EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO 37
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE
SUBJECT: SUPERANNUATION ACT 1976
SUPERANNUATION (ELIGIBLE EMPLOYEES) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
The Superannuation Act 1976 (the Act) provides a contributory superannuation scheme for Commonwealth employees. 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.
By virtue of the definitions of “eligible employee”, “permanent employee” and “temporary employee” in subsection 3(1) of the Act, the term “eligible employee” includes officers and employees for the purposes of the Public Service Act 1922, other persons employed by the Commonwealth and persons employed by an “approved authority”. In accordance with paragraph (j) of the definition, the term does not include a person included in a prescribed class of persons. Thus, certain classes of persons may be excluded by regulation from becoming, or remaining, contributors. The classes of persons so excluded are prescribed in the Superannuation (Eligible Employees) Regulations (the Principal Regulations).
Section 3 of the Act defines “approved authority” as:
(a) an authority or other body specified in the regulations as an approved authority for the purposes of the Act, being an authority or body of a kind described in the definition; or
(b) an authority or body that was an approved authority for the purposes of the Superannuation Act 1922 immediately before 1 July 1976, the date of commencement of the Act.
Authorities or bodies that have become approved authorities since 1 July 1976 are specified in the Superannuation (Approved Authorities) Regulations.
The Australian Shipping Commission (ANL) is an approved authority for the purposes of the Act. Section 9 of the ANL (Conversion into Public Company) Act 1988 (the ANL Act) provides for ANL to be taken to be a company registered under subsection 86(2) of the Companies Act 1981 under the name ANL Limited (the Company). In accordance with subsection 2(3) of the ANL Act, section 9 is to come into operation on a day to be fixed by proclamation. Section 10 of the ANL Act provides that each person who is a staff member of ANL immediately before it is taken to be registered as a company will continue to be employed on the same terms and conditions.
Persons referred to in section 10 of the ANL Act who were eligible employees for the purposes of the Act and certain new staff of the Company are eligible to contribute under the Act because the Company has been specified as an approved authority for the purposes of the Act by related amendments to the Superannuation (Approved Authorities) Regulations. Those amendments have effect from the date of commencement of section 9 of the ANL Act.
In accordance with arrangements introduced on 1 October 1982:
- persons who were ANL Commissioners, officers or employees immediately before that date who were not eligible employees; and
- persons who became ANL Commissioners, officers or employees on or after that date who were not eligible employees and were not entitled to an invalidity pension under the Act or the Superannuation Act 1922 immediately before becoming such Commissioners, officers or employees
were not entitled to contribute under the Act. Instead they were to have the option of joining a superannuation scheme run by ANL or having no occupational superannuation arrangements apply to them. Persons employed by ANL immediately before 1 October 1982 who were eligible employees were given the option of transferring to a superannuation scheme run ANL or continuing to contribute under the Act. These arrangements, insofar as they restrict the entitlement of ANL Commissioners and staff to contribute under the Act, were given effect to by the existing paragraph 4(a) of the Regulations and by paragraphs 4(m) and 4(n) which were inserted in the Regulations by Statutory Rules No 235 of 1982.
These arrangements are to continue to apply in respect of persons to whom section 10 of the ANL Act applies and similar arrangements are to apply to other persons who become employees of the Company on or after the date it is taken to be registered. Regulation 4 of the Regulations therefore amends the Principal Regulations to prescribe as a class of persons for the purposes of paragraph (j) of the definition of “eligible employee” in subsection 3(1) of the Act persons who:
(a) (i) immediately before 1 October 1982 were ANL Commissioners, officers or employees and who continue until immediately before the ANL relevant day to be such persons;
(ii) on the ANL relevant day are, and continue to be, employed by the Company; and
(iii) were not, immediately before 1 October 1982, eligible employees;
(b) (i) were ANL Commissioners, officers or employees immediately before the ANL relevant day
(ii) on the ANL relevant day are, and continue to be, employed by the Company; and
(iii) immediately before becoming ANL Commissioners, officers or employees were not eligible employees or entitled to an invalidity pension under the Act or the Superannuation Act 1922; or
(c) on or after the ANL relevant day become employed by the Company and continue to be so employed other than persons who:
(i) are eligible employees immediately before becoming employed by the Company;
(ii) are employed by the Company during a period when they are on leave without pay from employment by the Commonwealth or an approved authority other than the Company; or
(iii) are entitled to an invalidity pension under the Act or the Superannuation Act 1922; or
(iv) are persons to whom Division 2 or 3 of Part IV of the Public Service Act 1922 applies.
Paragraph 4(a) of the Principal Regulations will continue to operate to ensure that persons who are members of, or who are required to join, a superannuation scheme run by the Company are also included in a prescribed class of persons.
Terms used in the Principal Regulations are defined in regulation 3. Regulation 3 of the Regulations amends regulation 3 of the Principal Regulations to include
definitions for the terms “ANL” and “ANL relevant day” which are used in paragraphs 4(m), (n) and (na). The term “ANL” is defined to have the same meaning as in the ANL Act 1956. The term “ANL relevant day” is defined to mean the day of commencement of section 9 of the ANL (Conversion into Public Company) Act 1988.
By regulation 1 of the Regulations, regulation 4 operates on and from the date on which section 9 of the ANL (Conversion into Public Company) Act 1988 comes into operation.