EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 288

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Finance

SUPERANNUATION ACT 1976 - SUPERANNUATION (RETIRING AGE) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)

Section 168 of the Superannuation Act 1976 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters which the Act requires or permits to be prescribed or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

Sub-section 3(1) of the Act defines ‘minimum retiring age’ as 60 years or such lesser age as, under regulations made under the Act, is the minimum retiring age applicable to a person or class of persons.

A contributor with more than one year’s contributory service who retires voluntarily on or after attaining age 60, is entitled to be paid an age retirement benefit in accordance with Division 1 and, if appropriate, Division 3 of Part V of the Act. A contributor whose terms and conditions of employment provide for voluntary retirement after attaining an age less than 60 is upon such voluntary retirement entitled to be paid an early retirement pension in accordance with Division 2, and if appropriate Division 3, of Part V, provided that lesser age has been prescribed in the Superannuation (Retiring Age) Regulations as the minimum retiring age in respect of the class of persons within which the contributor falls.

Regulation 5 of the Superannuation (Retiring Age) Regulations already specifies age 55 as the “minimum retiring age” for the purposes of the Superannuation Act 1976 in relation to certain persons and classes of persons.

The Regulation prescribes a “minimum retiring age” of 55 to 59 for locally engaged staff of the Australian High Commission in the United Kingdom, whose terms and conditions of employment provide for early retirement at the High Commissioner’s discretion on or after attaining age 55 and before attaining age 60. This enables payment of early retirement superannuation pensions to locally engaged staff of the High Commission on voluntary retirement at ages 55 to 59.

The Regulation operates from the date of gazettal.