EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 185
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR DEFENCE
DEFENCE FORCE RETIREMENT AND DEATH BENEFITS (ANNUAL RATES OF PAY) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Section 3 of the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Act 1973 provides for a member’s “annual rate of pay” (the basis for calculating contributions and entitlements under the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme) to be prescribed.
The Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits (Annual Rates of Pay) Regulations (“the Annual Rates of Pay Regulations”), made under the Act, prescribe the annual rate of pay of a member of the Defence Force, for the purposes of the Act. Sub-regulation 4(3) of the Annual Rates of Pay Regulations provides for the annual rate of pay to be a member’s salary plus certain allowances specified in those Regulations.
In respect of trainees, sub-regulation 4(3) was expressed to be subject to the following provisions:
a. sub-regulation 4(3A), which provided for the inclusion, in determining a trainee’s annual rate of pay, of an allowance known as Married Trainee’s Allowance; and
b. sub-regulation 4(6), which prescribed the annual rates of pay for trainees by reference to their salary rates (in turn prescribed in Schedule 9 to the Defence Force (Salaries) Regulations) but with adjustments so that some first-year trainees paid contributions based on the second-year salary rate and some second-year trainees paid contributions based on the third-year salary rate.
The Statutory Rule amends the Annual Rates of Pay Regulations to prescribe actual salary as the basis for the annual rate of pay applicable to trainees instead of salary as adjusted by sub-regulations 4 (3A) and 4(6).
Paragraph (a) of the Statutory Rule makes a consequential amendment to sub-regulation 4(3) by removing the references to sub-regulations 4(3A) and 4(6) (which are omitted by paragraphs (b) and (c)).
Paragraph (b) of the Statutory Rule omits sub-regulation 4(3A) which provided for a “Married Trainee’s Allowance” to be included in a trainee’s annual rate of pay. This is a consequential amendment as “Married Trainee’s Allowance” has been abolished.
Paragraph (c) of the Statutory Rule omits sub-regulation 4(6) so that the adjustments formerly operating in relation to the salaries of some first-year and second-year trainees no longer apply. The result is to prescribe actual salary as the basic annual rate of pay for trainees. Paragraph (c) also omits sub-regulation 4 (6A), a provision rendered functionless by the repeal of the regulations to which it refers.