Assistance for Severely Affected Regions (Special Appropriation) (Coronavirus Economic Response Package) Act 2020

The Minister may, by legislative instrument, make rules prescribing matters:

required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed by the rules; or

necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.

The rules may also do the following:

prescribe circumstances in which the Commonwealth may pay money appropriated by this Act;

set amounts to be appropriated for specified purposes under the appropriation in this Act;

provide for another Minister to administer a specified amount appropriated for a specified purpose under the appropriation in this Act.

However, to avoid doubt, the rules may not do the following:

create an offence or civil penalty;

provide powers of:

arrest or detention; or

entry, search or seizure;

impose a tax;

directly amend the text of this Act.

Legislative authority for spending

To avoid doubt, subsection (2) does not limit the sources of legislative authority for spending money appropriated by this Act.

Note: The Commonwealth might rely on other provisions as authority for spending money appropriated by this Act, including:

the purposes set out in section 4; or

provisions of the Financial Framework (Supplementary Powers) Regulations 1997.