EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO 221
MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT (STAFF) REGULATIONS
Issued with the authority of the Public Service Board
Section 33 of the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 (Act No 64 of 1984), assented to on 25 June 1984, (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing 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. Section 33 came into operation on 20 July 1984 as the result of a Proclamation made on 18 July 1984. (Executive Council Minute No 1984/42).
Part V of the Act makes provision for the establishment and constitution of Re-integration Assessment Committees. Officers of the Australian Public Service engaged by Ministers or office-holders upon their return to duties in the Service, will be able to apply to a Re-integration Assessment Committee which will determine an appropriate classification for the officer having regard to the office held by the officer in the Service before being employed under the Act, the duration and nature of the officer’s employment under the Act and any other relevant matter.
Sub-section 27(1) of the Act provides for a Re-integration Assessment Committee to consist of a Chairman nominated by the Board (in practice, a Promotions Appeal Committee Chairman), a person nominated by the Board and a person nominated by the organisation that is, as provided by the regulations, the appropriate organisation or, in the absence of such a nomination, nominated in such other manner as the regulations provide.
Regulation 4 provides that the appropriate organisation for the purpose of paragraph 27(1)(c) is the registered staff organisation to which the applicant is entitled to belong. Where there is more than one such organisation, the appropriate organisation will be the staff organisation with the largest membership among officers of the applicant’s classification.
Regulation 2 provides that the regulations are to come into operation on 1 September 1984. 1 September has been fixed as the day on which Parts III, IV and V of the Act come into operation.
Regulations 1 and 3 provide for the citation of the regulations and an interpretation provision.