EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1988 NO 28
Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees)
Regulations (Amendment)
(Issued by the authority of the Minister for Industrial Relations)
Paragraph 5(1)(b) of the Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1973 (the Act) extends the Act’s application to, amongst others, such persons employed by a prescribed authority as are prescribed. “Prescribed authority” is defined in section 3 of the Act as including a body corporate declared by the regulations to be a body corporate in relation to which the Act applies.
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 (the Regulations) provides that a body specified in Schedule 1 to the Regulations is a body corporate for the purposes of the definition of prescribed authorities in relation to the Act.
Regulation 6 of the Regulations provides that a prescribed person for the purposes of Paragraph 5(1)(b) of the Act, is amongst others, “a person who constitutes, or is a member of, or a person employed by, a body corporate or an unincorporated body referred to in regulation 4”.
The Regulations have been amended to prescribe, for maternity leave purposes, the Canberra Institute of the Arts which has been established as a body corporate by an Ordinance of the Australian Capital Territory. A person who is employed by the Institute will therefore be eligible for maternity leave coverage in accordance with paragraph 5(1)(b) of the Act.
The staff of the Canberra Institute of the Arts will include people who were previously employed in the Canberra School of Art and the Canberra School of Music, and who were previously covered by the provisions of the Act.