Act Name (Title of Position) Authorisation Year

I, name of person authorising, title of person authorising, insert appropriate text—see accompanying notes.

Dated

Name of person authorising DRAFT ONLY—NOT FOR SIGNATURE

Title of person authorising

Accompanying notes for instruments of authorisation

1 Ensuring that an authorisation is appropriate

This template is to be used if an Act or instrument expressly provides a power for a person to authorise another person to hold a particular office (such as an “authorised officer”) or to perform particular functions or duties or exercise particular powers.

In addition, you should also have a copy of the document entitled “Instrument Templates—User Guide” which can also be found on OPC’s website with the template documents.

2 Choosing the name of the instrument

There are a number of elements in the name of an instrument. The name of each instrument should be unique so that it can be accurately identified. The following information should help you to name your instrument appropriately.

2.1 Act name

The Act or instrument name under which the authorisation is to be made should be inserted, excluding the reference to “Act” or the kind of the instrument, and the year of the Act or instrument.

For example, an authorisation under the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 would include the words “Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games)” in the instrument name. Similarly, an authorisation under the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Determination 2014 would begin with the words “Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games)”.

2.2 Title of position or description of functions

If the instrument is to authorise a person to hold a particular office, the name of the instrument should include a reference to the title of the office. For example, an authorisation of “authorised officers” under the Biosecurity Act 2015 would be called the Biosecurity (Authorised Officer) Authorisation 2016.

If the instrument is to authorise a person to perform particular functions or duties, or exercise particular powers, and it is possible to briefly describe those functions, duties or powers, the instrument should include that description.

2.3 Authorisation

The name of the instrument should refer to “Authorisation” in the title.

2.4 Year

Include a reference to the year in which the authorisation is to be made.

3 Inserting appropriate text

3.1 Instrument of authorisation only

The following text should be inserted if the instrument is only providing an authorisation. The appropriate information should be included where the text is highlighted in yellow and the yellow highlighting should be removed:

I, name of person authorising, title of person authorising, acting under provision providing power to authorise, authorise the following persons to content of authorisation:

(a)	title of first class of authorised persons;

(b)	title of second class of authorised persons.

The provision providing power to authorise is the provision of the Act or instrument that specifically provides a power to authorise persons to hold a particular office. The text inserted should refer both to the provision and the name of the Act or instrument (such as “section 15 of the Enabling Legislation Act 2015”).

You should check the authorisation provision in the Act or instrument and ensure that the language in the instrument inserted at content of authorisation matches exactly the language in the Act or instrument. So, for example, if the authorisation provision in an Act provides for a person to authorise a person “to be an authorised officer”, then an instrument made under that provision should use those exact words.

Generally, an authorisation is given to persons in a particular class, rather than named persons.

3.2 Instrument of revocation and authorisation

The following text should be inserted if the instrument being drafted is to both revoke a previous instrument of authorisation and provide an authorisation. The appropriate information should be included where the text is highlighted in yellow and the yellow highlighting should be removed:

I, name of person authorising, title of person authorising:

(a)	under provision under which previous authorisation is revoked, revoke the name of previous instrument of authorisation; and

(b)	under provision providing power to authorise, authorise the following persons to content of authorisation:

(i)	title of first class of authorised persons;

(ii)	title of second class of authorised persons.

The provision under which previous authorisation is revoked and provision providing power to authorise should refer to both the actual provision and the title of the Act or instrument under which the authorisation is to be revoked or made (such as “section 15 of the Enabling Legislation Act 2015”). The previous instrument of authorisation may be revoked:

under a specific provision in the same Act or instrument as the one under which the authorisation is made; or

if the Act or instrument is silent on revocation, under the same provision as the authorisation is made, as a result of subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (which deems a power to make an instrument to include a power to revoke an instrument).

You should check the authorisation provision in the Act or instrument and ensure that the language in the instrument inserted at content of authorisation matches exactly the language in the Act or instrument. So, for example, if the authorisation provision in an Act provides for a person to authorise a person “to be an authorised officer”, then an instrument made under that provision should use those exact words.

Generally, an authorisation is given to persons in a particular class, rather than named persons.

4 Name of person authorising

The name of the person making the authorisation, and his or her title, should be inserted where the text is highlighted yellow and the yellow highlighting removed. The words “DRAFT ONLY—NOT FOR SIGNATURE” should be deleted.

5 Before finalising your instrument for signing

Before finalising your instrument of authorisation for signing, you should check that you have done the following:

chosen the correct option from sections 3.1 and 3.2 above and inserted the option chosen in the appropriate position;

correctly inserted appropriate text where there is yellow highlighting;

removed all yellow highlighting;

deleted the grey highlighted text “DRAFT ONLY—NOT FOR SIGNATURE”;

deleted these accompanying notes.