EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

STATUTORY RULES 1988 NO 149

ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE

SUPERANNUATION ACT 1976

SUPERANNUATION (ELIGIBLE EMPLOYEES) 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 that the Act requires or permits to be prescribed, or that are necessary or convenient to be prescribed, for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

The Act provides a contributory superannuation scheme for Commonwealth employees. Persons eligible to contribute under the Act are referred to in the Act as “eligible employees”.

Subsection 3(1) of the Act defines the term “eligible employee”. In accordance with paragraph (j) of the definition, the term does not include a person included in a prescribed class of persons. Thus, certain classes of persons may be excluded by regulation from becoming, or remaining, contributors. The classes of persons so excluded are prescribed in the Superannuation (Eligible Employees) Regulations (the Principal Regulations).

Certain persons employed in a temporary capacity by the Department of Administrative Services under section 82AC of the Public Service Act 1922 are to be appointed as officers for the purposes of the Public Service Act 1922 pursuant to section 42 or 42A of that Act on 1 July 1988. Some of the persons concerned are not eligible employees for the purposes of the Act and it is intended that they have the option of becoming eligible employees at, or at any time after, the date of appointment.

Under the Act, permanent employees, including officers for the purposes of the Public Service Act 1922, are required to become eligible employees for the purposes of the Act. Thus, the appointees concerned will be required to become eligible employees unless excluded from doing so by the Regulations. Amendment of the Regulations is therefore necessary to exclude the appointees from becoming eligible employees unless they elect to do so.

The Statutory Rule amends the Principal Regulations accordingly.

Regulation 1 provides that the amendments operate on and from 1 July 1988.

Regulation 2 inserts in the Principal Regulations a new paragraph (ze) which provides that certain persons employed in a temporary capacity under section 82AC of the Public Service Act 1922 who are appointed as officers for the purposes of that Act on 1 July 1988 pursuant to section 42 or 42A of that Act and who have not requested that they be treated as eligible employees are a prescribed class of persons for the purposes of the definition of “eligible employee” in subsection 3(1) of the Act.