2010
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY

CHIEF MINISTER 

ASSEMBLY MEMBERS AND STATUTORY OFFICERS (REMUNERATION AND OTHER ENTITLEMENTS) 
AMENDMENT BILL 2010

SERIAL NO. 144

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

GENERAL OUTLINE

This Bill seeks to ensure parity between future increases in the salary of NT Public Sector employees and increases in the additional salary of office to which Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are entitled.  

Specifically, it ensures that MLA office holders, which includes Ministers, the Speaker, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Committee Chairpersons and Whips, are not able to receive additional salary of office increases at rates which are more than those increases applicable to the wages of NT public servants. 

In doing this, the Bill removes from the Remuneration Tribunal the power to determine additional salary of office for Members of the Assembly and the list of office holders.  

Under the new legislative framework, office holders will be listed in the Act.  New office holders can be added to the list by the Administrator by way of a regulation to amend the Act. An office holder will only be able to be removed from the list by way of an amendment to the Act.

NOTES ON CLAUSES

Clause 1.	Short Title

This is a formal clause that provides for the citation of the Bill.  The Bill when passed may be cited as the Assembly Members and Statutory Officers (Remuneration and Other Entitlements) Amendment Act 2010.

Clause 2.	Act Amended

The Bill seeks to amend the Assembly Members and Statutory Officers (Remuneration and Other Entitlements) Act.

Clause 3.	Section 2 amended (Definitions)

Inserts definitions for the following terms: 

·	“2009 Tribunal determination”
·	“additional salary of office”
·	“annual rate”
·	“NTPS employees” 
·	“prescribed agreement”
·	“prescribed office”.

Note that in relation to the first two and the last of these definitions, the definition is referenced to and contained in section 3A(6).

Clause 4.	Section 3 amended

Removes section 3(5) of the Act, as the definitions contained in this section (“annual rate”, “NTPS employees” and “prescribed agreement”) now appear in section 2.

This is because previously these definitions only applied to section 3 of the Act.  Now these definitions apply to other sections as well as section 3, and accordingly they have been placed in the general definitions section of the Act (section 2).

Clause 5.	Section 3A inserted “Additional salary to be tied to annual rate of increases in pay of NTPS employees”

Section 3A(1)
Provides that an MLA holding or occupying an office mentioned in Schedule 2 is entitled to be paid additional salary of office in 2011, based on the rates of additional salary of office set out in the Remuneration Tribunal’s 2009 Determination (the Determination made in 2009 which applied throughout 2010) plus 3% (being the amount of salary increase anticipated to be applied to NTPS employees in 2010).  That is, the salary increase received by NTPS employees in 2010 applies to MLA office holders as from 1 January 2011.  

Also provides for the apportionment of salary of office should an MLA hold a designated office for less than the full calendar year.

Section 3A(2)
For calendar years after 2011, this section describes how the annual salary of office is calculated, so that office holders receive the annual rate of salary increase which applied to NTPS employees in the previous year.  

For example, if NTPS employees receive a 3% salary increase in August 2011, a 3% increase will apply to MLA office holders as from 1 January 2012.

Section 3A(3)
Provides that if an Assembly member holds two or more prescribed offices, they are only entitled to an additional salary of office for one of those offices, that is, for the office that yields the greater or greatest amount of salary.

Section 3A(4)
Provides that an office holder position may be added to the list of prescribed offices by way of regulation made by the Administrator amending Schedule 2 of the Act. 

Section 3A(5)
(a)	Where an office is added to Schedule 2 of the Act as described in section 3A(4), the Administrator must also by regulation declare the annual amount of additional salary of office applicable to the prescribed office.

(b)	Where an office is declared a prescribed office, remuneration declared by the Administrator does not apply until the calendar year immediately after the calendar year in which the office was prescribed.  This is a similar timing arrangement to that which applies to the Remuneration Tribunal’s annual determination for MLA entitlements.

(c)	Section 43 of the Interpretation Act does not apply in relation to the exercise of power under subsection (4).  This means the Administrator is not empowered to remove an office holder from the list of office holders (by way of regulation).  The only way an office holder can be removed from Schedule 2 is by way of an amendment to the Act through the Legislative Assembly.

Section 3A(6)
This section defines the terms –

·	“additional salary of office”
·	“2009 Tribunal determination”
·	“prescribed office”.

Clause 6.	Section 4 amended (Tribunal’s powers)

Removes the Remuneration Tribunal’s power to set additional salary of office for MLAs by amending section 4, section 4(1) and section 4(1B).   

Clause 7.	Section 5 amended  (Minister’s power)

Section 5(1)
Adds “additional salary of office” to “basic salary” as entitlements which are outside of the power of the Minister to determine.

Clause 8.	Part 6 heading replaced – Transitional Matters

Creates two divisions in Part 6.  

Division 1 is the same as the existing provision in the Act (containing section 30) which relates to the 2009 amendment of the Act.   

New Division 2 provides transitional provisions for the purpose of this Bill.  The Division contains sections 31 and 32.  

Section 31.     Additional salary of office for 2011 calendar year

Section 31(1)
There will be a period (the interim period) between 1 January 2011 and the commencement of the amendment Act where existing office holders will receive additional salary of office to which the 3% first year annual increase will not have been applied.  This section defines eligibility for that entitlement, being an Assembly member who was an eligible office holder by virtue of the 2009 Tribunal determination and who held a prescribed office upon commencement of this section. 

Section 31(2) 
Provides the calculation for working out the additional amount to be paid to an office holder for the interim period, that is, the amount of the increase backdated to 1 January 2011.

Section 31(3)
This section provides specifically for Members of the Council of Territory Cooperation. These office holders are listed in Schedule 2 of the Bill by virtue of being listed in the Remuneration Tribunal’s 2010 Determination. 

However, these office holders have not previously been remunerated and therefore no rate of remuneration was listed in the Tribunal’s 2009 Determination for them (note that the part of the 2010 Determination which determined additional salary of office rates for these office holders for the first time was disallowed by motion in the Assembly on 1 December 2010).
Continued over  
This section establishes the salary starting point for these office holders, being half the 2009 rate applicable to the Chairperson of the Council of Territory Cooperation.  

Section 32       Stopping operation of 2009 Tribunal determination
This section ensures that once the 2009 determination has been continued in effect for this amendment Act as a salary reference point, the continuing parts of the determination cease to have any operational effect.  This is effectively a tidying up measure once the amendment Act has commenced.

Clause 10.	Schedule 2 inserted

Inserts new Schedule 2 to the Act.  Schedule 2 lists prescribed offices for which additional salary of office is payable pursuant to the Bill (section 3A(6) of the Bill refers).