Frequently Asked Questions

Principal Determinations

When the Tribunal makes a comprehensive determination relating to a category of offices (e.g. part-time offices) it is called a 'principal' determination and entirely replaces any earlier principal determination.

A principal determination usually covers a group of offices within the Tribunal's jurisdiction or a specific subject area (such as recreation leave). The Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 and, for Members of Parliament, the Parliamentary Business Resources Act 2017, require the Tribunal to make determinations in relation to some remuneration matters (as opposed to some subject areas such as recreation leave) at intervals of no more than a year. This means that many of the Tribunal's principal determinations are in place for no more than 12 months.

All Tribunal determinations are registered on the Federal Register of Legislation (FRL) other than those relating to Secretaries, which are gazetted.

Amending Determinations

An amending determination inserts changes into a principal determination. Examples are inserting new offices into a principal determination, modifying provisions for access to particular conditions or a change in a remuneration amount for an office. An amending determination can include a number of changes to provisions in different principal determinations.

Consolidated Determinations

Where an amending determination has been issued, a consolidated determination needs to be made.  A consolidated determination, also known as a compilation, is essentially a principal determination updated to include the provisions of any amending determinations. The consolidation records the reference number of the amending determination and includes the date of effect of the amended provision. As most amending determinations must be registered on FRL before a consolidated determination can be made (and then also registered with FRL), there is a usually a delay of between 1 and 2 weeks between the time the Tribunal signs an amending determination and the registration of the consolidated determination.

Determinations on the Tribunal’s website

The determinations that contain the current remuneration and conditions for each group of office holders are listed on the relevant office page.  This could include either a consolidated determination (if there have been amending determinations) or a principal determination (where there have been no changes made).  As it usually takes a week or two for a consolidated determination to be made, at times an amending determination may also display on the office page. Once the amendment has been incorporated into a consolidated determination, the amending determination will be moved to the Document Library on the Tribunal’s website.

The Tribunal is required to determine remuneration for offices that meet the definition of "public office" in sub-section 3(4) of the Remuneration Tribunal Act 1973 (the Act) along with a range of other offices and appointments such as Departmental Secretaries, Principal Executive Offices and Members of Parliament. All offices established by a Commonwealth law (also known as statutory offices) and appointments made under a Commonwealth law are ‘public offices’ unless the relevant legislation provides otherwise. Legislation that establishes the office, board or committee will generally indicate how remuneration is to be determined. It may be necessary for administering agencies to seek legal advice on whether an office is in the Tribunal's determinative jurisdiction.

Some offices that are not automatically in the Tribunal's jurisdiction (because they are not created in legislation) can be placed in the Tribunal's jurisdiction. These are most commonly appointments made by the Governor-General or a Minister of State.

This process is commonly known as ‘referral-in’. Referral-in occurs when the Minister responsible for the Tribunal (the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) writes to the Tribunal President specifying that the Tribunal must determine remuneration for that office. This would usually occur as the result of a request to that Minister from the Minister with portfolio responsibility for the office.

The Tribunal does not determine its own remuneration, that is a matter for Government.

The Part-time Office determination defines authority business, which can be:

• any authorised work that is not a formal meeting (it can be performed on the same day that a formal meeting is held). This list isn't exhaustive, but it could include:
  • sub-committee work (including meetings and preparation for those meetings);
  • stakeholder engagement;
  • representational work;
  • out-of-session consideration of funding/grant applications;
  • official travel on a non-meeting day;
  • comments and feedback provided on papers, policies, strategies;
  • inspections or visits where this is part of the work of the authority; and
  • general correspondence, emails and phone calls that relate to the office holder's work for the body/entity.

• excessive time spent preparing for a formal meeting (normal preparation time is not considered authority business and does not attract additional payment). A decision on whether preparation time is excessive is a matter for the Chair.In order to establish an entitlement to payment an office holder must spend a minimum period of at least one hour on authority business. Shorter periods do not attract payment. The maximum payment that may be made to an office holder for work performed on a day is one daily fee.

The Official Travel determination provides for the payment of an allowance to the office holder to cover reasonable expenses associated with official travel, i.e. accommodation, meals and incidentals, and it is a matter for the office holder as to how that allowance is to be used.  An office holder’s TA must be paid in full.

However, in the event that the cost of accommodation is met by an entity other than the office holder, only the meals and incidentals component of TA is payable. An example of this might include where an office holder attended a conference and the cost of accommodation was met by the Commonwealth as part of the conference package.

In applying the provisions of the Official Travel determination, office holders and agencies should have regard to the set of general principles included in that determination.

It would be appropriate to reduce the reasonable daily overseas meal allowance amounts determined by the Australian Taxation Office by 50 per cent where dinner has been provided or paid for by an entity other than the office holder, or 25 per cent in the case of either breakfast or lunch. Alternatively, it would also be permissible for office holders to comply with any relevant administrative guidelines put in place for employees in their agency where these are not inconsistent with the Official Travel determination.

Rates for meals and incidentals are equivalent to the overseas meals and incidentals rates in the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) determination dealing with reasonable travel and overtime meal allowance expense amounts.  The relevant ATO determination is specified in the Tribunal’s Official Travel determination.

The rate of overseas TA payable to an office holder depends on the Travel Tier determined for the office.  Accommodation should be provided at a standard reasonably equivalent to that provided for the office holder in Australia.

Class of travel is also dependent on the Travel Tier determined by the Tribunal, i.e.

Tier 1 = First Class or Business Class

Tier 2 = Business Class

Tier 3 = Economy Class

An office holder who is entitled to travel Economy Class may upgrade to Business Class where the duration of the flight exceeds five hours.

Where there are significant changes to the role or responsibilities of an office that warrant reconsideration of remuneration, a submission should be made to the Tribunal as soon as possible. Comprehensive submission guidelines are available on the Tribunal’s website.

You may also contact the Tribunal’s Secretariat for advice on your particular submission. Where time permits, the Secretariat can also provide feedback on draft submissions.

Factors that might be considered include:

• the desirability of having remuneration determined by an experienced, independent authority;
• whether the office will be established for a short or a long time; and
• the significance of the role and responsibilities of the office.

The website’s search facility enables users to find answers to questions about the Tribunal's functions and offices. Where there is a FAQ containing the search term the website provides suggestions as text is entered. Paying agencies and other frequent visitors to the site are encouraged to sign up to receive an email alert when changes are made to the website.

Each category of office has a dedicated launch page that provides a background on the office and relevant FAQs.  Current determinations, together with current applicable guidelines, statements and reports, display on the launch page. The current determinations could include either consolidated determinations or principal determinations (see the FAQ “What are principal determinations, compilations and amending determinations” for more information).

Most determinations (including associated explanatory statements and if applicable, reasons for determinations) and other statements and reports from 2004 can be found in the Document Library by conducting a filtered search (by office, year and/or document type).  Should access be required to historical documentation (generally from 2003 or earlier years) a request can be made to the Remuneration Tribunal Secretariat at enquiry@remtribunal.gov.au.

The Tribunal is also keen to receive feedback about the website.  You are welcome to email your suggestions and comments to enquiry@remtribunal.gov.au.

Where the entity includes a Deputy Chair, the Tribunal may set a specific rate for the Deputy Chair where the responsibilities of an office warrant remuneration in excess of that provided to a Member. This could involve particular statutory functions set out in the legislation or significant ongoing responsibilities, for example as Chair of sub-committee/s or with carriage of strategic or risk management aspects of the body. The Tribunal will not usually set a specific Deputy rate where the Deputy role is limited to chairing meetings and taking on some chair responsibilities in the absence of the Chair or assisting the Chair on an ad hoc basis.

In its October 2013 report ‘Review of Remuneration - Part-time Offices’ the Tribunal noted that where a separate Deputy Chair rate is justified it would generally be set at 75 per cent of the Chair for annual fee recipients and at the mid-point between the Chair and Members for daily fee recipients.

The Tribunal does not 'automatically' set Deputy Chair fees; a submission is required specifically addressing the role in order for the Tribunal to consider a separate rate. If it is considered that a different Chair/Deputy Chair/Member ratio is warranted than that recommended by the Tribunal, then this should be addressed in the submission.

With the exception of the determinations relating to Departmental Secretaries, Tribunal determinations are legislative instruments, which means that, under sub-section 38(1) of the Legislation Act 2003, they are required to be tabled in both houses of Parliament by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel within 6 sitting days after the determination has been registered on the Federal Register of Legislation.

The Tribunal does not routinely set fees for sub-committee work. Often sub-committees are simply one way that boards and other entities choose to allocate the workload in relation to the primary functions of that entity.

The Tribunal has set audit fees for some bodies recognising that there are often significant responsibilities and additional commitment related to these committees. The Tribunal has also set additional fees for a small number of other sub-committees of governing boards which undertake or support a key component of the board’s governance responsibilities.

Where it is considered that additional fees are warranted a submission can be made to the Tribunal. The submission would need to comment specifically on why the Tribunal should not consider the functions of the sub-committee to be part of the entity/board's usual functions.

The following points should be addressed in a submission, i.e. whether:

• the committee has formal ongoing governance functions;
• the committee’s work represents a key component of the board’s governance responsibilities;
• the committee’s work has a significant impact on organisational strategy and viability;
• the fee paid to board members is insufficient compensation for the level of responsibility and commitment required of sub-committee members; and
• additional fee arrangements are currently in place, or proposed, for audit committee members.

All Tribunal determinations are disallowable instruments except those relating to Departmental Secretaries and Members of Parliament.

Either House of Parliament may, within 15 sitting days after a determination has been tabled, pass a resolution 'disapproving' the determination. If a determination that is disapproved (disallowed) has already come into operation, the determination does not have any force or effect on or after the day on which the resolution was passed. However, disallowance does not apply retrospectively. This means, for example, that affected office holders who have already received a pay rise do not have to repay any additional remuneration they have already received. However, from the date of disallowance, their pay would revert to what it was previously.

Special arrangements apply for Judicial Offices within the Tribunal’s determining jurisdiction. Determinations for Judicial Offices do not come into effect until after the 15 sitting days disallowance period has passed. This means, for example, that if the Tribunal determines a remuneration increase for Judges, they will not receive their increased pay until after the disallowance period. Any remuneration increase would be backdated to the date of effect specified in the determination. These arrangements are necessary due to sub-section 72(iii) of the Constitution, which expressly prohibits diminution of a Judge's remuneration while the Judge remains in office.

Commonwealth defined benefits scheme rules provide that an office holder's salary for superannuation purposes will be grandfathered at the highest rate applying in the year to the member's last birthday, increased annually in accordance with changes to the Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (AWOTE) unless a higher superannuation salary is applied.

To ensure an office holder’s superannuation salary conforms with scheme requirements, the Tribunal will, upon request, agree to a higher personal superannuation salary rate for the office holder. A request to the Tribunal can be included in a remuneration submission by a Minister or employing body or notified to the Tribunal’s Secretariat by a relevant senior officer of the agency with access to the officer holder’s superannuation salary history.

A public office holder who holds an office that has had remuneration determined for it by the Tribunal has a legal entitlement to that remuneration, unless specifically excluded in legislation from receiving payment (e.g. a full-time Australian Public Service employee). It is the Tribunal's understanding that generally an office holder would not be able to give a legally binding waiver of their entitlement to remuneration, or have it paid to another person or body.

How the fee determined by the Tribunal for an office is paid is a matter between the paying agency and the office holder.

Any taxation withholding obligation must be met from the fee payable in respect of the office. If the payer is not certain how the office holder's preferred method of payment affects taxation obligations, he or she should seek the advice of the Australian Taxation Office.

In monetary terms, an office holder is entitled to the fees determined by the Tribunal in the Part-time Office determination plus travel allowance (TA) where an overnight stay is necessary.

The rate of TA varies depending on the Travel Tier assigned to the office, or, in some cases, the office holder.  Current rates and conditions are set out in the Official Travel determination.

Office holders may also have an entitlement to superannuation under separate superannuation legislation.

The Tribunal has no role in determining what should be provided to office holders with respect to business support. This is a matter for employing bodies.

While full-time Commonwealth employees may not be paid annual or per diem fees for fulfilling their duties as a part-time office holder, they can receive the travelling allowance rate determined by the Tribunal.

Travelling allowance rates are contained in the Official Travel determination.

The Part-time Office determination includes a definition of official travel time. It is generally associated with travel where an office holder is entitled to claim travelling allowance (e.g. interstate travel). It does not include normal commuting time (i.e. the time spent travelling between an office holder's home and principal place of work).

For offices other than Judicial Offices each Tribunal determination comes into effect from a date specified in the determination. Where no date is specified, the date of effect is the day after the determination has been registered with the Federal Register of Legislation.

A remuneration increase for holders of Judicial Office cannot be passed on until after the disallowance period of the relevant determination has passed. In both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the disallowance period is 15 parliamentary sitting days after the determination has been tabled.

These arrangements are necessary because sub-section 72(iii) of the Constitution expressly prohibits diminution of a Judge's remuneration while the Judge remains in office - if the increase was put into effect immediately, the Parliament's right to disallow the determination would effectively be removed.

After the disallowance period has passed, any remuneration increase is then paid to Judicial Officers, with any necessary arrears paid from the date the Tribunal determined as the effective date of the increase.

Information about the Tribunal's four part-time remuneration models may be found on the Tribunal's website (under the 'background area' of the Part-time Office page on the Tribunal’s website). This includes information about some of the Tribunal's considerations in applying the models.

The remuneration models are:

• annual fee
• daily fee
• base (annual) fee and daily meeting fee
• annual meeting fee and additional daily fee

Where a Minister or employing body believes that a different model from that determined by the Tribunal would better suit their part-time offices, a submission should be made to the Tribunal.