Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A04677:schedule:4:p18
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:C2004A04677
Segment Type: schedule
Provision Reference: sch 4 (pt 18/31)
Character Range: 201465–204324

reduction in the number of Commissioners

  114. The Principal Act is amended as set out in Schedule 4 to this Act.

Application of amendments

115.(1) Despite the amendments made by this Part, the Principal Act continues to apply, until immediately before the eligible appointment day, as if those amendments had not been made.

(2) A person who held office as a non-elected Commissioner, or as the Commission Chairperson, immediately before the eligible appointment day ceases to hold that office on that day.

  (3) In this section:

"eligible appointment day" means the day, or the earliest day, on which the Minister appoints a person as a Commissioner after the person has been elected in the first zone election (other than a zone election for the Torres Strait zone) held after the end of the election period for the round of Regional Council elections for 1996.

PART 32—AMENDMENT RELATING TO THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE COMMISSION

Disclosure of interests

116. Section 51 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting in subsection (1) "Chairperson" after "Commission".

Transitional provision—disclosure of interests

117.(1) The amended Act has effect as if a disclosure made to the Commission under subsection 51(1) of the Principal Act before the commencement of this section had also been made to the Commission Chairperson.

  (2) In this section:

"amended Act" means the Principal Act as amended by this Act.

PART 33—INSERTION OF PREAMBLE TO THE PRINCIPAL ACT

Insertion of Preamble

118. After the title to the Principal Act the following Preamble is inserted:

"WHEREAS the people of Australia voted overwhelmingly to amend the Constitution so that the Parliament of Australia would be able to make special laws for peoples of the aboriginal race;

AND WHEREAS the people whose descendants are now known as Aboriginal persons and Torres Strait Islanders were the inhabitants of Australia before European settlement;

AND WHEREAS they have been progressively dispossessed of their lands and this dispossession occurred largely without compensation, and successive governments have failed to reach a lasting and equitable agreement with Aboriginal persons and Torres Strait Islanders concerning the use of their lands;

AND WHEREAS it is the intention of the people of Australia to make provision for rectification, by such measures as are agreed by the Parliament from time to time, including the measures referred to in this Act, of the consequences of past injustices and to ensure that Aboriginal persons and Torres Strait Islanders receive that full recognition within the Australian nation to which history, their prior rights and interests, and their rich and diverse culture, fully entitle them to aspire;

AND WHEREAS it is also the wish of the people of Australia that there be reached with Aboriginal persons and Torres