{"id":"F2012L02492","name":"Prime Minister's Australian Civilian Corps Directions 2012","slug":"prime-minister-s-australian-civilian-corps-directions-2012","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":126611,"registerId":"commonwealth-F2012L02492-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-03","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1A","sectionType":"section","heading":"Name of Directions","content":"#### 1A Name of Directions\n\n  These Directions are the Prime Minister’s Australian Civilian Corps Directions 2012.","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Interpretation","content":"#### 2 Interpretation\n\n  (1) In these Directions:\n\n> ACC Register means the register maintained by the Department, which includes information concerning individuals identified by the Department as potentially suitable for engagement as Australian Civilian Corps employees.\n\n> Act means the Australian Civilian Corps Act 2011.\n\n> Commonwealth employee means an employee engaged by a Commonwealth employer, other than an employee engaged under section 74 of the Public Service Act 1999.\n\n> Note: Section 74 of the Public Service Act 1999 permits APS Agency Heads to engage persons overseas to perform duties overseas as employees of the Commonwealth.\n\n> Commonwealth employer means a Commonwealth employer within the meaning of section 27 of the Act.\n\n> FMA Agency means an Agency within the meaning of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997.\n\n> home employer, in respect of a person who is a current, former or prospective Australian Civilian Corps employee, and who is also a Commonwealth employee in another capacity, means the Commonwealth employer who engages the person in such other capacity.\n\n> home employment, in respect of a Commonwealth employee, means the employee’s employment with his or her home employer.\n\n  (2) Where these Directions, other than paragraph 5(2)(a), confer a function on a Commonwealth employer, the function may be performed by any person who is authorised expressly or impliedly by the Commonwealth employer to do so.","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"3","sectionType":"section","heading":"Policies and practices","content":"#### 3 Policies and practices\n\n  (1) An FMA Agency must have employment policies and practices which support Commonwealth employees engaged in the agency participating in the Australian Civilian Corps, including seeking acceptance onto the ACC Register.\n  (2) An FMA Agency may determine its own approach to the employment practices mentioned in subclause (1), provided they remain consistent with the broader objective to support the recruitment and deployment of Australian Civilian Corps employees.\n\n> Note: This clause does not apply to any agency that is not an FMA Agency. However, in the event that any APS employee engaged in such an agency is required to attend compulsory ACC training or is identified as suitable for ACC deployment, the agency would be subject to the same requirements as those applicable to FMA Agencies in relation to release and return under clauses 4 to 6.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"4","sectionType":"section","heading":"Permission to attend training","content":"#### 4 Permission to attend training\n\n  (1) This clause only applies to a Commonwealth employee who is:\n    (a) an APS employee; or\n    (b) engaged in an FMA Agency.\n  (2) If an employee seeks permission from a Commonwealth employer to attend compulsory ACC training, the employer must grant the permission, whether by way of granting leave or otherwise, to the extent that the terms and conditions of employment of the employee allow such permission to be granted in the circumstances.\n\n> Note: Example: A Commonwealth employer may give permission by way of granting paid or unpaid leave to an employee to enable the employee to attend ACC compulsory training, provided that the employee’s employment terms and conditions permit such leave to be granted for this purpose. Alternatively, the employer may decide to give permission to the employee to attend such training without taking any leave, if the employee’s employment terms and conditions allow for such permission to be given.\n\n  (3) Subclause (2) does not preclude a Commonwealth employer granting permission for an employee to attend compulsory ACC training on different dates from those nominated by the employee, or on terms that are different from those sought by the employee.\n  (4) In this clause, compulsory ACC training means training identified by the Department as compulsory for the purpose of preparing a person for engagement or possible engagement as an Australian Civilian Corps employee.","sortOrder":3},{"sectionNumber":"5","sectionType":"section","heading":"Leave for deployment","content":"#### 5 Leave for deployment\n\n  (1) This clause only applies to a Commonwealth employee who is:\n    (a) an APS employee; or\n    (b) engaged in an FMA Agency.\n  (2) If an employee applies to a Commonwealth employer for leave without pay for a period of engagement as an Australian Civilian Corps employee, the employer must grant the leave unless:\n    (a) the employer advises the Secretary that the employer declines to release the employee because, in the employer’s opinion:\n    (i) the employee’s absence from his or her home employment would pose a significant risk to national security or delivery of essential government services; or\n    (ii) Australia’s international relations would be likely to be adversely affected as a result of the deployment of the employee as an Australian Civilian Corps employee; or\n    (iii) there are other compelling reasons against granting leave to the employee; or\n    (b) the Secretary notifies the Commonwealth employer that the Secretary does not intend, or no longer intends, to engage the employee as an Australian Civilian Corps employee.\n\n> Note: The continuity of a Commonwealth employee’s home employment is not broken by the employee’s engagement as an Australian Civilian Corps employee for the purposes of determining the employee’s entitlements in relation to his or her home employment, such as those in respect of parental leave, long service leave, superannuation and redundancy.","sortOrder":4},{"sectionNumber":"6","sectionType":"section","heading":"Right of return","content":"#### 6 Right of return\n\n  (1) This clause only applies to a Commonwealth employee who is:\n    (a) an APS employee; or\n    (b) engaged in an FMA Agency.\n  (2) If a Commonwealth employee has been granted leave for a period of engagement as an Australian Civilian Corps employee (the period of leave), the employee’s home employer must arrange for the employee to return to the home employer to undertake duties as soon as is reasonably practicable after the period of leave.\n  (3) Subsection (2) does not apply where:\n    (a) because of changed circumstances, it is not within the home employer’s power to arrange the return; or\n    (b) the employee notifies the home employer that the employee does not wish to return to the home employer to undertake duties.\n  (4) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(a), the engagement of another person to replace the employee during the period of leave does not constitute a changed circumstance.\n  (5) Where the home employer arranges for the employee to return to the home employer under subclause (2), the home employer must arrange for the employee to undertake duties at the employee’s classification immediately before the period of leave commenced.\n  (6) If the classification no longer exists, the home employer must arrange for the employee to undertake duties at an equivalent classification determined by the home employer.\n  (7) Subclauses (5) and (6) do not apply if the home employer arranges for the employee to undertake duties under terms and conditions that are no less favourable overall than the terms and conditions that applied to the employee immediately before the period of leave.","sortOrder":5},{"sectionNumber":"7","sectionType":"section","heading":"Personal leave","content":"#### 7 Personal leave\n\n  Where an APS employee returns to his or her home employer to undertake duties following a period of engagement as an Australian Civilian Corps employee, the home employer must recognise any unused personal leave that the employee accrued during his or her engagement as an Australian Civilian Corps employee as if it accrued with the home employer on and from his or her return to the home employer.","sortOrder":6}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"These Directions set administrative and employment procedures implementing participation in the ACC (training permission, leave for deployment, right of return, and personal leave recognition) but do not, on their face, expand or narrow the categories of persons who may be engaged under the Australian Civilian Corps Act 2011. They operate within the Act’s framework and allocate operational duties between home employers, FMA Agencies and the Department/Secretary (see Interpretation; clauses 3–7)."},"complexity_factors":["Cross-references to the Australian Civilian Corps Act 2011 and reliance on Department/Secretary decisions (Interpretation; 5(2)(b)) create dependencies on external determinations.","Multiple categories of covered persons and employers (APS employee, Commonwealth employee, FMA Agency, home employer) increase scope-management complexity (Interpretation).","Delegation of employer functions to authorised persons adds administrative flexibility but requires clear delegation arrangements (2(2)).","Agency policy flexibility: FMA Agencies must support participation but may set their own practices subject to a broad objective, creating varied implementation across agencies (3(1)–(2)).","Training permission is mandated but limited by the employee’s existing terms and conditions of employment, creating conditional rights and potential contractual tensions (4(2)).","Leave-for-deployment is generally required but can be refused on specified grounds (national security, essential services, international relations, or other compelling reasons), which requires employer assessment and introduces discretionary refusal points (5(2)(a)).","Interaction between employer refusal and Secretary’s notification (5(2)(b)) produces a governance interface that can alter outcomes depending on central department decisions.","Right-of-return obligations include requirements to restore equivalent classification or no-less-favourable terms, with exceptions for changed circumstances, creating practical re-staffing and classification issues (6(2)–(7)).","Recognition of personal leave accrued during ACC engagement requires payroll/HR adjustments on return, creating administrative compliance costs (7).","Notes about non-FMA agencies and examples (clauses 3 Note; 4 Note) introduce conditional application that agencies must monitor, increasing implementation complexity."],"plain_english_summary":"**What it does:** These Directions set workplace rules for Commonwealth employees who join the Australian Civilian Corps (ACC). Agencies must support recruitment, allow staff to attend compulsory ACC training, and grant leave without pay for deployments unless specified security, service-delivery or diplomatic objections are raised.  \n\n**Who it affects and why it matters:** Mainly APS employees and FMA Agencies. The Directions determine who decides on release, how leave and return-to-work are handled, and how accrued personal leave is recognised (see clauses 3–7)."},"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"Unauthenticated. Configure AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY or use a provider module. Learn more: https://ai-sdk.dev/unauthenticated-ai-gateway","source":"analysis-cron"},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Directions remain tightly focused on their original purpose: facilitating the release and return of Commonwealth employees for ACC deployment. The scope has not expanded beyond employment arrangements for ACC participation."},"complexity_factors":["Limited scope: only applies to APS employees and FMA Agency staff, with explicit carve-outs for other Commonwealth employees","7 defined terms in the interpretation section, including nested definitions ('home employer' depends on 'Commonwealth employee' which depends on 'Commonwealth employer')","Conditional logic with exceptions: Clause 5(2) creates a mandatory obligation ('must grant') with three specific exceptions plus a Secretary override","Cross-references to external legislation: Public Service Act 1999 (s.74), Australian Civilian Corps Act 2011 (s.27), Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997","Nested exceptions in Clause 6: right of return (mandatory) → exceptions in 6(3) → exception to the exception in 6(4) clarifying that replacement hiring doesn't count as 'changed circumstances'","Alternative compliance pathways: Clause 6(7) allows employers to bypass classification-matching requirements if overall terms are 'no less favourable'"],"plain_english_summary":"These Directions require Commonwealth employers (notably APS and FMA Agencies) to support staff joining the Australian Civilian Corps by providing leave for training and deployment and protecting return-to-work rights and accrued personal leave. The Department maintains the ACC register.\n\nBy removing job‑security barriers, the Directions make it easier and safer for public servants to volunteer for overseas crisis and disaster responses without losing their employment conditions."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/prime-minister-s-australian-civilian-corps-directions-2012","history":"/api/acts/prime-minister-s-australian-civilian-corps-directions-2012/history","analysis":"/api/acts/prime-minister-s-australian-civilian-corps-directions-2012/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/prime-minister-s-australian-civilian-corps-directions-2012/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/prime-minister-s-australian-civilian-corps-directions-2012/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/prime-minister-s-australian-civilian-corps-directions-2012/documents"}}