EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1990 NO. 42
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE
MINISTER FOR DEFENCE SCIENCE AND PERSONNEL
AUSTRALIAN MILITARY REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Section 33 of the Defence Act 1903 (“the Act”) provides that the Army shall be organised as prescribed or, where there is no provision or insufficient provision made by the Act or the regulations with respect to any matter relating to the organisation of the Army, as determined by the Chief of the General Staff.
The Australian Military Regulations (“the Regulations”), made under the Act, prescribe various matters relating to the organisation and administration of the Army.
Regulations 22 to 26 of the Regulations prescribed matters relating to the establishment of 3 Divisions (Specialist Service Officer Division, Prescribed Service Officer Division and General Service Officer Division) for officers of the Army.
Regulation 22 expressly established the Divisions for the purposes of section 33 of the Act. However, section 33 of the Act has been proposed for repeal (by the Defence Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1989, which was introduced into the House of Representatives on 29 November 1989). Organisational arrangements for the Defence Force, including the Army, will in future be made under the command power vested in the chiefs of staff under subsection 9(2) of the Act. It is therefore necessary to remove the reference to section 33 in regulation 22.
Regulations 23 to 26 prescribed the composition of the three Divisions. As it is not necessary to prescribe such details of Army organisation, these regulations have been repealed.
Although detailed provisions are not required, it is still necessary to provide for the establishment of the Divisions themselves in the Regulations (ie, regulation 22) because compulsory retiring ages prescribed in regulation 124 are linked to the divisional structure.
As regulation 76 of the Regulations requires an officer’s consent for transfer from one Division to another, there is effectively a requirement for consent to a change in compulsory retirement age and therefore no risk of injustice through failing to prescribe the composition of Divisions.
The Statutory Rule amends regulation 22 of the Regulations by omitting the reference to section 33 of the Act, and repeals regulations 23 to 26.
The Statutory Rule comes into operation on the date of gazettal.