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CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer and Copyright Details
Ministers of State
Amendment Bill 1999
Date Introduced: 23 June 1999
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Special Minister of State
Commencement: Royal Assent
Purpose
To increase the
annual amount payable for the salaries of Ministers from $1.6
million to $1.622 million.
Background
Sections 65 and 66 of the Constitution provide
for the number of Ministers and for the annual sum payable for
their salaries. Section 65 states that:
Until the Parliament otherwise provides, the
Ministers of State shall not exceed seven in number and shall hold
such offices as the Parliament prescribes, or, in the absence of
provision, as the Governor-General directs.
Section 66 of the Constitution provides
that:
There shall be payable to the Queen, out of the
Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Commonwealth, for the salaries of
the Ministers of State, an annual sum, which, until the Parliament
otherwise provides, shall not exceed twelve thousand pounds a
year.
Parliament first legislated to increase the size
of the Ministry and the amount payable in 1915.(1) The current
legislation is the Ministers of State Act 1952 (the
Principal Act) which specifies the maximum size of the Ministry and
appropriates the required amount for ministerial salaries from the
Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The Principal Act needs to be amended from time
to time to cover variations in the size of the Ministry or in the
amount needed for ministerial salaries. This Bill amends the
Principal Act to increase the sum available for ministerial
salaries by $22 000. The additional amount is necessary because
after the 1998 election, the number of Cabinet ministers was
increased from 15 to 17, and the total size of the Ministry from 28
to 30.
Since 1996 there has been a two-tier salary
structure for the Ministry. Cabinet ministers (other than the Prime
Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Treasurer, Leader of the House and
the Leader of the Government in the Senate, whose salaries are
higher), receive a ministerial salary of $53 919. The 13
members of the outer ministry each receive a ministerial salary of
$43 136, approximately $10 000 less than Cabinet
ministers. The rationale for the difference is the higher workload
of Cabinet ministers. Ministerial salaries are additional to the
basic salary of $81 856 paid to Members and Senators.
There has been no increase in either the basic
parliamentary salary or in ministerial salaries since 17 October
1996. This is because parliamentary salaries are tied by the
Remuneration and Allowances Act 1990 to the minimum level
of SES Band 2 salaries. Salary adjustments were made under the
Government-public sector Agreement, Continuous Improvement in
the Australian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 1995-96,
which expired at the end of 1996. Ministerial salaries were
adjusted at the same rate. Since the introduction of (individual)
Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) for the SES, there is no
longer any common rate according to which adjustments are made.(2)
On 30 March 1999 the Government introduced the Public Employment
(Consequential and Transitional) Amendment Bill 1999 which has as
one of its objectives, the creation of a link between MPs' salaries
and a classification structure created by the Remuneration Tribunal
for certain statutory offices.(3) This Bill has not yet been
debated.
Main Provisions
The effect of item 1 of
Schedule 1 of the Bill is to increase the annual
amount payable for the salaries of ministers in a financial year
from $1.6 million to $1.622 million.
Endnotes
-
- Ministers of State Act 1915.
- For full details of parliamentary salaries see Healy, M. and
Winter, G., 'Remuneration of Members of Parliament of Australia',
Background Paper (Politics and Public Administration
Group), No. 18 1997-98, Department of the Parliamentary
Library, 1998.
- 'Second Reading Speech', Public Employment (Consequential and
Transitional) Amendment Bill 1999, House of Representatives
Debates, 30 March 1999, p. 4686. See also Perdikogiannis, E.
and Bennett, R., 'Public Employment (Consequential and
Transitional) Amendment Bill 1999, Bills Digest No. 182
1998-99, Department of the Parliamentary Library, 1999, p. 5.
Rosemary Bell and Margaret Healy
24 June 1999
Bills Digest Service
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ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 1999
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Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library,
1999.
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