Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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REMUNERATION TRIBUNAL (MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS) AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2009 (NO. 1) (SLI NO 339 OF 2009)

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2009 No. 339

 

 

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations

 

Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973

 

Remuneration Tribunal (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Regulations 2009 (No. 1)

 

 

The Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 (the Act) establishes the Remuneration Tribunal (the Tribunal) as an independent statutory authority responsible for reporting on and determining the remuneration, allowances and entitlements of key Commonwealth Government office holders. These include members of the Parliament, Judges of Federal Courts, most full-time and part-time holders of ‘public offices’ and principal executive offices.

 

Section 13 of 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.

 

The Regulations remove the appointment of a person under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (the Offshore Petroleum Act) to conduct a Commission of inquiry into matters relating to a significant offshore petroleum incident or a significant offshore greenhouse gas incident from the jurisdiction of the Remuneration Tribunal, with the effect that the Tribunal does not determine the commissioner’s remuneration.

 

Subsection 3(4) of the Act defines ‘public office’, an expression that would ordinarily include a commissioner. Subsection 3(4) also lists a number of offices or appointments which are not to be treated as ‘public offices’. In particular, paragraph 3(4)(v) of the Act provides in part that a reference to a ‘public office’ does not include an office or appointment which has been prescribed for the purposes of the paragraph – thereby removing designated appointments from the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.

 

Regulation 5 of the Remuneration Tribunal (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1976 (the Principal Regulations) prescribes offices and appointments for the purposes of paragraph 3(4)(v) of the Act. Amendments have previously been made to the Principal Regulations to exclude Royal Commissioners appointed by Letters Patent and other office holders with powers analogous to those of a Royal Commissioner, such as the person appointed as the commissioner inquiring into the equine influenza, from the Tribunal’s jurisdiction. As a person appointed to conduct a Commission of inquiry under the Offshore Petroleum Act will have the powers of a royal commissioner this appointment is also excluded from the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

 

The Regulations also delete references to appointments that are no longer active.

 

The Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments

Act 2003.

 

The Regulations commence on the day after they are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

 

The Regulations have no compliance cost to business or impact on business and individuals or the economy.

 

The Remuneration Tribunal Secretariat and the Attorney General’s Department were consulted on the making of the Regulations.

 

 


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