7Declaration of leviable airports

7 Declaration of leviable airports

(1) The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, declare that an airport that has been identified as a qualifying airport is a leviable airport for the period specified in the declaration. (2) The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette: (a) amend a declaration to change the period for which the airport is a leviable airport; or (b) revoke a declaration. (3) Subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 does not apply in relation to this section. (4) The Minister must exercise his or her powers under this section to ensure that: (a) each qualifying airport is declared a leviable airport as soon as practicable after it is identified as a qualifying airport; and (b) as far as practicable, the adjusted levy liability for an airport at any given time does not exceed the Commonwealth expenditure on the noise amelioration program for the airport up to that time; and (c) as far as practicable, the ratio of the adjusted levy liability for an airport to the Commonwealth expenditure on the noise amelioration program for the airport is ultimately the same for each leviable airport. (5) The adjusted levy liability for an airport at a particular time is the sum of the amounts of levy for which operators of jet aircraft have incurred liability as a result of landings of those aircraft at the airport before that time (whether or not any of those amounts are due for payment and whether or not any of those amounts have been paid) minus the amount spent up to that time on collection of levy on landings at the airport. (6) The Commonwealth expenditure on a noise amelioration program for an airport is the sum of: (a) amounts spent by the Commonwealth under one or more appropriations on the implementation (including administration) of a noise amelioration program for the airport; and (b) a reasonable allowance in the nature of interest on amounts spent as described in paragraph (a). (7) The Minister is taken: (a) to have declared under subsection (1) that Sydney (Kingsford‑Smith) Airport is a leviable airport for the period from and including 1 July 1996 to and including 21 February 2001; and (b) to have made that declaration by notice published in the Gazette before 1 July 1996. (8) Subsection (4) does not apply to the making of the declaration mentioned in subsection (7).