Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation
Amendment Act 1996
No. 29, 1996
An Act to amend the Parliamentary Contributory
Superannuation Act 1948, and for related purposes
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Contents
1 Short title.......................................................765
2 Commencement..................................................765
3 Schedule(s).....................................................766
Schedule 1—Amendment of the Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Act 1948 767
Parliamentary Contributory
Superannuation Amendment Act 1996
No. 29, 1996
An Act to amend the Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Act 1948, and for related purposes
The Parliament of Australia enacts:
[Assented to 9 July 1996]
1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Amendment Act 1996.
2 Commencement
(1) Subject to subsection (2), this Act commences on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.
(2) Schedule 1 is taken to have commenced on 2 March 1996.
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3 Schedule(s)
Subject to section 2, each Act that is specified in a Schedule to this Act is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this Act has effect according to its terms.
Schedule 1— Amendment of the Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Act 1948
1 Subsection 18(2AA)
Add at the end:
Note: The references in this subsection to the rate of parliamentary allowance for the time being payable are affected by section 22T.
2 Subsection 18(6)
Add at the end (after the table):
Note: The reference in this subsection to the rate of parliamentary allowance for the time being payable is affected by section 22T.
3 Subsection 18(9)
Add at the end:
Note: The reference in this subsection to the rate of salary, or allowance by way of salary, for the time being payable in respect of an office is affected by sections 22T and 23.
4 Subsection 18(10B)
Add at the end:
Note: The reference in this subsection to the rate of salary, or allowance by way of salary, for the time being payable in respect of an office is affected by sections 22T and 23.
5 After section 22S
Insert in Part VI:
22T Treatment of decreases in rates used to calculate retiring allowance
(1) If:
(a) after 2 March 1996, the rate of any of the following payments (the underlying payment) is decreased:
(i) parliamentary allowance payable to a member;
(ii) salary payable to a Minister of State in respect of an office;
(iii) allowance by way of salary payable to an office holder in respect of that office; and
(b) at a time after the decrease, retiring allowance is payable to a person, or would have been payable to a person if he or she
had not died, who was receiving the underlying payment at a time before the decrease;
this section applies for the purposes of calculating the rate of the retiring allowance after the decrease. The rate of the underlying payment immediately before the decrease is the preserved rate.
Note 1: For the purposes of applying paragraph (b), it does not matter if the retiring allowance was or would also have been payable to the person before the decrease.
Note 2: For the purposes of applying paragraph (b), the time when the person was receiving the underlying payment may be a time before or after 2 March 1996.
(2) In calculating the rate of the retiring allowance, the rate of the underlying payment is to be taken to remain at the preserved rate until the actual rate of the payment increases to at least the preserved rate.
(3) If the actual rate of the underlying payment is further decreased before increasing to at least the preserved rate, this section does not apply separately in relation to that further decrease.
(4) If a decrease of a payment is expressed to have effect from a particular time before the taking of the decision to decrease the payment, this section applies as if the payment had actually been decreased at that earlier time.
6 Overpayments during retrospective period
(1) An overpayment of an amount purporting to be made under the Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Act 1948 (the PCS Act) during the period that started on 2 March 1996 and ended when this Act received the Royal Assent may be recovered by the Commonwealth as a debt due to the Commonwealth.
(2) The whole or a part of the overpayment may be deducted from an amount payable under the PCS Act as amended by this Act.
(3) Subitems (1) and (2) do not, by implication, affect the recovery or setoff of other overpayments purporting to be made under the PCS Act.
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[Minister’s second reading speech made in—
House of Representatives on 30 May 1996
Senate on 20 June 1996]