Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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MATERNITY LEAVE (COMMONWEALTH EMPLOYEES) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1991 NO. 223

Statutory Rules 1991 No. 223

Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Regulations (Amendment)

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

Section 15 of the Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1973 (the Maternity Leave Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Maternity Leave Act.

Sub-section 3(1) of the Maternity Leave Act defines "prescribed authority". Under section 5 of the Maternity Leave Act, employees of a prescribed authority may be brought by regulation within the maternity leave arrangements provided under the Maternity Leave Act.

The definition of "prescribed authority" includes:

(a)       a body corporate (other than an incorporated company, society or association) that is incorporated for a public purpose by a law of the Commonwealth or of a territory (other than the Northern Territory) and is declared by the regulations to be a body corporate in relation to which this Act applies;

(b)       an unincorporated body that is established for a public purpose by a law of the Commonwealth or of a territory (other than the Northern Territory) and is declared by the regulations to be an unincorporated body in relation to which this Act applies; or

(c)       a company that:

(i)        is incorporated under a law of the Commonwealth or a law in force in a State or Territory;

(ii)        is a trading corporation, or a financial corporation, within the meaning of section 51(xx) of the Constitution; and

(iii)       is declared by the regulations to be a body corporate in relation to which this Act applies.

The Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (Conversion into Public Company) Act 1990 (the CSL Act) was assented to on 22 October 1990. Section 13 of the CSL Act, amongst other things, converted the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission into a public company listed under the Companies Act 1981 (the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Limited) from 1 April 1991.

As a public company, Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Limited ceased to be a "prescribed authority" for the purposes of paragraph (a) of the definition of "prescribed authority" in subsection 3(1) of the Maternity Leave Act, and to which Schedule 1 to the Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Regulations (the Regulations) refers.

Schedule 2A of the Regulations provides a mechanism for declaring a company to be a body corporate for the purposes of paragraph (c) of the definition of "prescribed authority".

The amendment to the Regulations omitted "Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission" from Schedule 1 to the Regulations and included "Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Limited" in the schedule of Prescribed Authorities - Companies, with effect from 1 April 1991. As required by the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, the retrospectivity did not disadvantage any person other than the Commonwealth.