EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1989 No. 179
Public Service Regulations (Amendment)
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Industrial Relations for and on behalf of the Prime Minister
Subsection 97(1) 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.
Regulation 171A of the Public Service Regulations provides that the office of a member of the Joint Coal Board is prescribed for the purposes of paragraph (c) of the definition of “public office” in subsection 87(1) of the Act. The prescription of this office by Regulation means that the office is brought within Part IV of the Act. Part IV of the Act covers what is known as the Mobility Provisions whereby an officer who takes up employment in a statutory body which is outside the Act has his or her Public Service rights protected.
One consequence of prescription by regulation is that the office holder enjoys what is known as First Tier coverage for the duration of his or her appointment in that “public office”. First Tier coverage means that the officer is unattached from his or her Public Service position but has the right to return to his or her department as an unattached officer at the same substantive level applicable when that person left to take up the public office. An officer on First Tier also has the right to apply for and be promoted within the Public Service without necessarily vacating the public office. In short, while on First Tier in a public office the office holder’s substantive status and promotional rights within the Public Service are protected.
Regulation 171B of the Public Service Regulations prescribes the appointment of a public servant to the Australian Security Intelligence Service (ASIS) as an appointment to a public office on First Tier coverage.
The attached Public Service Regulations (Amendment) prescribe two new public offices. These are:
• Office of Director of the Australian Institute of Sport established under section 30 of the Australian Sports Commission Act 1989.
• Office of Executive Director of the Australian Sports Commission established under section 28 of the Australian
Sports Commission Act 1989.
The attached Public Service Regulations (Amendment) create a new Schedule 3C which specifies the two new public offices and the current listings for membership of the Joint Coal Board and appointment to ASIS. The creation of the new Schedule 3C obviates the need for the duplication of Public Service Regulations 171A (Joint Coal Board) and 171B (ASIS). Consequently, both Regulations 171A and 171B are repealed and replaced with a single Regulation 171A which prescribes the two new public offices in the Australian Sports Commission and lists the existing public offices for the Joint Coal Board and ASIS.