This Act may be cited as the Meat Export Control Amendment Act 1966, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Meat Export Control Act 1921–22 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

There is hereby established a Committee to be called the Market Development Committee.

The Committee shall consist of ten members appointed by the Minister of whom—

Every member of the Committee shall be appointed for a term of three years but may from time to time be reappointed.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Act, every member of the Committee, unless he sooner vacates his office under section 5 of this Act, shall continue to hold office until his successor comes into office.

Any member of the Committee may at any time be removed from office by the Minister for disability, bankruptcy, neglect of duty, or misconduct proved to the satisfaction of the Minister.

The office of a member of the Committee shall become vacant and the vacancy shall be deemed an extraordinary vacancy if he—

An extraordinary vacancy shall be filled in the manner in which the appointment to the vacant office was made.

The person appointed to fill an extraordinary vacancy shall hold office for the residue of the term for which the vacating member was appointed.

The powers of the Committee shall not be affected by any vacancy in the membership thereof.

Every member of the Committee may from time to time and at any time by notice in writing to the Committee appoint some fit and proper person (not being a member of the Committee) to be his deputy to act for him while he is a member of the Committee and during his absence from any meeting of the Committee, and any such deputy so appointed shall, while he acts as such, be deemed for all purposes to be a member of the Committee:

Provided that the deputy of the Chairman shall not, in the absence of the Chairman, act as Chairman of the Committee.

No appointment of a deputy and no acts done by him as such and no acts done by the Committee while any deputy is acting as such shall in any proceedings be questioned on the ground that the occasion of his appointment had not arisen or had ceased.

Meetings of the Committee shall be held at such times and places as the Committee or the Chairman from time to time determines.

At all meetings of the Committee seven members shall form a quorum.

The Chairman shall preside at all meetings of the Committee at which he is present. In the absence from any meeting of the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman, the members present shall appoint one of their number to be Chairman at that meeting.

At any meeting of the Committee the Chairman shall have a deliberative vote but, in the case of an equality of votes, shall not have a casting vote.

Subject to the provisions of this Act and of any regulations under the principal Act, the Committee may regulate its procedure in such manner as it thinks fit.

The Committee shall from time to time elect from among those of its members nominated by the Board a Chairman and a Deputy Chairman.

Any person elected as Chairman or Deputy Chairman shall, unless he sooner vacates that office, continue as Chairman or Deputy Chairman until the expiration of the current term of his appointment to the Committee and may thereafter, subject to reappointment, be re-elected.

During any vacancy in the office of Chairman, or in the absence of the Chairman from any meeting of the Committee, or in the event of the Chairman being incapacitated by illness or other cause from performing the duties of his office, the Deputy Chairman shall have and may exercise all the powers of the Chairman.

The Committee is hereby declared to be a statutory Board within the meaning of the Fees and Travelling Allowances Act 1951.

The Board shall pay to the members of the Committee remuneration by way of fees, salary, or allowances and travelling allowances and expenses in accordance with the Fees and Travelling Allowances Act 1951, and the provisions of that Act shall apply accordingly.

The principal functions of the Committee shall be—

In the exercise of its functions, the Committee, before the commencement of each lamb killing season in each year, and after having regard to the anticipated market for lamb in the United Kingdom in that year, shall—

The Committee shall from time to time, at the request of the Board or without any such request, consider whether or not adequate supplies of grades, classes, and types of lamb for export from New Zealand are being provided for any specific market or markets and make such recommendations to the Board as may be necessary to ensure adequate supplies of lamb to those markets.

Without limiting any authority specifically conferred on the Board with respect to any meat, the Board shall, subject to the provisions of this section, on receipt of any recommendation of the Committee under this Act give such directions to exporters of meat and other persons, and make such arrangements as the Board considers necessary or expedient for the purpose of giving effect to any such recommendations.

The Board may from time to time refer to the Committee for further consideration any recommendation of the Committee, and may require the Committee to make further recommendations (either initially or by way of review) by a specified date.

If the Committee fails to make any recommendation under section 10 of this Act or fails to make any recommendation within the time specified under subsection (2) of this section, the Board may give such directions and make such arrangements as it considers necessary and proper for the purpose of exercising any power or function of the Committee, and for that purpose the Board shall be deemed to have all the powers and functions of the Committee.

Any direction given by the Board under this section may be given either by service on the owner of any lamb or on any person having possession thereof or by publication in a newspaper or newspapers in accordance with such conditions as may be prescribed by regulations under the principal Act. Every such direction shall be subject to the provisions of this Act and shall have effect according to its tenor.

No direction shall be given under this section except in accordance with a recommendation of the Committee approved by the Board or unless the Committee has considered the matter in respect of which the direction is given and has failed or been unable to make a recommendation in respect of the matter.

Any directions given or arrangements made under this section may be given to or made with any person or class of persons and may be general in their application or relate only to a particular matter or class of matters.

Subject to the provisions of this section, any person who fails to comply with any direction of the Board under this Act shall, upon demand by the Board, pay to the Board a levy (in this Act referred to as the market development levy) at a rate not exceeding that from time to time determined by the Board:

Provided that the Board may, in its absolute discretion, determine not to demand payment of any such levy in any case where, in the opinion of the Board, payment of the levy is not justified in the circumstances.

Payment of the full amount of the market development levy in accordance with the terms and conditions prescribed by the Board in that behalf and notified to the person liable for the payment shall be deemed to be a full discharge of any obligation of that person pursuant to the direction of the Board in respect of which the levy was payable.

Any money paid by way of market development levy shall form part of the funds of the Board and shall be paid by the Board into a special account and used for the payment of the expenses of the Committee and for such purposes relating to the development of markets for New Zealand lamb as the Board thinks fit.

Every person liable to pay a market development levy shall, subject to his right of appeal under section 13 of this Act, upon demand in writing by the Board pay the amount of the levy forthwith in accordance with the terms of the demand.

The person liable to pay the market development levy in respect of any lamb shall be the person who owned the lamb at the time of the slaughter of the stock from which it was derived.

For the purposes of subsection (5) of this section, where any common pooling arrangement is operated on behalf of the owners of stock the meat derived from which is intended for export from New Zealand, the person operating that pooling arrangement shall be deemed to be the owner of the meat at the time of the slaughter of the stock from which it was derived.

Where the Board has demanded payment of a market development levy, the person to whom the demand is made may appeal in accordance with this section.

Notice of the appeal shall be in writing signed by the appellant and shall be delivered to the offices of the Board at Wellington within fourteen days after the receipt of the demand.

Any such appeal shall be heard and determined by a person agreed upon by the appellant and the Board. If no such person can be agreed upon within one month after the date of the notice of appeal, the appeal shall be submitted to arbitration in accordance with the Arbitration Act 1908.

Any such submission shall be to two arbitrators, one to be appointed by the appellant and the other by the Board, and an umpire appointed by the two arbitrators.

For the purposes of any such arbitration, this section shall be deemed to be a submission within the meaning of the Arbitration Act 1908, and the relevant provisions of that Act shall apply accordingly.

No appeal shall lie under this section except upon one or more of the following grounds:

On any such appeal the decision of the Board may be confirmed or reversed or the amount demanded to be paid may be reduced.

The decision of any person hearing an appeal or in an arbitration under this section shall be final and binding on the appellant and on the Board.

The Board may from time to time by writing under its seal delegate to the Committee any of its powers, functions, or duties under this Act, other than the power of delegation conferred by this section.

Any such delegation may be made subject to such conditions and restrictions as the Board thinks fit and may be made either generally or in respect of any particular matter or class of matters.

Subject to any general or special directions given or conditions attached by the Board, any powers or functions delegated under this section may be exercised or performed by the Committee with the same effect as if those powers had been directly conferred by this Act and not by delegation.

The Committee purporting to act under any delegation under this section shall be presumed to be acting in accordance with the terms of the delegation, in the absence of proof to the contrary.

Every such delegation shall be revocable at will, and no such delegation shall prevent the exercise or performance of any power or function by the Board.

Until any such delegation is revoked, it shall continue in force according to its tenor, notwithstanding any change in the membership of the Board or of the Committee.

Section 14A of the principal Act (as inserted by section 4 of the Meat Export Control Amendment Act 1956) is hereby amended by adding to subsection (2) the following paragraph:

All acts done before the commencement of this Act that would have been valid if this section had been in force when they were done are hereby validated and declared to have been lawfully done.