EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1987 NO 326
Maternity Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Regulations (Amendment)
(Issued by the authority of the Minister for Industrial Relations)
Section 5 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”. “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.
The Regulations have been amended to prescribe, for maternity leave purposes, the A.C.T. Institute of Technical and Further Education which is being established as a body corporate by an Ordinance of the Australian Capital Territory. The Institute will therefore be eligible for maternity leave coverage in accordance with paragraph 5(1)(b) of the Act.
The A.C.T. Institute of Technical and Further Education will include staff who are at present employed in the Canberra College, the Bruce College and the Woden College of Technical and Further Education, and who are presently covered by the provisions of the Act. In order to maintain continuity of Maternity Leave coverage for the staff of the Institute, it is necessary for this prescription to take effect from the same day as the Ordinance takes effect, which is 1 January 1988.