35Home ports

35 Home ports (1) The port that may be selected as the home port of a registered ship must be one of the ports for the time being approved by the Authority, by notice published in the Gazette, for the purposes of this subregulation. (2) The ports in Australia that were, immediately before the commencement of the Act, ports of registry under the previous law, are taken to be ports approved by the Authority under subregulation (1) until the publication of a notice under that subregulation. (3) Application may be made for a change in the home port of a registered ship by lodging with the Registrar a request in writing that: (a) specifies: (ii) the present home port of the ship; and (iii) the proposed home port of the ship; and (b) is duly signed by the registered agent of the ship. (4) Upon the receipt of an application under subregulation (3), the Registrar must, if the proposed home port is a port that is, for the time being, a port that is, or is to be taken to be, a port approved by the Authority for the purposes of subregulation (1), give notice in writing to the registered agent to the effect that registration of the change of home port in relation to the ship may proceed upon that part of the inscription referred to in paragraph 20 (1) (b) that relates to the home port of the ship being altered accordingly. (4A) Where the Registrar gives a notice to the registered agent of a ship under subregulation (4), the registered agent must, within 30 days after the date of the notice, lodge with the Registrar a certificate in writing endorsed on that notice and duly signed by the registered agent stating that that part of the marking on the ship relating to the name of its home port has been altered in a manner that complies with regulation 20. (4B) A registered agent of a ship who fails to comply with subregulation (4A) is guilty of an offence. (4C) An offence against subregulation (4B) is an offence of strict liability. (4D) It is a defence to a prosecution under subregulation (4B) that the defendant had a reasonable excuse. > Note A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to whether or not he or she had a reasonable excuse for his or her conduct (see subsection 13.3 (3) of the Criminal Code). (5) Upon the receipt of: (a) the certificate referred to in subregulation (4A); and (b) the ship’s registration certificate; the Registrar must: (c) cause the new home port to be entered in the Register in relation to the ship; and (d) endorse the change of home port on the ship’s registration certificate and return it to the registered agent.