Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

[Index] [Search] [Download] [Related Items] [Help]

SUPERANNUATION (PSS) APPROVED AUTHORITY INCLUSION DECLARATION NO. 5 1991 NO. 423

STATUTORY RULES 1991 No. 423

ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE

SUPERANNUATION ACT 1990

DECLARATION UNDER PARAGRAPH (b) OF THE DEFINITION OF "APPROVED AUTHORITY" IN SECTION 3

The Superannuation Act 1976 makes provision for and in relation to an occupational superannuation scheme (the CSS) for certain Commonwealth employees and other persons.

The Superannuation Act 1990 (the 1990 Act) provides for a new superannuation scheme (the PSS scheme) for Commonwealth employees and certain other persons to operate from 1 July 1990. Members of the CSS were given the option of remaining members of the CSS or of transferring to the PSS scheme. The PSS scheme is the principal superannuation scheme for new Commonwealth employees.

Persons eligible to become members of the PSS scheme include persons employed by an authority or body which is an approved authority for the purposes of the 1990 Act. In accordance with section 3 of that Act, an approved authority includes an authority or body declared by the Minister for Finance to be an approved authority for the purposes of the Act, being an authority or body of a kind described in paragraph (b) of the definition.

In accordance with section 45 of the 1990 Act, a declaration for the purposes of paragraph (b) of the "approved authority" definition is to be a disallowable instrument for the purposes of section 46A of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 and a Statutory Rule for the purposes of the Statutory Rules Publication Act 1903 and may be expressed to have taken effect from and including a day not earlier than 12 months before the making of the declaration.

The Export Finance and Insurance Corporation was established under the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act 1991. It is a body corporate with power to engage employees necessary for the performance of its functions. The Corporation was established on 1 November 1991 and commenced engaging employees on that date.

The Corporation is a body of a kind described in the definition of approved authority in section 3 of the 1990 Act. It is appropriate that the Corporation be declared to be an approved authority for the purposes of that Act to enable its employees to remain or become members of the scheme established under the Act.

The retrospectivity of this Declaration is required in order that those employees of the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation employed by the Corporation from 1 November 1991, and who were PSS members immediately prior to that date, are not disadvantaged in their superannuation benefits. Such persons would otherwise be disadvantaged by being precluded from continuing their contributions to the PSS scheme and being forced to cease their membership of it.

The Declaration contained in the Statutory Rule, and cited as Superannuation (PSS) Approved Authority Inclusion Declaration No 5, declares the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation to be an approved authority for the purposes of the 1990 Act. The Declaration provides that the Corporation is taken to be an approved authority with effect from 1 November 1991, a date which falls within the maximum period of retrospectivity permitted under section 45 of the 1990 Act.