Commonwealth act

Petrol Commission Act 1933

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Act Number

2 of 1933

Collection

act

Plain English Summary

1/10 complexity

Purpose: This Act backs a 1933 Royal Commission investigating Australia's oil and petrol industry.

Key effects:

Legal muscle: It gives the three appointed commissioners the same powers as other Royal Commissions under the Royal Commissions Act 1902-1933. This includes summoning witnesses, demanding documents, and taking evidence under oath (putting someone on the stand to testify).
Meeting rules: Only two commissioners need to be present to officially hear evidence (this minimum number is called the "quorum").

Why it matters: During the Great Depression, the government launched this inquiry to examine how mineral oils and petrol were imported, refined, distributed and sold across Australia. This short Act ensured the Commission had the legal teeth to compel testimony and documents from powerful oil companies and traders.

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Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in Petrol Commission Act 1933.

Petrol Commission Act 1933

PETROL COMMISSION.

No. 2 of 1933.

An Act to facilitate the proceedings of the Royal Commission appointed to hold an Inquiry respecting certain matters in relation to Mineral Oils, and Petrol and other products of Mineral Oils.

[Assented to 29th May, 1933.]

BE it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—

Short title.

This Act may be cited as the Petrol Commission Act 1933.

Powers, &c., of Commission.

The Commission appointed by the Governor-General on the sixth day of April, One thousand nine hundred and thirty-three, by Letters Patent, in the name of the King, directed to Sydney Ernest Lamb, Esquire, the Honorable John Gunn and Arthur Justin Hancock, Esquire, to make inquiry and report into and upon certain matters specified in the Letters Patent in relation to the operations of the importation into Australia, and the refining, treatment, distribution and sale in Australia of mineral oils, and petrol and other products of mineral oils, shall have all the powers, rights and privileges which are specified in the Royal Commissions Act 1902-1933 as appertaining to a Royal Commission, and the provisions contained in that Act shall have effect as if they were herein enacted and in terms made applicable to the Commission so appointed.

Quorum

For the purpose of taking evidence, two members of the Commission referred to in the last preceding section shall be sufficient to constitute a quorum.

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

1 Petrol Commission Act 1933