Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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TELEVISION LICENCE FEES AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2002 (NO. 1) 2002 NO. 336

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Statutory Rules 2002 No. 336

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts

Television Licence Fees Act 1964

Television Licence Fees Amendment Regulations 2002 (No. 1)

The Television Licence Fees Act 1964 (the Act) provides for the payment of fees in respect of certain television broadcasting licences.

Section 8 of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations under the Act and subsection 5(2) provides that the regulations may make provision for rebates of fees payable by licensees.

The purpose of the accompanying regulations is to make adjustments affecting the conversion of broadcasting services from analog to digital mode. The regulations:

•       make technical corrections to the digital conversion rebate scheme, outlined in Part 3 of the Television Licence Fees Regulations 1990 (the Regulations), to ensure that the scheme operates correctly for regional and remote licensees;

•       remove provisions relating to WA licence areas from the digital conversion rebate scheme, because the Government is currently reconsidering the appropriate rebate amounts for those areas;

•       provide advance funding under the digital conversion rebate scheme in relation to the Remote Central and Eastern TV2 licence area; and

•       repeal Part 2 of the Regulations, which established a rebate scheme which is no longer in operation.

On 9 May 2000 the Government announced assistance of up to $260 million over 13 years to regional and remote commercial television broadcasting licensees under the Regional Equalisation Plan (REP) which commenced in 2000-2001. The Government recognises that regional and remote licensees face higher per capita conversion costs to digital transmission compared to their metropolitan counterparts, and has undertaken to assist these broadcasters with the conversion to transmission in digital mode.

Assistance is provided primarily through the rebate scheme established by the Regulations. The scheme allows regional licensees to claim a rebate of licence fees in the financial year in which a digital service begins. The digital conversion rebate scheme commenced in the 2000-01 fiscal year and currently only applies to regional licensees.

Under Part 2 of Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (the ABA) is required to formulate a Commercial Television Conversion Scheme (CTC scheme) for the conversion of commercial television services from analog mode to digital mode. Part A of the CTC scheme deals with non-remote licence areas, and Part B of the scheme is to deal with remote licence areas. The ABA is yet to finalise the details for Part B of the CTC scheme.

Once the estimated cost of conversion for each remote licensee has been determined, the Regulations will be amended to extend the rebate scheme to those areas. The maximum amount of rebate to be claimed by each remote licensee will vary according to the estimated conversion costs for each licensee. The maximum rebate amount for each remote licensee will depend partly on the details of Part B of the CTC scheme.

However, the Government has agreed to provide assistance to the licensee for the Remote Central and Eastern TV2 licence area in advance of the finalisation of Part B of the CTC scheme. The provision of advance funding recognises the costs incurred in advance of digital conversion by that remote licensee as a direct result of the conversion to digital broadcasting by the metropolitan broadcasters from which that licensee receives programs. The costs relate to requirements for new reception and decoding equipment to receive the digital programming feeds of the major networks. This advance funding will be provided by way of licence fee rebates from 2002-03 to 2004-05.

Details of the accompanying regulations are in the attachment.

Regulations 1 to 3, which are formal provisions, and Schedule 1, which makes technical amendments and amendments relating to WA licence areas, commence on 12 October 2000. This is the date on which the Television Licence Fees Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 1) came into effect, introducing the digital conversion licence fee rebate scheme provisions. These amendments will not disadvantage any person and can therefore operate retrospectively, consistent with subsection 48(2) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901.

Schedule 2, which contains provisions relating to the repeal of Part 2, and the Remote Central and Eastern TV2 licence area, commence on gazettal.

ATTACHMENT

DETAILS OF THE REGULATIONS

Regulation 1 - Name of Regulations

Regulation 1 provides for the citation of the Regulations.

Regulation 2 - Commencement

Regulation 2 has the effect that the regulations commence:

•       on 12 October 2000 (the date on which the Television Licence Fees Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 1) came into effect, introducing the digital conversion licence fee rebate scheme provisions) for Schedule 1 (ie technical amendments and amendments relating to WA licence areas) - these amendments will not disadvantage any person and can therefore operate retrospectively consistently with subsection 48(2) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901; and

•       on gazettal for Schedule 2 (ie provisions relating to the repeal of Part 2 and the Remote Central and Eastern TV2 licence area).

Regulation 3 - Amendment of Television Licence Fees Regulations 1990

Regulation 3 provides that:

•       Schedule 1 amends the Television Licence Fees Regulations 1990, as amended by the Television Licence Fees Amendment Regulations 2000 (No. 1); and

•       Schedule 2 amends the Television Licence Fees Regulations 1990.

Schedule 1 - Amendments taken to have commenced on 12 October 2000

Item 1 - Regulation 12

Regulation 12 states the purpose of Part 3, which provides for the digital conversion rebate scheme. Item 1 amends regulation 12 as a consequence of the substantive amendments to the Regulations made by the remaining items in Schedule 1, and by Schedule 2.

Item 2 - Regulation 13, definition of regional licence

Item 2 amends the definition of "regional licence" so that it simply means a commercial television broadcasting licence that existed on 9 May 2000 (the date the REP was announced by the Government) for a licence area listed in Schedule 1.

Item 3 - After subregulation 14(3)

Regulation 14 sets the conditions for a licensee to be eligible to claim a rebate. Item 3 inserts new subregulation 14(4), which is a special rule for the Eastern Victoria and Western Victoria licence areas, referred to in new items 3A and 3B of Schedule 1 (see item 8 of Schedule 1 below).

New subregulation 14(4) provides that if the licences referred to in new items 3A and 3B of Schedule 1 of the regulations are held by the same licensee, and the licensee becomes eligible for the rebate for one of the licences before the other, the licensee automatically becomes eligible for the rebate for the other licence at the same time, without needing to satisfy the ordinary eligibility conditions in subregulations 14(1), (2) or (3) for the other licence.

Item 4 - Subregulation 15(1)

Item 4 substitutes subregulation 15(1). The effect of the amendment is to change the cross-references to columns of Schedule 1 of the Regulations as a consequence of the new Schedule 1 which is substituted by item 8 below.

Item 5 - Subregulation 16(2)

Item 5 amends subregulation 16(2) to delete a cross-reference to regulation 18, as a consequence of the omission of regulation 18 by item 7 below.

Item 6 - Subregulation 17(1)

Item 6 amends subregulation 17(1) as a consequence of the substitution of Schedule 1 of the Regulations made by item 8 below.

Item 7 - Regulation 18

Item 7 omits regulation 18 as a consequence of the omission of item 9 (relating to licence areas in WA) from Schedule 1 of the Regulations as substituted by item 8 below.

Item 8 - Schedule 1

Item 8 substitutes Schedule 1 of the Regulations. The differences are the deletion of column 4, changes to item 3, new items 3A and 3B, and the deletion of item 9 relating to licence areas in WA.

Column 4 of Schedule 1 (which refers to the number of licences in a licence area) becomes redundant with the other changes made to Schedule 1. The number of licensees for a particular licence area (see column 3) is by definition the same as the number of licences for that licence area.

Item 3 of the current Schedule 1 was intended to apply to three licence areas in regional Victoria. One of those licence areas (namely Regional Victoria) contains two licences, and the other two licence areas (namely Eastern Victoria and Western Victoria, which together cover the same geographical area as the Regional Victoria licence area) contain only one licence each. However, the item does not operate correctly because it refers to only one of the three licence areas, ie the Regional Victoria licence area. New item 3 in Schedule 1 corrects this.

In new Schedule 1, item 3 has been effectively split into three items (items 3, 3A and 3B), with each item applying to one licence area. The Eastern Victoria and Western Victoria licensees (referred to in items 3A and 3B in Schedule 1) are together entitled to the same annual and total rebate amounts as each of the Regional Victoria licensees (referred to in item 3 in Schedule 1), apportioned between the Eastern Victoria and Western Victoria licensees according to revenue.

Item 9 of the current Schedule 1 was intended to apply to five separate but overlapping licence areas in regional WA. As all these licence areas have been designated as "remote" licence areas under subclause 5(1) of Schedule 4 to the BSA, the Government is currently reassessing the appropriate rebate amounts for those areas. Accordingly, item 9 of the current Schedule 1 does not appear in the new Schedule 1. When rebate amounts for remote areas generally (including remote areas of WA) are determined by the Government, the Regulations will be amended to provide for those rebates.

Schedule 2 - Amendments that commence on gazettal

Item 1 - Regulation 2

Item 1 repeals and replaces regulation 2 (definitions). The effect of item 2 is to remove definitions which are unnecessary as a result of the repeal of Part 2 of the Regulations (see item 2 below).

Item 2 - Part 2

Part 2 of the Regulations provides for a rebate scheme which is no longer in operation. Item 2 repeals Part 2 of the Regulations in its entirety.

Item 3 - Regulation 13, after definition of regional licensee

Item 3 inserts definitions of "remote licence" and "remote licensee" into regulation 13, as a consequence of the other amendments relating to the Remote Central and Eastern TV2 licence area made by items 4 to 7 below.

The definitions correspond to the existing definitions of "regional licence" and "regional licence area" in regulation 13 (as amended by item 2 of Schedule 1 above), except that remote licence areas are those listed in new Schedule 2 of the Regulations (see item 7 below) rather than Schedule 1 of the Regulations.

The only remote licence area to be included in the rebate scheme at this stage is the Remote Central and Eastern TV2 area. The Regulations will be amended to include other remote licence areas once the rebate amounts have been determined by the Government.

Item 4 - After subregulation 15(1)

Item 4 inserts new subregulation 15(1A), which entitles a remote licensee to a rebate as set out in new Schedule 2 of the Regulations (inserted by item 7 below).

Item 5 - After subregulation 15(3)

Subregulation 15(2) allows a licensee who is entitled to a rebate of more than their licence fees for a particular year to "roll over" the unclaimed portion of that years rebate to a future year.

Subregulation 15(3) has the effect that a regional licensee cannot claim a rebate after 31 December 2012. Item 5 inserts new subregulation 15(4), which sets the same 2012 time limit on claims by remote licensees.

Item 6 - Subregulation 16(1)

Subregulation 16(1) provides that the rebate that may be claimed in relation to a licence in accordance with Schedule 1 does not change if the licensee changes.

Item 6 amends subregulation 16(1) so that it also applies to remote licences in new Schedule 2.

Item 7 - After Schedule 1

Schedule 2 inserts new Schedule 2 into the Regulations. New Schedule 2 sets the rebate amounts for the Remote Central and Eastern TV2 licence area.

When the rebate amounts for other remote areas are determined by the Government, further items will be added to Schedule 2.


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