EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO 107
Industrial Relations Regulations
(Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Industrial Relations)
Section 359 of the Industrial Relations Act 1988 (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 Industrial Relations Regulations (Statutory Rules 1989 No 12) (the Regulations) were made under the Act on 6 February 1989 and took effect upon the commencement of the Act on 1 March 1989.
Amendments have been made to:
- take account of changes to the names of certain prescribed bodies;
- improve the operation of certain provisions of the Regulations;
Accordingly, the following regulations to amend the Regulations have been made.
Regulation 1 provides for the commencement of amendments to reflect changes in the names of certain authorities which will result, or have resulted, from legislation converting those authorities into public companies.
Regulation 2 defines the Principal Regulations as being the Industrial Relations Regulations.
Regulation 3 inserts a new subregulation to enable the Australian International Flight Engineers’ Association (AIFEA) to represent members of that association who are parties to proceedings before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. AIFEA is not registered under the Act and is therefore currently unable to represent its members before the Commission.
Prior to the commencement of the Act and the consequential repeal of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904, AIFEA was a declared body under section 88Z of that Act. This enabled AIFEA to be a party to proceedings before the Flight Crew Officers Industrial Tribunal established by section 88J of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and therefore to represent its members before that Tribunal despite the fact
that it was not a registered organisation. On repeal of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act the Flight Crew Officers Industrial Tribunal was abolished. The award covering members of the AIFEA has, however, continued by force of Section 7 of the Industrial Relations (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988.
It is desirable that members of AIFEA have representation before the newly established Australian Industrial Relations Commission until its members are otherwise represented. The Association is currently considering measures to enable its members to be represented by a registered organisation but, in the interim, the new subregulation will enable AIFEA to represent its members before the Commission.
Regulation 4 amends regulation 27 to reflect the change in name of the Australian Shipping Commission to “ANL Limited” effected by legislation converting the Australian Shipping Commission to a public company.
Regulation 5 amends regulation 33 by deleting the requirement that a statutory declaration lodged under subregulation 33(1) be signed by two or more officers of the association concerned, and substituting a requirement that such a declaration be signed by an authorised officer. The proposed requirement is consistent with the normal practice that statutory declarations are signed by only one person.
Regulation 6 amends regulation 64 in the same manner that regulation 5 amends regulation 33.
Regulation 7 makes a similar amendment to regulation 77 as is made to the regulations by regulations 5 and 6.
Regulation 8 amends regulation 79 by expanding upon the matters in respect of which submissions may be made for the purposes of subsection 238(2) of the Act.
Section 238 deals with submissions which may be made during a hearing under section 237 of the Act in relation to a proposed amalgamation. Subsection 238(2) provides that submissions may be made, with the leave of a designated Presidential Member, only in relation to a prescribed matter.
Previously regulation 79 prescribed only two matters in relation to which submissions may be made. The result was that at a hearing under section 237 of the Act in relation to a proposed amalgamation submissions could be put only on those two matters.
The designated Presidential Member conducting the hearing may need to hear submissions on a number of other matters. Accordingly, the amendment prescribes additional matters, which may be relevant to the hearing, by reference to the provisions of the Act in which those matters are set out.
Regulation 9 corrects a typographical error in regulation 112.
Regulation 10 amends regulation 130 to enable an objection to made to the use of previous evidence in subsequent proceedings before a Registrar.
Previously, regulation 130 gave a Registrar a discretion to admit evidence given in previous proceedings before the Court, the Commission or a Registrar but did not provide for objections to the use of such evidence. The Senate Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances has expressed concern that such a situation could have been prejudicial to a person who was not a party to the previous proceedings and therefore did not have the opportunity to challenge the evidence in those proceedings.
The amendment gives such a person the right to object to the use of such evidence and provides that, in exercising his or her discretion to admit previous evidence and in determining the terms and conditions, if any, to which the use of such evidence is subject, a Registrar shall have regard to any such objection.
Regulation 11 amends Schedule 3 to the Regulations by deleting references to certain authorities and substituting new references which reflect the change in name of those authorities effected by legislation converting the authorities into public companies.