EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1983 No 4
PUBLIC SERVICE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
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 to be prescribed for giving effect to the Act.
Paragraph 97(1)(a) enables regulations to be made for defining, in relation to the officers included in a class of officers, the seniority of those officers for the purpose of transfer or promotion within that class.
Sub-section 51A provides that the regulations may make provision for or in relation to the temporary performance of the whole or a part of the duties of an office including provision for or in relation to the selection of an officer to perform temporarily the duties of an office of a classification higher than the classification of the office occupied by him and appeals in relation to such selection.
The Acting Minister for Industry and Commerce on 12 September 1982 announced a major restructuring of the Bureau of Customs and its renaming as the Australian Customs Service. The restructuring which is the result of consultations over two years between staff, staff organisations, departmental management and the Public Service Board provides for the formation of a single career stream.
As part of the arrangments associated with the formation of a single, career stream it is desired that amendments be made to the usual provisions concerning seniority in relation to transfer or promotion and selection for the temporary performance of higher duties.
In the case of transfer or promotion seniority for existing staff will be determined by reference to a common date - the commencement of the regulations - rather than by reference to the date of the officer’s appointment to the Third or Fourth Division. In the case of selection for the temporary performance of higher duties selection will be solely on the basis of relative efficiency with no reference to seniority.
The effect of these amendments will be that selection of staff in the Australian Customs Service will be almost entirely on the basis of relative efficiency and that seniority will cease to have the limited ‘tie-breaker’ role that would otherwise apply. This is consistent with the policy of amendments to the Public Service Act that will come into effect upon proclamation of the relevant provisions of the Public Service Acts Amendment Act 1982 which will abolish the divisional structure of the Service and make relative efficiency the sole criterion for staff selection.
Details of the regulations are as follows:
Regulation 1 amends regulation 110 of the Public Service Regulations to provide a common seniority date for existing officers in the Australian Customs Service who apply for transfer or promotion in that Service;
Regulation 2 amends regulation 116 of the Public Service Regulations to provide that relative efficiency is to be the sole criterion in the selection of officers for the temporary performance of higher duties as Customs Officers and in appeals relating to such selections.