2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007

 

 

 

THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

 

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 

 

 

 

 

 

MIGRATION AMENDMENT (STATUTORY AGENCY) BILL 2007

 

 

 

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Circulated by authority of the

Minister for Immigration and Citizenship,

the Hon Kevin Andrews MP)

 

 

 

Migration amendment (statutory agency) BILL 2007

 

OUTLINE

1. The Migration Amendment (Statutory Agency) Bill 2007 (“the Bill”) amends the Migration Act 1958 (“the Act”) to:

·          Provide that the Principal Member of the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Registrars, the Deputy Registrars and other officers of the Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal engaged under the Public Service Act 1999, together constitute a Statutory Agency for the purposes of the Public Service Act 1999 ; and

·          Provide that the Principal Member of the Refugee Review Tribunal is the Agency Head of that Statutory Agency.

 

financial impact statement

2. The Bill does not have any significant financial impact.

NOTES ON INDIVIDUAL CLAUSES

Part 1 - Preliminary

Clause 1          Short title

3.         The short title by which this Act may be cited is the Migration Amendment (Statutory Agency) Act 2007.

Clause 2          Commencement

4.         All sections of the Act will commence on the day after the Act receives Royal Assent.

Clause 3          Schedules

5.         Clause 3 is a standard provision that provides that an Act specified in the Schedule to the Bill is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable item in the Schedule and that any other item in the Schedule to the Bill has effect according to its terms.

Schedule 1      Amendments

Migration Act 1958

Item 1             After Part 7  

6.         This item inserts a new Part 7A into the Act titled “Statutory agency for the purposes of the Public Service Act” and inserts new section 473A into the Act.

7.         New Section 473A provides that, for the purposes of the Public Service Act 1999, the Principal Member of the Refugee Review Tribunal (‘RRT’) and the persons mentioned in subsections 407(4) and 472(4) of the Act together constitute a Statutory Agency, and that the Principal Member of the RRT is the Head of the Statutory Agency.

8.         The persons mentioned in subsections 407(4) and 472(4) of the Act are the Registrars, the Deputy Registrars and other officers of the Migration Review Tribunal (‘MRT’) and the RRT engaged under the Public Service Act 1999 .

9.         The Principal Member of the MRT will not form part of the Statutory Agency that the Bill will create for the purposes of the PS Act. This is because a person appointed a Principal Member of the MRT or RRT is not an Australian Public Service (APS) employee. It would, therefore, be inappropriate to make the Principal Member of the MRT part of the new Statutory Agency created for the purposes of the PS Act because the new Agency Head would have no APS powers over the Principal Member of the MRT. However, as noted above, the officers of the MRT (referred to in subsections 407(4) of the Act) will form part of the new Statutory Agency and the Principal Member of the RRT will have APS powers over them.