Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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NATIONAL HEALTH REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1994 NO. 2

STATUTORY RULES 1994 No. 2

Issued by-authority of the Minister for Health

National Health Act 1953

National Health Regulations (Amendment)

Section 140 of the National-Health Act 1953 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act.

The definition of a restricted membership organization is contained in subsection 4(1) of the Act, the relevant part of which follows:

"... an organisation the rules of which restrict eligibility for membership by reference to:

(a)       employment or former employment in a profession, trade, industry or calling;

(b)       employment or former employment by a particular employer or by an employer included in a particular class of employers;

(c)       membership or former membership of a particular profession, professional association or union;

(d)       membership or former membership of the Defence Force or of a part of the Defence Force; or

(e)       any other prescribed matter;"

BACKGROUND

The purpose of the proposed regulations was to ensure that members of the APPM Council Health Benefits Ltd (Tasmania) (the APPM health fund) who, as at 27 January 1994, were employed by or had been employed in the past by North Broken Hill Peko Limited (NBHP) could remain members of the fund, by prescribing those members under paragraph (e) of the definition of "restricted membership organisation,' in the Act.

The APPM health fund is a "restricted" health fund under paragraph 4(1)(b) of the definition of "restricted membership organization" in the Act. Its membership is restricted to people employed by, or formerly employed by, a particular employer.

Until recently, the APPM health fund was conducted for employees 6f NBHP, which was involved in the activities of forestry, woodchipping and papermaking. However, a portion of the business was recently sold by NBHP to another company, Amcor Limited (Amcor).

As a result of the sale the current membership of the APPM health fund fell outside of the definition of a "restricted membership organization" because membership of the APPM health fund was no longer restricted to the one employer. This development had the potential to disadvantage many members.

Proposed subregulation 2.1 omits current regulation 3 and substitutes a new regulation 3 which contains two prescribed matters in its paragraphs (a) and (b) for the purposes of paragraph 4(1)(e) of the Act.

Paragraph (a) of proposed Regulation 3 repeats the current Regulation 3 which provides that relationship as a dependant of a person who was a contributor to a health benefits fund conducted by a restricted membership organization is a prescribed matter.

Paragraph (b) of proposed Regulation 3 provides that present or past employment of NBHP or present employment in AMCOR is a prescribed matter for the purposes of becoming a contributor to a health benefits fund conducted by the organization, currently named the APPM health fund.

The Regulations commenced on Gazettal.