EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1990 NO 97
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE
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 that the Act requires or permits to be prescribed, or that are necessary or convenient to be prescribed, for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
The definition in the Act of the term eligible employee provides that 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 Regulations).
Australian Defence Industries Pty. Ltd. was incorporated as a company in the Australian Capital Territory on 21 July 1988. Certain officers and employees of the Department of Defence were transferred to the Company as directors or employees with effect from 25 May 1989. Australian Defence Industries Pty. Ltd. has been prescribed as an approved authority for the purposes of the Act with effect from 25 May 1989 to enable persons compulsorily transferred to employment with the Company to continue to contribute under the Act.
The Company intends to introduce a superannuation scheme to cover its staff. As a consequence it is intended that all other directors and employees of the Company other than those compulsorily transferred to the Company be excluded from becoming, or remaining, eligible employees for the purposes of the Act while they are directors or employees of the Company except where he or she is:
(a) a person who became a director or employee of the Company before the commencement of the Regulations, was an eligible employee immediately before becoming such a director or employee and has not requested in writing before the commencement of the Regulations not to be treated as an eligible employee;
(b) a person who is a director or employee of the Company during a period while on leave without pay from employment by the Commonwealth or an approved authority other than the Company;
(c) a person who was an invalidity pensioner immediately before becoming a director or employee of the Company; and
(d) a person to whom Division 2 or 3 of Part IV of the Public Service Act 1922 applies.
The Regulation amends the Principal Regulations by inserting paragraph 4(zj) to give effect to this intention.
The amendments operate on and from the date of their gazettal.