Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

[Index] [Search] [Download] [Related Items] [Help]

PUBLIC SERVICE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1992 NO. 303

STATUTORY RULES 1992 No. 303

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Industrial Relations for and on behalf of the Prime Minister

Public Service Act 1922

Public Service Regulations (Amendment)

Paragraph 97(1)(aa) 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.

Part IV of the Act provides a means by which officers of the Australian Public Service (the Service) may engage in other public employment while retaining certain entitlements and rights to return to the Service. Part IV applies to an officer who is the holder of a "Commonwealth office" which is defined in subsection 87(1) of the Act as including:

"(a) an office or appointment the holder of which is appointed by the GovernorGeneral or by a Minister under a law of the Commonwealth (including this Act) or a law of a Territory other than the Northern Territory;"

Paragraph (n) of that definition states that "Commonwealth office" does not include an office which is declared by the regulations not to be a Commonwealth office.

As part of the Government's reforms of what are collectively known as Government Business Enterprises (GBE), the office of chief executive officer and at times some second level executives of a GBE have been excluded from the jurisdiction of the Remuneration Tribunal with the effect that salary and allowances for these offices are not determined by the Remuneration Tribunal. Consistent with those reforms those offices are to be excluded from coverage under the mobility provisions contained in Part IV of the Act with the effect that a person holding one of those offices who was formerly an officer of the Service will not have the right of re-entry to the Service. This reform places the particular chief executive officers and second level executives on a comparable footing to their private sector counterparts.

The offices of Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director of the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation listed in regulation 2 have been excluded from Remuneration Tribunal coverage. In the absence of these amending regulations they fell within paragraph (a) of the definition of "Commonwealth office" in subsection 87(1) of the Act and as such received coverage under Part IV of the Act. It was necessary to prescribe the offices under Regulation 171 and include them in Schedule 3 to remove them from Part IV of the Act.

Details of the Regulations are as follows:

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

Regulation 2 of the Regulations amends Schedule 3 of the Regulations by inserting 2 new offices at items 9 and 10. They are:

•       Office of Managing Director of the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation; and

•       Office of Deputy Managing Director of the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation.

The Regulations commence on gazettal.