Sourced from South Australian Legislation (legislation.sa.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.
1 Whyalla Steel Works Act 1958
South Australia
Whyalla Steel Works Act 1958
An Act to approve and ratify an Indenture made between the State of South Australia of the one part and The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited of the other part relating to the establishment of a steel works in South Australia, to ratify a Deed amending the Indenture and to provide for carrying the provisions of the Indenture into effect and for other purposes.
Contents
1 Short title
3 Interpretation
3A Charge on property
3B Charge declared to be a statutory interest
3C Provision of reports and information etc
4 Validation of Indenture and 2000 Deed of Amendment
5 Performance of Indenture
6 Variation of Indenture
6A Assignment in contravention of Indenture void and of no effect
6B No compensation etc payable in respect of operation of certain provisions of Act
7 Liability for certain pollution
7B Special provisions relating to certain land (clause 26A of the Indenture)
8 Legal proceedings
9 Repeal of Private Act, sections 10, 12, 15, 26, 11 (part)
10 Application of Act No 309, sections 6, 23, 26, 32, 34, 44–58, 65 and 20
11 Charges on Company's Tramways and jetties
12 Vesting of Company's statutory rights and obligations in assignee
13 References to shares listed on a stock exchange
14 Interpretation
15 Company granted environmental authorisation under Environment Protection Act 1993
16 Revocation of other environmental authorisations
17 Period of operation of environmental exemptions
18 Minister to perform functions under Development Act 1993
19 Making of environment protection policies that affect Company operations or developments
20 Commissioner may revise Schedule 3 following variation of environmental authorisation
21 Regulations
Schedule 1—The original Indenture
Schedule 2—The 2000 Deed of Amendment
Schedule 3—Environmental authorisation under Part 6 of the Environment Protection Act 1993
Schedule 4—Lease relating to Port of Whyalla void etc
1 Interpretation
2 Application of Schedule
3 Lease or purported lease over prescribed land void and of no effect
4 Interests in certain rail and other infrastructure void and of no effect
5 Registrar‑General to alter etc instruments of title
6 No effect on future dealings in prescribed land
Consolidated Indenture
Legislative history
The Parliament of South Australia enacts as follows:
1—Short title
This Act may be cited as the Whyalla Steel Works Act 1958.
3—Interpretation
In this Act unless the context otherwise requires:
BHP means The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited;
the Company means BHP and includes its successors and assigns;
the 2000 Deed of Amendment means the deed set out in Schedule 2;
the Indenture means the Indenture set out in Schedule 1, as amended from time to time;
the prescribed day means the day on which the rights and obligations of the Company under the Indenture and the Indenture under the Broken Hill Proprietary Company's Indenture Act 1937 first become rights and obligations of a person that is not a related body corporate (within the meaning of the Corporations Law) of BHP.
3A—Charge on property
(1) If any amount is owed by the Company to the Crown or an agency or instrumentality of the Crown, all property of the Company is, by operation of this section, subject to a first ranking charge securing payment of the amount so owed.
Note—
This will apply to all present and after-acquired property of the Company.
(2) Subsection (1) applies to—
(a) any amount owed by the Company on or after the commencement of this section (regardless of whether the amount first became owing before or after the commencement of this section); and
(b) property within the State and outside the State to the full extent of the extraterritorial legislative capacity of the Parliament.
(3) If an amount referred to in subsection (1) remains unpaid on the prescribed day, the following provisions apply:
(a) the charge referred to in that subsection is, on and after the prescribed day, presently enforceable by the Minister (and the Minister is not required to make any demand for payment or take any other steps before proceeding to enforce the charge);
(b) the charge may be immediately enforced by the Minister by taking any 1 or more of the following actions:
(i) entry into possession of, and control of, real and personal property of the Company;
(ii) sale of any real or personal property referred to in subparagraph (i) (in such manner as the Minister thinks fit);
(iii) the appointment of a receiver or of a receiver and manager;
(iv) any other lawful method of enforcement.
(4) A person appointed as a receiver, or as a receiver and manager, under subsection (3)(b), has all the powers of a receiver under the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth.
(5) This section has effect—
(a) notwithstanding any provision of the Indenture or the Indenture under the Broken Hill Proprietary Company's Indenture Act 1937; and
(b) notwithstanding the provisions of the Real Property Act 1886; and
(c) notwithstanding any other Act or law (including an Act or law providing for recovery of the amount owed but in such a case powers to recover the amount under that Act or law will apply in addition to the powers under this Act).
(6) Nothing in this section derogates from a charge on property created—
(a) pursuant to the Indenture and section 85 of the Mining Act 1971; or
(b) pursuant to section 18C of the South Australian Water Corporation Act 1994.
(7) Section 8(1)(b) does not apply to any dispute or difference between the State and the Company arising out of or in connection with the operation of this section.
(8) In this section—
prescribed day, in relation to an amount owed by the Company to the Crown or an agency or instrumentality of the Crown, means—
(a) in the case of an amount that has, on the commencement of this section, been owing for more than 30 days—the day on which this section commences; or
(b) in any other case—the day occurring 30 days after the day on which the amount first became owing.
3B—Charge declared to be a statutory interest
A charge of a kind created pursuant to section 3A is declared to be a statutory interest to which section 73(2) of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 of the Commonwealth applies.
3C—Provision of reports and information etc
(1) The Company must, within 7 days (or such longer period as the Minister may allow) after receiving the auditor's report in relation to the Company's financial report for a financial year (as required under the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth), provide the Minister with a copy of the financial report and auditor's report.
(2) The Minister may, by written notice given to the Company, require the Company to provide documents or information of a kind specified in the notice within 14 days after the date on which the notice was given.
(3) For the avoidance of doubt, a notice under subsection (2) may require the provision of documents or information that—
(a) were created, or relate to, matters occurring before or after the commencement of this section; or
(b) were created, or are located, within or outside the State.
(4) The Company must notify the Minister, in writing, as soon as practicable after becoming aware of any of the following events (as specified in any guidelines issued under subsection (5)):
(a) an unplanned significant disruption of relevant Company works or facilities;
(b) a planned significant disruption of relevant Company works or facilities if the planned significant disruption is to be, or becomes, for a period greater than 2 days;
(c) a risk (not being trivial or insubstantial) that a significant disruption of relevant Company works or facilities may occur.
(5) The Minister may issue guidelines to the Company that specify the kinds of events that will constitute an unplanned or planned significant disruption, or a risk of a significant disruption, of relevant Company works or facilities for the purposes of subsection (4).
(6) The Minister may, by written notice given to the Company, require the Company to provide information of a kind specified in the notice in relation to an event specified in subsection (4) within 14 days after the date on which the notice was given.
(7) The Company must, at the written request of the Minister, facilitate access to relevant Company works or facilities (within 30 days after the giving of the notice) by any persons designated by the Minister for the purpose of—
(a) inspecting such works and facilities; and
(b) reporting to the Minister in relation to—
(i) the operation and condition of such works and facilities (including any plant, equipment or other thing at such works and facilities); and
(ii) any other matter arising from the inspection.
(8) Any persons designated by the Minister for the purpose of an inspection under subsection (7) may, for the purposes of carrying out the inspection, require an employee or agent of the Company to—
(a) open or facilitate access to any place or thing at the relevant Company works or facilities; or
(b) operate any plant, equipment or thing at the relevant Company works or facilities; or
(c) answer any questions.
(9) If the Company, or an employee or agent of the Company, refuses or fails to comply with a provision of, or requirement under, this section, the Company is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: $1 000 000.
(10) A person must not make a statement that is false or misleading in a material particular (whether by reason of the inclusion or omission of any particular) in any document, information or answer given under this section.
Maximum penalty: $1 000 000 or imprisonment for 2 years.
(11) If a person is required to provide documents or information, or to answer a question, under this section and the documents, information or answer would tend to incriminate the person of an offence, the person must nevertheless provide the documents, information or answer but, if the person is a natural person, the documents, information or answer so provided will not be admissible in evidence against the person in proceedings for an offence (other than an offence relating to the making of a false or misleading statement).
(12) Information obtained under this section is not liable to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 1991.
(13) In this section—
relevant Company works or facilities has the same meaning as in section 14.
4—Validation of Indenture and 2000 Deed of Amendment
(1) The Indenture set out in Schedule 1 and the provisions of the 2000 Deed of Amendment that amend or relate to that Indenture are ratified and approved and shall notwithstanding any other Act or law be carried out and take effect as though they had been expressly enacted in this Act.
(2) Notwithstanding any other Act or law and without in any way limiting the generality of the effect of subsection (1) of this section—
(a) the Minister of Works; and
(b) the Electricity Trust of South Australia; and
(c) the South Australian Housing Trust; and
(d) the Commissioner of Highways,
are hereby empowered and required to perform the functions and carry out the obligations which are under this Act or the Indenture to be performed or carried out by such body.
5—Performance of Indenture
The Governor and Ministers for the time being in office shall take all necessary measures to ensure the full performance of the duties and obligations imposed on the State by the Indenture.
6—Variation of Indenture
(1) The parties to the Indenture may by agreement in writing vary the terms of the Indenture so far as may be necessary for the purpose of more effectively carrying out the intention of this Act and of the Indenture but for no other purpose.
(2) The Minister of Works shall cause a copy of every such agreement to be laid before each House of Parliament.
(3) Every such agreement—
(a) shall come into operation on the day after the day on which it has lain before both Houses of Parliament for seven sitting days or such later day as is specified in the agreement; and
(b) upon coming into operation shall have effect as if the terms thereof had been enacted in an Act of Parliament.
6A—Assignment in contravention of Indenture void and of no effect
(1) An assignment or purported assignment by the Company of a right, power, benefit, privilege or lease contemplated by clause 18 of the Indenture under the Broken Hill Proprietary Company's Indenture Act 1937, or by clause 31 of the Indenture, will, by force of this section, be taken to be—
(a) void and of no force or effect; and
(b) always to have been void, and never to have had force or effect,
if the assignment or purported assignment was made without the consent of the State granted before the assignment or purported assignment.
(2) To avoid doubt, subsection (1) applies in relation to any further assignment or purported assignment of the right, power, privilege or lease under clause 31 of the Indenture.
(3) However, subsection (1) does not apply to an assignment of a right, power, benefit, privilege or lease, or a class of assignments, prescribed by the regulations.
(4) This section applies to an assignment or purported assignment made before or after the commencement of this section.
(5) Section 8(1)(b) does not apply to any dispute or difference between the State and the Company arising out of or in connection with the operation of this section.
6B—No compensation etc payable in respect of operation of certain provisions of Act
Despite a provision of this or any other Act or law, no compensation or other payment is payable to OneSteel Manufacturing Pty Ltd (ACN 004 651 325), Whyalla Ports Pty Ltd (ACN 153 225 364), or any other person or body, in respect of the operation of section 6A or Schedule 4.
7—Liability for certain pollution
(1) The repeal of the section substituted by this section does not affect the exemption afforded to BHP or to any subsidiary of BHP by the repealed section in respect of pollution occurring before the prescribed day (and, to remove any doubt, section 16 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1915 applies in relation to that repeal).
(2) Despite any Act or law to the contrary, no assignee under the Indenture has any liability for pollution that occurred before the prescribed day and that falls within the exemption afforded to BHP or a subsidiary by the repealed section.
7B—Special provisions relating to certain land (clause 26A of the Indenture)
(1) The Registrar-General must—
(a) on application by the Minister and on being furnished with such documents as the Registrar-General may require, register the Minister, or some other agency or instrumentality of the Crown nominated by the Minister, as the proprietor of an estate in fee simple of land vested in the State by virtue of clause 26A(8) of the Indenture; and
(b) on application by the Company, note the statutory easement arising under clause 26A(10) of the Indenture on each certificate of title affected by the easement.
(2) An application under subsection (1)(b)—
(a) need not include a plan of the easement; but
(b) must include a schedule of all certificates of title affected by the easement.
(3) The owner of land affected by the statutory easement arising under clause 26A(10) may, by agreement with the Company, execute an instrument—
(a) conferring an easement that operates to the exclusion of the statutory easement so far as it affects that land; or
(b) discharging the land from the statutory easement,
and, on registration of the instrument by the Registrar-General, the instrument has effect according to its terms.
8—Legal proceedings
(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other Act or law the State of South Australia may—
(a) sue and be sued and be a party to any legal proceedings to enforce any of the provisions of or obligations created by this Act or the Indenture or any agreed variation thereof, or in any way arising out of this Act or the Indenture o