EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1988 No. 365
PUBLIC SERVICE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued by the authority of the Minister of State for Industrial Relations for and on behalf of the Prime Minister
Subsection 97(11 of the Public Service Act 1922 (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.
Subsection 50(1) of the Act provides that except in prescribed circumstances, a Secretary shall not fill a vacant office by promotion unless the vacancy has been notified in the Gazette.
Regulation 112 of the Public Service Regulations (the Regulations) prescribes various circumstances for the purposes of subsection 50(1).
The Minute recommended that the filling of certain offices within the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) in the Department of Defence be prescribed for the purposes of subsection 50(1) so that they may be filled by promotion without complying with the gazettal requirement.
The functions of the DSD place it in a unique position within the ambit of Public Service Act employment. Prior experience within the area is considered to be an essential prerequisite for promotion to the offices the subject of the proposed regulation. In addition, the selection documents themselves are security classified. Details of required language skills and analytical techniques, and in some instances the physical location of vacancies are matters which could only be released to persons who have the required level of security clearance and who have undergone a special briefing process.
Were DSD to comply with the advertising requirements in subsection 50(1) and follow the selection guidelines in relation to the preparation of selection documents for the offices in question, it would need to modify the documents to make them suitable for public disclosure. This would result in very vague duty statements and selection criteria, giving outside applicants little chance of success. For these reasons it was proposed that certain offices in the range Administrative Service Officer Class 4 to Administrative
Service Officer Class 6 in the Defence Signals Directorate be exempt from the advertising requirements outlined above.
This regulation amends Regulation 112 of the Regulations by inserting paragraph (d) which provides that the decision by the relevant Secretary to fill an office in the DSD the duties of which are those of a Defence Officer and that has the classification of Administrative Service Officer Class 4, Administrative Service Officer Class 5 or Administrative Service Officer Class 6 is a prescribed circumstance.