EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO 168
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE
SUPERANNUATION ACT 1976
SUPERANNUATION (CONTINUING CONTRIBUTIONS FOR BENEFITS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT).
The Superannuation Act 1976 (the Act) makes provision for and in relation to an occupational superannuation scheme for persons employed by the Commonwealth and for certain other persons. Persons eligible to contribute under the Act are referred to in the Act as “eligible employees”.
Section 168 of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters which the Act requires or permits to be prescribed or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Subsection 3(1) of the Act defines the term “eligible employee”. In accordance with paragraph (ea) of the definition, the term includes a person to whom section 14A applies. Subsection 14A(1) of the Act provides that section 14A applies to persons specified in paragraphs 14A(1)(a) to (e) other than those included in a class of persons specified in the regulations as a class of persons to whom the section does not apply. In accordance with paragraph 14A(1)(e), a person to whom the section applies includes a person included in a class of persons specified in the regulations as a class of persons to which the section applies.
Subsection 14A(3) of the Act provides that the regulations may make provision for modifying the Act, or a provision of the Act specified in the regulations, in the application of the Act or that provision to and in relation to a person to whom section 14A applies, or has applied, or to and in relation to a prescribed class of persons to whom the section applies or has applied. Regulations for the purposes of section 14A are contained in the Superannuation (Continuing Contributions for Benefits) Regulations (the Principal Regulations).
The Australian Industry Development Corporation (AIDC) is an approved authority for the purposes of the Act and certain of its employees are therefore eligible employees for the purposes of the Act. Amendments made to the Australian Industry Development Corporation Act 1970 by the Australian Industry Development Corporation Amendment Act 1988 provide for the re-organisation of the business
of AIDC. In accordance with those provisions, AIDC has established a subsidiary company, AIDC Ltd. to which the bulk of AIDC’s existing staff are to be transferred.
It is intended that those transferees who are eligible employees immediately before the transfer to AIDC Ltd. should be eligible to remain eligible employees. No other members of the staff of AIDC Ltd. are to be permitted to remain or become eligible employees. To achieve this it is intended that those transferees who are to remain eligible employees be specified as a class of persons to which section 14A of the Act applies.
The amending Regulations, which are described in detail in the Attachment, achieve this intention. The amendments operate on and from the date of their gazettal.
ATTACHMENT
SUPERANNUATION (CONTINUING CONTRIBUTIONS FOR BENEFITS) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Regulation 1
This provides that the term “Principal Regulations” means the Superannuation (Continuing Contributions for Benefits) Regulations.
Regulation 2
This provides for the insertion of a new provision - regulation 3A - in the Principal Regulations which describes the classes of persons to which section 14A of the Superannuation Act 1976 (the Act) applies.
Regulation 3A provides that a class of persons each of whom:
(a) is employed by AIDC Ltd., and
(b) is not a person to whom the mobility provisions contained in Part IV of the Public Service Act 1922 applies, and
(c) immediately before becoming employed by AIDC Ltd. was:
(i) an officer or employee of the Australian Industry Development Corporation; and
(ii) an eligible employee for the purposes of the Act; and
(d) has not at any time ceased to be employed by AIDC Ltd.; and
(e) while employed by AIDC Ltd. has not been a member of a superannuation scheme, other than the scheme constituted under the Act, applying to employees of AIDC Ltd.
is a class of persons to which section 14A of the Act applies. Persons included in such a class of persons are required to contribute under the Act.
Regulation 3
This amends regulation 5 of the Principal Regulations which provides, in accordance with subsection 14A(3) of the Act, that the modifications to the provisions of the Act specified in the Schedule to the Principal Regulations are to apply to the persons specified in regulation 5. Regulation 3 amends regulation 5 of the Principal Regulations to extend the application of that regulation to persons referred to in paragraph 14A(1)(e) of the Act, that is, persons included in a prescribed class of persons to which the section applies.
Regulation 4
This amends the Schedule to the Principal Regulations which sets out the modifications to the provisions of the Act that are to apply to persons specified in regulation 5 of the Principal Regulations. Clause 2 of the Schedule inserts section 159A in the Act. Section 159A provides that a prescribed authority shall make payments to the Commonwealth in respect of relevant persons at such rates as the Minister determines, having regard to the amounts that have become, or are likely to become, payable out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund to or in respect of those persons. A prescribed authority is defined, in subsection 159A(1), as a Commonwealth authority that is not an approved authority. A relevant person in relation to a prescribed authority is defined, in subsection 159A(1), as an eligible employee who is a person to whom Part IV of the Public Service Act 1922 applies and who is employed by the prescribed authority or is the holder of a Commonwealth office the holding of which is to be treated as if it were employment by the prescribed authority. Regulation 4 amends subsection 159A(1) by substituting the definitions of “prescribed authority” and “relevant person” in that subsection. The new definition of “prescribed authority” will provide that AIDC Ltd. is a prescribed authority as well as those bodies already covered by the existing definition. The new definition of “relevant person” will ensure that a person included in a class of persons referred to in paragraph 14A(1)(e) is included in that definition as well as persons already covered by the existing definition.