Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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REMUNERATION TRIBUNAL (MEMBERS' FEES AND ALLOWANCES) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1991 NO. 98

Statutory Rules 1991 No. 98

Remuneration Tribunal (Members' Fees and Allowances) Regulations (Amendment)

(Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Industrial Relations)

(Affecting Members of the Remuneration Tribunal)

Section 13 of the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all 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.

Section 12 of the Act provides that the (part-time) member of the Remuneration Tribunal (the Tribunal) shall be paid such fees and allowances as are prescribed. The Chairman of the Tribunal being a judge of the Supreme Court of NSW is not paid a fee. The fees of the other members are prescribed in the Remuneration Tribunal (Members' Fees and Allowances) Regulations (the Regulations).

The practice has been to increase the annual rate of the fee by the same percentage amount and with the same date of effect as applied by the Tribunal itself in determining new rates for part-time public-office holders under its jurisdiction.

Remuneration Tribunal Determination No 29 of 1990, made on 15 November 1990, increased fees for part-time office-holders by 11.41% from 15 November 1990. Regulation 3 amends regulation 4 of the regulations to increase the annual fee from $17,387 to $19,371 for members of the Tribunal. Regulation 1 provides that this increase should operate from 15 November 1990.

The Regulations previously provided for allowances for Tribunal members to be payable as for an officer of the Australian Public Service. The allowances actually payable to the Tribunal members are the same as those payable to officers at the level of Deputy Secretary. To avoid uncertainty, regulation 4 amends regulation 5 of the Regulations to state the specific level at which Tribunal members' allowances are payable - that of Departmental Secretary.

The retrospective application of regulation 1 will not affect the rights of a person (other than the Commonwealth) in a manner prejudicial to that person, nor does it impose any liability on such a person.