What it does
The Leslie Solar Salt Industry Agreement Act 1966 approves a specific agreement (the Agreement) between the State of Western Australia and Leslie Salt Co., a Delaware corporation with a registered office at Port Hedland. The Act does not create a general statutory scheme; it gives legal force to a single, bespoke project: the establishment and operation of a solar salt industry at Port Hedland, together with allied mining and ancillary industries. Section 3 simply states “The Agreement is approved.” The operative content lies in the Schedule, which is the full text of the Agreement. Once the ratifying Bill was passed (as required by clause 2 of the Agreement), certain provisions of the Agreement took effect as though enacted by the Act itself. Those provisions include clauses 3 and 4 (leases of the production site and stockpile area), subclause (1) of clause 5 (State’s obligations including wharf construction and dredging), clause 6 (license to pump salt slurry), clauses 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16 (housing, road/rail transport, sea water, ingress/egress, diversion of fresh water, limitation of liability), subparagraph (i) of paragraph (b) and paragraph (c) of clause 18 (effect of determination of the Agreement), subclause (2) of clause 20 (restrictions on resumption and discriminatory taxes), and clauses 23 and 24 (variation and force majeure). The Act also empowers the Governor to make, alter and repeal by-laws for the purposes of clause 5(1)(g) of the Agreement, which relate to ship liability, railway operation, and public road crossings. By-laws take effect upon publication in the Government Gazette and may prescribe penalties not exceeding $100 for breach. They are not subject to section 36 of the Interpretation Act 1918 but must be laid before each House of Parliament within six sitting days of publication. Section 5 declares that section 96 of the does not apply to any railway constructed by the Company under subclause (3) of clause 11 of the Agreement.