MILITARY SUPERANNUATION AND BENEFITS ACT 1991

MILITARY SUPERANNUATION AND BENEFITS (ELIGIBLE MEMBER)

DECLARATION 2007

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

The Military Superannuation and Benefits Act 1991 (“the Act”) makes provision in Part 8 for the payment of a retention benefit to certain members of the Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme (“the Scheme”) who have completed 15 years of continuous eligible service.

The purpose of the benefit is to induce members to serve for another five years and so get to 20 years of service.

Part 8 of the Act has technically been repealed but continues to operate due to a saving provision in item 4 of Schedule 4 Defence Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1) 2005. The saving provision has the effect that Part 8 of the Act continues to apply to those members of the Australian Defence Force who were members of the Scheme on 6 October 2005, as though it had not been repealed.

An “eligible member” is defined in section 30 of the Act to include:

• an officer who holds the rank not lower than Major or equivalent (or who was previously an enlisted member);
• an enlisted member who holds the rank of Sergeant or equivalent; or
• a member declared by the Minister to be an eligible member (paragraph (f) of the definition).

Members who do not satisfy the minimum rank requirement and are in employment categories where the normal opportunities for promotion do not exist, may be declared by the Minister to be eligible members for the purposes of the Act. These categories are sometimes called “specified categories”. They are listed in ministerial declarations such as the one to which this statement relates.

The purpose of this Declaration is to declare 5 members of the Scheme as eligible members. These members have not reached the required rank but satisfy the eligibility criteria applicable under a special grouping titled the “Inter Employment Category”. This category covers individual Defence Force members who have not reached the required rank for eligibility, but have been transferred out of their regular employment group as a result of Defence Force restructuring and would have been promoted to the required rank for retention benefit eligibility had they not been transferred.

Schedule 1 to this Declaration lists the employment categories and ranks that a member may hold in order to be part of the class to which this Declaration applies.

Schedule 2 to this Declaration adds 5 new members to the list of existing members who are eligible to receive the Retention Benefit.   The 5 members are identified in the Schedule by the words, “Commencement Date”, in the, “Date person became eligible”, column in the Schedule.

The 5 new members have been added to Schedule 2 following consultation with Air Force Headquarters.

The impacts on business and individuals or the economy of the instrument are low and the Office of Best Practice Regulation advised that no further regulatory analysis was required.

This Declaration is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 and takes effect on the day after it is registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

       Authority: Section 30 of the Military Superannuation and Benefits Act 1991