AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

PUBLIC HEALTH (PENALTIES) REGULATIONS

AMENDMENT OF THE MEAT REGULATIONS

AMENDMENT OF THE STOCK DISEASES REGULATIONS

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Nos. 19, 20, 21 of 1979

	The Minister of State for Health has made Regulations under the Public Health Ordinance 1928, the Meat Ordinance 1931 and the Stock Diseases Ordinance 1933 to update monetary penalties.

	This review of monetary penalties became necessary in order to overcome the effects of inflation, to make monetary penalties commensurate with the seriousness of the corresponding offences and to make the penalties imposed for breaches of various regulations consistent where similar offences or offences of equivalent gravity are involved.

	The review has been partially effected with the recent introduction of the Ordinances Revision (Penalties) Ordinance 1979.  The Public Health (Penalties) Regulations, the Amendment of the Meat Regulations and the Amendment of the Stock Diseases Regulations have completed this review exercise.

	The following legislation is amended by the Public Health (Penalties) Regulations
	Public Health (Barbers’ Shops) Regulations
	Public Health (Boarding – Houses) Regulations
	Public Health (Dairy) Regulations
	Public Health (Eating Houses) Regulations
	Public Health (General Sanitation) Regulations
	Public Health (Infectious and Notifiable Diseases) Regulations
	Public Health (Laundries, Dry Cleaning Establishments and Dye Works) Regulations
	Public Health (Meat) Regulations 1931
	Public Health (Medical and Dental Inspection of School Children) Regulations
	Public Health (Piggeries) Regulations
	Public Health (Private Hospitals) Regulations
	Public Health (Sale of Food and Drugs) Regulations
	Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations

	The foregoing Regulations are primarily amended in those sections which provide a general penalty for a contravention or non-compliance with any provision of the Regulations.  For example, under the Public Health (Eating Houses) Regulations the general penalty for a contravention of any provision of the Regulations was a penalty of $40, and, where the offence was a continuing offence, a penalty not exceeding $10 for every day during which the offence continued.  However the total of such penalties could not exceed $200.  The new penalty is $500 and in the case of a continuing offence – the aggregate of $500 and an amount, not exceeding $1,000, calculated at the rate of $50 for every day during which the offence continues.

	Under the Amendment of the Meat Regulations and the Amendment of the Stock Diseases Regulations the old penalty of $100 for an offence is substituted by a penalty of $250.