National Security (Additional Pensions and Allowances to Seamen) Regulations (Cth)

STATUTORY RULES.

1942. No. 368.

 

REGULATIONS UNDER THE NATIONAL SECURITY ACT 1939-1940.*

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL in and over the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the National Security Act 1939-1940.

Dated this twenty-fifth day of August, 1942.

Governor-General.

By His Excellency’s Command,

for and on behalf of the Minister of State for Defence.

––––––

National Security (Additional Pensions and Allowances to Seamen) Regulations.

Citation.

1. These Regulations may be cited as the National Security (Additional Pensions and Allowances to Seamen) Regulations.

Administration.

2. These Regulations shall be administered by the Minister of State for Commerce.

Interpretation.

3. For the purposes of administration and interpretation, the Seamen’s War Pensions and Allowances Act 1940 and the Regulations made thereunder shall be incorporated and read as one with these Regulations.

Definitions.

4. In these Regulations, unless the contrary intention appears—

“fishing vessel” means any ship, owned in Australia and operating from an Australian port, which is employed in or in connexion with the occupation of sea-fishing for profit; and

“the Act” means the Seamen’s War Pensions and Allowances Act 1940.

Provisional detention allowances.

5.—(1.) Where any ship is missing, or has been captured, sunk or damaged by reason of war operations during the present war, and any Australian mariner who was employed thereon immediately prior to the

 

* Notified in the Commonwealth Gazette on , 1942.

5938.—Price 5d 25/13.8.1942.

 

ship’s having been reported missing, or having been captured, sunk or damaged, as the case may be, is also missing, but the Commission has insufficient information to enable it to pay any pension or allowance under the Act in respect of the death, incapacity or detention of that Australian mariner, the Commission may presume that Australian mariner to be suffering detention and thereupon there shall be payable under these Regulations in respect of the Australian mariner such provisional detention allowance as would be payable as a detention allowance under the Act if the Australian mariner were suffering detention.

(2.) Subject to these Regulations, the provisions of the Act relating to detention allowances shall apply to any provisional detention allowance payable under these Regulations in like manner as if the provisional detention allowance were a detention allowance payable under the Act.

(3.) Unless sooner terminated by the Commission, a provisional detention allowance shall, subject to the next two succeeding sub-regulations, continue until—

(a)the Commission is satisfied that the Australian mariner is suffering detention; or

(b) the expiration of one month after the date on which the Commission becomes aware of the fact that the Australian mariner is not suffering detention or has died.

(4.) Where any provisional detention allowance has been paid to, or expended on behalf of, any person under these Regulations in respect of any Australian mariner, and, in respect of the same period, any pension or allowance becomes payable to that person under the Act in respect of that Australian mariner, the provisional detention allowance so paid or expended shall, to the extent to which it does not exceed the sum of that pension and allowance, cease to have been payable under these Regulations and shall be deemed to have been paid to that person as payment or part payment, as the case may be, of the sum of that pension and allowance.

(5.) Where an Australian mariner, in respect of whom a provisional detention allowance is granted under these Regulations, has died during the period in respect of which that provisional detention allowance has been granted, so much of the provisional detention allowance granted in respect of the period occurring after death as consists of—

(a)the reserved portion less so much thereof as has been expended as provided in sub-section (2.) of section 37 of the Act; and

(b) any portion of the available part which has not been expended,

shall revert to the Crown.

(6.) This regulation shall be deemed to have commenced on the first day of June, 1941.

Recovery of amounts due to Australian mariner in certain cases.

6. Where an Australian mariner has died or become incapacitated, otherwise than as the direct result of his having sustained a war injury, and has not suffered detention, an amount equal to the amount of the allowance that has been paid under the last preceding regulation shall be recoverable as a debt due to the Crown from any person to whom any compensation or damages have been paid in respect of the death or

 

incapacity or from any person who is liable for the payment thereof, whether directly or indirectly, and the amount so recoverable shall be a first charge on the amount of any such compensation or damages so payable.

Loss of certain appliances.

7. Where, as the result of war damage, any Australian mariner suffers, during his employment as an Australian mariner, loss of any denture, optical appliance or curative apparatus, the Commonwealth may, by way of replacement, supply to him a denture, optical appliance or curative apparatus, as the case may be.

Funeral costs.

8.—(1.) Where the funeral of an Australian mariner, whose death is directly attributable to war injury or to detention, is carried out privately, the Commonwealth may make a grant in respect of the cost of the funeral.

(2.) A grant under this regulation shall be of an amount equal to the cost of the funeral or the sum of Fifteen pounds, whichever is the less.

(3.) A grant under this regulation shall not be made in respect of the cost of a funeral if the Minister is satisfied that a payment out of public funds has been or will be made in respect of the cost of that funeral.

(4.) Except where the Minister in any special case otherwise directs, a grant under this regulation in respect of the cost of a funeral shall not be made unless an application for that grant is lodged with the Superintendent within three months after the date of the death of the Australian mariner.

Additional pensions and allowances.

9.—(1.) The Commission may grant such additional pensions and allowances to any person as are equal to the difference between the pensions and allowances (if any) payable under the Act and the pensions and allowances which would be payable under the Act if the Act were amended—

(a)by including in the definition of Australian mariner in section 3 the following persons:—

(i) any master, officer, seaman or apprentice employed in sea-going service on any ship, owned in Australia and operating from an Australian port, which is a hospital ship, troop transport, tug, cable ship, salvage ship, dredge, fishing vessel or fisheries investigation vessel;

(ii) any member or employee of the Commonwealth Salvage Board engaged in sea-going service under the direction of that Board; and

(iii) any master, officer, seaman or apprentice employed in sea-going service on any ship registered in the dominion of New Zealand, who the Minister is satisfied was engaged in Australia and is not entitled to compensation under any law of any part of the King’s dominions, other than Australia, providing for the payment of pensions and other payments to seamen who suffer death, disablement, detention or loss as a result of the present war;

 

(b) by omitting from paragraph (b)of sub-section (1.) of section 18 the words “all dependants, including children,” and inserting in their stead the words “such dependants”;

(c) by omitting from paragraph (e) of sub-section (1.) of section 18 the words “all dependants, including children,” and inserting in their stead the words “such dependants”;

(d) by omitting from paragraph (f) of sub-section (1.) of section 18 the words “(subject, in any case to which either paragraph (b) or (c) applies, to the maximum aggregate specified in that paragraph)”;

(e) by omitting from the proviso to section 19 the words “rate specified in the First Schedule” and inserting in their stead the words “maximum rate payable”;

(f) by omitting from the proviso to paragraph (a) of section 24 the word “and” and inserting in its stead the word “or”;

(g) by adding to section 42 the following proviso:—

“Provided that, in the case of an allowance to the wife, separated wife or de facto wife, of an Australian mariner whose rate of pay was less than Four pounds four shillings per fortnight, who has in her charge a child of the Australian mariner or whose circumstances are such as, in the opinion of the Commission, to justify an increase beyond the limit prescribed by this section, the Commission may, for such period as it thinks fit, increase the allowance to the wife, separated wife or de facto wife, but the aggregate of such increase and of the available part of the detention allowance shall not exceed Four pounds four shillings per fortnight.”;

(h)by omitting from column 3 of the First Schedule the word “including” and inserting in its stead the words “other than”;

(i)by omitting from column 3 of the First Schedule the figures “2 0 0”, “2 3 0”, “2 9 0”, “2 12 3”, “2 13 9”, “2 16 0”, “2 17 3”, “2 19 6”, “3 10 0” and “3 17 6” respectively and inserting in their stead the figures “4 4 0”; and

(j)by increasing each amount in columns 1 and 2 of the Seventh Schedule by one-third of that amount.

(2.) Subject to these Regulations, the provisions of the Act relating to pensions and allowances shall apply to all additional pensions and allowances payable under this regulation in like manner as if the additional pension or additional allowance were a pension or allowance, as the case may be, payable under that Act.

(3.) Insofar as additional pensions and allowances would become payable if the Act were amended as provided in paragraph (a) of sub-regulation (1.) of this regulation, this regulation shall be deemed to have been commenced on the date of the commencement of the Act.

(4.) Insofar as the maximum amount of compensation payable under the Seventh Schedule to the Act is increased as provided in paragraph (j) of sub-regulation (1.) of this regulation, this regulation shall be deemed to have commenced on the first day of January, 1942.

 

Deductions of amounts due to Crown.

10. Subject to sub-regulation (3.) of regulation 5 of these Regulations, where the Commission is satisfied that any sum is due to the Crown, a Minister, or a Department, from a person to or in respect of whom any pension, allowance or gratuity has been awarded under the Act or from a person to whom a detention allowance or any part thereof may be paid, or that any overpayment has been made to or in respect of any such person by the Crown, a Minister or Department, the Commission may deduct from the pension, allowance, gratuity, detention allowance or part of a detention allowance, as the case may be, such amount and at such times as it may think fit in respect of that sum or overpayment, and may apply the sum so deducted in or towards paying or repaying that sum or overpayment.

 

By Authority: L. F. Johnston, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra.