EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2007 No. 277

 

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Workforce Participation

 

Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973

 

Remuneration Tribunal (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment

Regulations 2007 (No. 2)

 

The Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 (the Act) establishes the Remuneration Tribunal (the Tribunal) as an independent statutory authority responsible for reporting on and determining the remuneration, allowances and entitlements of key Commonwealth office holders. These include members of the Parliament, Judges of Federal Courts, most full-time and part-time holders of ‘public offices’ and principal executive offices.

 

Section 13 of the Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

 

The Regulations remove the equine influenza inquiry commissioner from the jurisdiction of the Remuneration Tribunal. Legislation to establish the inquiry – the Quarantine Amendment (Commission of Inquiry) Bill 2007 – was introduced into the House of Representatives on
12 September 2007 and was sponsored by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

 

Subsection 3(4) of the Act defines ‘public office’, an expression that would ordinarily include the equine influenza inquiry commissioner. Subsection 3(4) also lists a number of offices or appointments which are not to be treated as ‘public offices’. In particular, paragraph 3(4)(v) of the Act provides in part that a reference to a ‘public office’ does not include an office or appointment which has been prescribed for the purposes of the paragraph – thereby removing designated appointments from the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.

 

Regulation 5 of the Remuneration Tribunal (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1976 (Remuneration Tribunal Regulations) prescribes offices and appointments for the purposes of paragraph 3(4)(v) of the Act. Amendments have previously been made to the Remuneration Tribunal Regulations to exclude Royal Commissioners appointed by Letters Patent from the Tribunal’s jurisdiction. As the person appointed as the equine influenza inquiry commissioner will have the powers of a royal commissioner and additional powers under the Quarantine Act 1908, it is appropriate that this appointment is also excluded from the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.

 

The Regulations exclude the equine influenza inquiry commissioner from the Tribunal’s jurisdiction, with the effect that the Tribunal does not determine the commissioner’s remuneration.

 

The Remuneration Tribunal was consulted on the making of the Regulations. No further consultation has taken place in relation to the Regulations as they are of a minor and machinery nature and do not substantially alter existing arrangements.

 

The Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments

Act 2003.

 

The Regulations commence on the day after they are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.