GST Point-in-Time Service Updates

The GST Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the latest amendments in the Public Governance and Resources Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1) 2015 (Act 36 of 2015) and theTelecommunications Legislation Amendment (Deregulation) Act 2015 (No. 38 of 2015).

Act 36 of 2015

The Act follows on from the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Act 2014 (PGPA (C&T) Act) which implemented a range of amendments to the enabling legislation of Commonwealth entities and companies to harmonise their operation with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) from 1 July 2014.

The PGPA (C&T) Act amendments reflected the variety of governance and operational arrangements across the Commonwealth, with the nature of amendments required to individual enabling legislation varying from entity to entity. Given this, the policy approach has been to align entities’ enabling legislation with the PGPA Act wherever possible, with the intention being to implement a more consistent and coherent resource management framework, while not impinging on the ability of entities to meet their statutory obligations to the Parliament and to the community. This Act continues this approach.

The Act includes: technical amendments that would further improve the operation of the PGPA Act, including a provision to support the administration of GST obligations of noncorporate Commonwealth entities; amendments to provisions within the PGPA (C&T) Act that would streamline transitional arrangements supporting the implementation of the PGPA Act; amendments to the enabling legislation of Commonwealth entities intended for inclusion in the PGPA (C&T) Act but unable to proceed at that time; and amendments to improve and clarify the governance and resource management arrangements of the enabling legislation of Commonwealth entities that have been identified in consultations with those entities during and since the development of the PGPA (C&T) Act.

Act 38 of 2015

The Act includes a number of measures to streamline telecommunications regulation and reduce the regulatory burden on industry and consumers, while maintaining important consumer safeguards. A key measure of the Act is to transfer the functions of the Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency (TUSMA) to the Department of Communications, in line with the Government’s 2014 Budget announcement. This involves the transfer, in large part, of provisions currently contained in the Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency Act 2012 (TUSMA Act) to the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act 1999 (Consumer Protection Act) (Schedule 1 to the Act).

The Act also contains a number of other measures with a strong deregulatory focus, including:

• repealing outdated regulation in the Consumer Protection Act, and other provisions in related legislation, in respect of the supply of telephone sex services via a standard telephone service (Schedule 2); 
• making the registration period for numbers on the Do Not Call Register an indefinite period (Schedule 3); 
• repealing outdated provisions in the Telecommunications Act 1997 in respect of the making of e-marketing industry codes (Schedule 4);
• removing some record-keeping and reporting obligations imposed on telecommunications providers in relation to authorised disclosures of information or documents (Schedule 5); 
• relaxing pre-selection obligations on telecommunications providers in response to changing technologies and industry practice (Schedule 6); 
• modernising a number of publishing requirements in the Consumer Protection Act (Schedule 7); and 
• streamlining notice requirements to improve the operation of the Customer Service Guarantee (Schedule 8).

The Telecommunications (Industry Levy) Amendment Act 2015 (the Levy Amendment Act) makes consequential amendments to the Telecommunications (Industry Levy) Act 2012 to reflect the arrangements for the assessment, collection and recovery of the telecommunications industry levy being transferred from the TUSMA Act to the Consumer Protection Act.

The amendments made by Acts 36 and 38 of 2015 have been updated in the Point-in-Time GST Service current to 18 April 2015. (NB: Subscription required).

If you are not already a subscriber to this or other Point-in-Time Services then please contact us to find out more or to take a free trial.