EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 No. 112
Public Service Act 1922
PUBLIC SERVICE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued with the authority of the Public Service Board
Sub-section 97(1) of the Public Service Act 1922 provides that the Public Service Board may, with the approval of the Governor-General, make regulations prescribing all matters which are required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed, for carrying out or giving effect to that Act.
Section 5 of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975 establishes the Bureau and the office of Australian Statistician. Section 7 provides for the Statistician’s appointment by the Governor-General. Section 16 provides that, apart from the Public Service Act staff of the Bureau, the Statistician may engage, in accordance with regulations under the Census and Statistics Act 1905, persons to assist in carrying out his functions.
Regulation 6 of the Census Regulations provides for the appointment of officers, including Census Field Officers, for the purpose of the taking and collection of the Census.
Part IV of the Public Service Act provides a means by which officers of the Australian Public Service may engage in other public employment whilst retaining certain leave entitlements and rights to return to the Service.
Section 87 of the Public Service Act sets out various forms of eligible public employment for the purposes of Part IV of that Act. In particular it provides that employment by a Commonwealth authority, that is, by a body established for a public purpose by a law of the Commonwealth, constitutes eligible public employment. In addition, paragraph 87(2)(m) provides that a reference to employment by a Commonwealth authority shall be read as including a reference to employment as the holder of an appointment, in the service of the Commonwealth, being an appointment prescribed for the purposes of that paragraph.
Regulation 172 of the Public Service Regulations provides that the appointments specified in Schedule 4 of the Regulations are prescribed for the purposes of paragraph 87(2)(m) of the Public Service Act.
These statutory rules amend Schedule 4 by prescribing an appointment as a Census Field Officer under the Census Regulations as employment by a Commonwealth authority for the purposes of paragraph 87(2)(m) of the Public Service Act. The effect of the amendment will be to ensure that officers of the Service engaged as Census Field Officers for a period will be covered by Part IV of the Public Service Act and will thus retain
certain leave entitlements and the right to return to the Service in accordance with the provisions of Part IV of the Act. It is considered necessary to prescribe engagements made by the Australian Statistician because the Statistician, whilst appointed by the Governor-General under the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act, does not constitute a Commonwealth authority for the purposes of the definition of eligible public employment in that he is not a body established (as distinct from appointed) under a law of the Commonwealth.