EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1984 NO. 480
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE
SUPERANNUATION ACT 1976 - SUPERANNUATION (RETIRING AGE) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Section 168 of the Superannuation Act 1976 (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.
Sub-section 3(1) of the Act defines the “minimum retiring age” as 60 years or such lesser age as, under regulations made under the Act, is the minimum retiring age applicable to a person or class of persons.
A contributor with more than one year’s contributory service who retires voluntarily on or after attaining age 60, is entitled to be paid an age retirement pension in accordance with Division 1 and, if appropriate, a lump sum in accordance with Division 3 of Part V of the Act. A contributor whose terms and conditions of employment provide for voluntary retirement after attaining an age less than 60 is entitled, upon such voluntary retirement, to be paid an early retirement pension in accordance with Division 2, and, if appropriate, a lump sum in accordance with Division 3 of Part V, provided that lesser age has been prescribed in the Superannuation (Retiring Age) Regulations as the minimum retiring age in respect of the class of persons within which the contributor falls.
Regulation 5 of the Superannuation (Retiring Age) Regulations already specifies minimum retiring ages less than 60 years for the purposes of the Act in relation to certain persons and classes of persons.
The Regulations amend the Superannuation (Retiring Age) Regulations by prescribing the age of 50 years as the minimum retiring age for the purposes of the Act for persons who are employees within the meaning of the Commonwealth Employees (Redeployment and Retirement) Act 1979 (the CE(RR) Act) and whose minimum retiring age under that Act is the age of 50 years. This enables the payment of early retirement superannuation pensions where such employees take advantage of the early retirement provisions of their conditions of service by retiring voluntarily on or after attaining age 50.
The Regulations operate from the date of gazettal.