Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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PUBLIC SERVICE AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 1999 (NO. 1) 1999 NO. 111

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Issued by the authority of the Prime Minister

Public Service Act 1922

Public Service Amendment Regulations 1999 (No. 1)

Subsection 97(1) of the Public Service Act 1922 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

Subsection 9(6) of the Public Service Act 1922 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may, on the recommendation of the President or the Speaker or the President and the Speaker (as the case may be), make, in relation to officers and employees of the Parliament, regulations about the same matters for which regulations may be made under subsection 97(1).

Background

In February 1998 the Governor-General made amendments to the Public Service Regulations under subsection 97(1). The amendments were known as the Public Service Regulations (Amendment -Interim Reforms). The amendments introduced a number of reforms in the Australian Public Service (APS), including a statement of APS Values, an APS Code of Conduct and APS Whistleblowing Procedures. These amendments were not applied to the parliamentary departments as the APS Values and Code of Conduct did not reflect the specific role of the parliamentary departments to serve the Parliament, rather than the Government of the day.

Purpose and Scope of Regulations

The regulations apply, to the parliamentary departments, the Public Service Regulations (Amendment -Interim Reforms) except in relation to the APS Values, APS Code of Conduct, APS Whistleblowing Procedures and State of the Service reporting. These matters have been provided for, where appropriate, in amendments to the Public Service (Parliamentary Officers) Regulations.

The changes provide parliamentary departments with greater scope to appoint Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to their staff, exclude future appointees to Commonwealth offices and bodies, who were previously employed by the parliamentary departments, from those rights previously conferred by the mobility provisions of Part IV of the Act, and remove regulations that are now obsolete, for example, because they relate to terms and conditions of employment which are now covered by awards or determinations or which are no longer used.

Details of the regulations are set out in the Attachment.

The regulations commence on the date of gazettal.

ATTACHMENT

Regulation 1 of the Regulations identifies them as the Public Service Amendment Regulations 1999 (No. 1).

Regulation 2 of the Regulations provides that the Regulations commence on gazettal.

Regulation 3 of the Regulations provides that the Public Service Regulations are amended as set out in Schedule 1.

Regulation 4 of the Regulations provides that the Public Service Regulations (Amendment Interim Reforms) (Statutory Rules 1998 No. 23) are amended as set out in Schedule 2.

Schedule 1

Item [1] of the Schedule amends regulation 1 of the Public Service Regulations. The amendment provides that the Regulations are renamed to include the year of making in the name of the Regulations, in accordance with the Office of Legislative Drafting's new design for principal instruments.

Item [2] of the Schedule amends the heading of Part 1A to reflect the amendments made by Item [3] of this schedule.

Item [3] of the Schedule inserts a new regulation 4A which ensures that Part 1A of the Public Service Regulations does not apply to the parliamentary departments.

Schedule 2

Item [1] of the Schedule omits regulation 5 of the Public Service Regulations (Amendment Interim Reforms). This regulation prevented the Public Service Regulations (Amendment Interim Reforms) regulations from applying to the parliamentary departments.