EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1989 NO. 303
ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE
SUPERANNUATION ACT 1976
SUPERANNUATION (TRANSFER ARRANGEMENTS) 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 126(2) of the Act provides chat 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 who is, or has ceased to be, an eligible employee and who, at any time before he became an eligible employee, was a member of a superannuation scheme, or to and in relation to a prescribed class of such persons. Subsection 126(3) provides that the modifications may include, but are not limited to, modifications providing for the payment of contributions and benefits in addition to, or in substitution for, those provided under the Act.
Subsection 168(3) of the Act provides that regulations made after 31 December 1978 by virtue of subsection 126(2) may be expressed to have taken effect from and including a day not earlier than 12 months before the making of the regulations.
Regulations made by virtue of subsection 126(2) are contained in the Superannuation (Transfer Arrangements) Regulations (the Principal Regulations).
Dr R.H.T. Smith was appointed under subsections 11(3) and 11(4) of the Employment, Education and Training Act 1988 as a full-time member and Chairperson of the National Board of Employment, Education and Training from 1 February 1989 for a term of 5 years. Dr Smith became an eligible employee for the purposes of the Act on 1 February 1389 by virtue of a direction under section 14 of the Act. Before becoming an eligible employee, he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia and a member of the Superannuation Scheme for Australian Universities.
Dr Smith will have attained age 58 at the end of his term of appointment with the National Board of Employment, Education and Training. It is intended that the Act be modified to provide Dr Smith with an additional 3 years’ contributory service under the Act as compensation for potential loss of guaranteed employment to age 65.
The Regulations amend the Principal Regulations by inserting Schedule 9 which modifies the definition of period of contributory service in subsection 3(1) of the Act as it applies to Dr Smith. In accordance with the modified definition, Dr Smith’s period of contributory service commences on 1 February 1986 in lieu of 1 February 1989.
The Regulations are made to operate with effect from the date on which Dr Smith became an eligible employee, 1 February 1989.