulations reflect the decision by the Government to replace the bank certificate of inability to obtain further finance with an alternate means of determining a farmer's inability to obtain further finance. The Regulations would make allowance for farmers who would otherwise be disadvantaged due to their remote location.

The Regulations update the name of the Farm Household Support Regulations in line with current drafting practice.

The detail of the Regulations is set out in Attachment A.

The Act specifies no conditions that need to be met before the power to make the proposed Regulations may be exercised.

The Regulation commenced on 1 July 2004, to coincide with the commencement of the amendments to the Act.

Attachment A

Farm Household Support Amendment Regulations 2004 (No. 1)

Section 1       Name of Regulations

This Section states that the Regulation is called the Farm Household Support Amendment Regulations 2004 (No. 1).

Section 2       Commencement

This Section provides for the Regulation to commence on 1 July 2004.

Section 3       Amendment of Farm Household Support Regulations

This Section provides that Schedule 1 amends the Farm Household Support Regulations.

Schedule 1       Amendments

[1]       Regulation 1

The Regulation substitutes the name of the Regulations in Regulation 1, to the Farm Household Support Regulations 1993.

[2]       After Regulation 4

This item inserts Regulation 5 which refers to a prescribed adviser for the Farm Household Support Act 1992 subparagraph 8B (1) d (i) and paragraph 8B (1) (e).

In subregulation (1) a prescribed adviser is a person who has relevant financial qualifications and is a member of a professional association whose members normally provide financial advice. An eligible person is required to access the prescribed adviser enabled in subregulation (1) if they are able to access this adviser due to the person's location, prior to accessing the prescribed adviser enabled in subregulation (2). The prescribed adviser would assess the likelihood of a person obtaining a loan from a finance institution given the person's financial situation and provide advice on the reasonable likelihood of improving the financial performance of the farm enterprise.

In subregulation (2) an exception is made for an eligible farmer who is unable to access a prescribed person who has relevant financial qualifications and is a member of a professional association whose members normally provide financial advice, due to their remoteness and lack of access. In this instance, an eligible farmer may access a prescribed person who has experience in financial matters because of his or her occupation, whether or not this person normally provides or provided this advice. The intention of subregulation (2) is to ensure that no farmer is disadvantaged from entry to the Farm Help program due to remoteness and lack of access.

Subregulation (3) details examples of occupations that give a person experience in financial matters for paragraph 2 (a) to demonstrate that a broad range of occupations are relevant and can assess the likelihood of a person obtaining a loan from a finance institution given the person's financial situation and provide advice on the reasonable likelihood of improving the financial performance of the farm enterprise. The examples listed are not an exhaustive compilation.