EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 107
PUBLIC SERVICE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Issued with the authority of the Public Service Board
Sub-section 97(1) of the Public Service Act 1922 (‘the Act’) 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 the Act.
Sub-section 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 provides (inter alia) that, where an Act confers a power to make regulations, the power shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as including a power to amend these regulations.
The statutory rules repeal those provisions in regulation 87 of the Public Service Regulations, which provided for the payment of a higher duties allowance to an officer who has been directed to perform temporarily the whole or part of the duties of a higher office. Accordingly, the statutory rules omit sub-regulations 87(2) to 87(12) and 87(16) to 87(23). The payment of higher duties allowances is now provided for by a Public Service Board determination made under the powers conferred in section 82D of the Act. Secondly, a consequential amendment made by the statutory rules in sub-regulation 87(14) omits a reference to a repealed provision.
Thirdly, the statutory rules amend regulation 33E of the Public Service Regulations by inserting a new provision. Regulation 33E provides for a review mechanism for certain decisions made under Public Service Board determinations. The new provision adds a further decision to which regulation 33E review mechanisms applies. This is a decision which is required to be made by an authorised officer under the determination on the payment of higher duties allowances, and relates to the classification in respect of which an officer is deemed to be performing duties where the officer is required to perform part only of the duties of a higher office.
Fourthly, the statutory rules replaced the references in regulation 33E to the Chief Officer as the decision-maker under a Board determination to a broader concept used in the determinations, by referring to “an authorised officer” as the decision-maker. A further amendment to regulation 33E adds a new provision to define the concept of “an authorised officer”.