EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1985 NO. 366
MATERNITY LEAVE (COMMONWEALTH EMPLOYEES) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued with the authority of the Public Service Board
Section 5 of the Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1973 extends the Act’s application to persons “employed by a prescribed authority” and to “such other persons employed by the Commonwealth as are prescribed.”
Section 15 of the Act provides that the Governor-General “may make regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.”
Regulation 4 of the Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Regulations defines prescribed authorities as being those bodies specified in Schedules 1 and 2 to those regulations. Regulation 6 provides, amongst other things, that “a person specified in column 2 of Schedule 3 in an item in that Schedule, is a prescribed person.”
A number of references in Schedules 1 and 3 are now redundant due to the abolition of certain authorities and offices. These regulations omit redundant references from the two schedules and substitute references to new authorities and offices where these have replaced abolished authorities and offices.
The bodies omitted from Schedule 1 are the Canberra Showground Trust, the Capital Territory Health Commission and the Metric Conversion Board. The bodies inserted into Schedule 1 are the Australian Capital Territory Health Authority and the National Exhibition Centre Trust.
The persons omitted from Schedule 3 are the Director of the Industrial Relations Bureau, the Director of the Curriculum Development Centre, full-time members of the Temporary Assistance Authority, the Public Service Arbitrator, the Deputy Public Service Arbitrator, full-time members of a Repatriation Board, and full-time members of the Repatriation Review Tribunal. The persons inserted into Schedule 3 are Electoral Commissioner, Deputy Electoral Commissioner, and Australian Electoral Officer for a State.