{"id":"F2008B00159","name":"Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Alternative Arrangements Declaration No. 1","slug":"superannuation-productivity-benefit-alternative-arrangements-declaration-no-1","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"416 of 1990","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":72701,"registerId":"commonwealth-F2008B00159-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-02","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Alternative Arrangements Declaration No. 1","content":"![](image.001.png)\n\nStatutory Rules 1990 No. 4161\n\nSuperannuation (Productivity Benefit)  \nAlternative Arrangements Declaration  \nNo. 1\n\nI, RALPH WILLIS, Minister of State for Finance, hereby make the following Declaration under subsection 4A(1) and (2) of the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act 1988.\n\n> Dated 10 December 1990.\n\nRALPH WILLIS\n\nMinister of State for Finance\n\n\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\\_\n\nCitation\n\n1. This Declaration may be cited as Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Alternative Arrangements Declaration No. 1.\n\nCommencement\n\n2. This Declaration takes effect from 1 January 1988.\n\nRepeal\n\n3. Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Declaration No. 42. is repealed.\n\n$$S 2. Statutory Rules 1990 No. 175.\n\nInterpretation\n\n4. In this Declaration:\n\n“Central Land Council” means the Central Land Council established under section 21 of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976;\n\n“the Act” means the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act 1988.\n\nClass employees\n\n5. For the purposes of subsection 4A (1) of the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act 1988, the classes of qualified employees specified in the Schedule not being scheme employees, are classes of employees who are neither fund employees nor interim arrangement employees.\n\nSpecified arrangements: staff of the Central Land Council\n\n6. (1) For the purposes of subsection 4A (2) of the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act 1988, the following arrangements are to apply to members of the staff of the Central Land Council.\n\n(2) In this clause, “joining date”, in relation to a person who is a member of the staff of the Central Land Council, means:\n\n(a) if the person was a member of the staff on 1 January 1988—1 January 1988; or\n\n(b) if the person became a member of the staff after 1 January 1988—the day on which the person became a member of that staff.\n\n(3) Where a member of the staff of the Central Land Council has not made an election under subclause (4), the member is taken to have become an interim arrangement employee on the joining date.\n\n(4) A member of the staff of the Central Land Council may, at any time, elect to become a member of the nominated fund, an approved fund or the superannuation fund called the AMP Superleader Plan.\n\n(5) A member of the staff of the Central Land Council who makes an election under subclause (4) may revoke the election.\n\n(6) An election under subclause (4) or a revocation under subclause (5):\n\n(a) may be made by notice in writing given to the Central Land Council; and\n\n(b) takes effect when the notice is given.\n\n(7) If a member of the staff of the Central Land Council makes an election under subclause (4), the Act commences to apply to the member when the election takes effect as if:\n\n(a) the member were a remainder employee and a fund employee; and\n\n(b) the AMP Superleader Plan had been declared under subsection 4C (1) of the Act to be an approved fund; and\n\n(c) the Act were modified by omitting subsections 4C (2) and (3).\n\n(8) If a member of the staff of the Central Land Council revokes an election made under subclause (4), subclause (7) ceases to have effect in relation to the member when the revocation takes effect.\n\n—————\n\n  \nSCHEDULE Clause 5\n\nCLASS EMPLOYEES\n\n1 Employees of the following bodies:\n\nAerospace Technologies of Australia\n\nANL Limited\n\nAustralian Airlines Limited\n\nAustralian Defence Industries Ltd\n\nAustralian Industry Development Corporation\n\nAustralian Meat and Livestock Corporation\n\nAustralian National Railways Commission\n\nAustralian Postal Corporation\n\nAustralian Telecommunications Corporation\n\nCommonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission\n\nCivil Aviation Authority\n\nCoselco Mimotopes Pty Ltd\n\nFederal Airports Corporation\n\nFilm Australia Pty Ltd\n\nOTC Limited\n\nSnowy Mountains Engineering Corporation Limited\n\n2 Employees provided with personalised superannuation coverage under an approval by the Minister for Finance\n\n3 Employees of Commonwealth educational institutions who are members of the Tertiary Education Superannuation Scheme\n\n4 Members of the staff of the Central Land Council\n\n> Note: NOTES\n\n> Note: 1. Notified in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 21 December 1990.\n\n> Note: 2. Statutory Rules 1990 No. 175.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Declaration operates within the original statutory power to declare alternative arrangements under the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act 1988. It designates particular classes of employees and sets the elective arrangements for Central Land Council staff; these are variations in application and administration of the Act rather than an expansion beyond the Act’s purpose. The retroactive commencement and the specific treatment of the AMP Superleader Plan for electing CLC staff are changes in implementation detail, but they do not broaden the Declaration beyond the Act’s delegated scope."},"complexity_factors":["Short instrument (6 clauses + Schedule) but materially cross-references multiple provisions of the principal Act (subsection 4A and section 4C)","Retroactive commencement date (clause 2) which raises temporal complexity for administration","Conditional and revocable individual elections for CLC staff (cl.6(3)–(8)) introducing stateful administrative requirements","Modification-by-omission: treats the Act as if subsections 4C(2) and (3) were omitted for electing staff (cl.6(7)) — requires reading omissions against the original text","Defined terms and classifications depend on external definitions in the Act (terms like 'remainder employee', 'fund employee', 'interim arrangement employee')","Schedule lists multiple organisations and discrete categories (4 items), concentrating effects on named entities which need to be reconciled with scheme definitions","Repeal of a prior Declaration (clause 3) requiring comparison with the repealed instrument to determine net change"],"plain_english_summary":"**What this instrument does (mechanically)**\n\n- This Declaration (made under the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act 1988) identifies particular groups of employees and sets out alternative arrangements for the staff of the Central Land Council (CLC).  (See cl.5 and cl.6.)\n- It is expressed to take effect retrospectively from 1 January 1988 (clause 2).  It also repeals a prior Declaration (No. 42) (clause 3).\n- Clause 5 names the \"class employees\" for the purposes of subsection 4A(1) of the Act by reference to the Schedule. These are specific employer groups (for example, Australian National Railways Commission, Australian Postal Corporation, Film Australia Pty Ltd, and others listed), plus a small set of other categories such as certain Tertiary Education Superannuation Scheme members and employees with personalised coverage approvals (Schedule, items 1–4).\n- Clause 6 sets out special rules that apply to members of the CLC staff: it defines a \"joining date\" (cl.6(2)); it treats staff who do not make an election as \"interim arrangement employees\" from their joining date (cl.6(3)); and it allows any CLC staff member at any time to elect, in writing to the CLC, to join either the nominated fund, an approved fund or the AMP Superleader Plan (cl.6(4)–(6)).\n- If a CLC staff member elects to join a nominated/approved fund or AMP Superleader Plan, the Act is treated as applying to them as if they were a remainder employee and a fund employee, and as if the AMP Superleader Plan had been declared an approved fund; the Act is also treated as modified by omission of subsections 4C(2) and (3) (cl.6(7)). A revocation of an election terminates that special treatment from the time the revocation takes effect (cl.6(5), (8)).\n\n**Who this affects**\n\n- Employees of the specific Commonwealth and related bodies listed in the Schedule (these are the \"class employees\") are captured for the purposes of the Act (cl.5 and Schedule).\n- Members of the Central Land Council staff are subject to special, optional arrangements: by default they are \"interim arrangement employees\" from their joining date unless they elect otherwise; they may opt into a nominated fund, an approved fund or the AMP Superleader Plan at any time by written notice to the CLC (cl.6).\n- Employers and administrators (notably the Central Land Council and the nominated/approved funds, including AMP if elected) are affected operationally because they must receive, record and give effect to elections and revocations and implement the altered application of the Act.\n\n**Why it matters (claimed purpose and mechanical consequences)**\n\n- The instrument claims to allocate how the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act applies to particular employee groups (officially: to implement alternative arrangements under subsections 4A(1) and 4A(2) of the Act). Mechanically, it does three things that matter for rights and administration:\n  - Fixes which employee groups are treated as \"class employees\" under the Act (Schedule; cl.5).\n  - Sets a default classification for CLC staff (interim arrangement employee) but gives each person an ongoing individual choice to join specified funds (cl.6(3)–(6)).\n  - Makes the AMP Superleader Plan effectively an \"approved fund\" for CLC staff who elect, and changes how the Act applies by omitting certain subsections of s.4C for those electing staff (cl.6(7)).\n\n**Practical implications, incentives and likely implementation effects (mechanical, not speculative)**\n\n- Who decides: CLC staff decide whether to remain interim arrangement employees or to elect to join a nominated/approved fund or AMP Superleader Plan (cl.6(4)–(6)). The decision is implemented by a written notice to the CLC.\n- Who pays / who bears costs: the Declaration does not itself set contribution rates or funding rules; it changes legal classification under the Act, which will change which statutory rules apply to a person and therefore which parties (employer, fund, or scheme) have obligations under the Act. Those downstream funding or administrative costs flow from the Act’s substantive rules once the classification changes.\n- Behavioural change: employees gain a discrete administrative choice (to elect or revoke). Employers and funds must set up processes to record elections/revocations and to apply the Act as modified for electing employees (cl.6(6)–(8)).\n- Administrative and compliance burden: requires the CLC to receive and act on written elections and revocations; may require record-keeping to show when the Act began to apply to an individual (joining date rules in cl.6(2)–(3)). The retrospective commencement date (cl.2) raises a prospect of backdating administrative effect to 1 January 1988.\n\n**Trade-offs, risks and implementation notes**\n\n- Retroactivity risk: the instrument takes effect from 1 January 1988 although it was made in December 1990 (cl.2). That creates practical and legal questions about rights and obligations during the intervening period and increases administrative work to apply the rules retrospectively.\n- Cross-references and legal dependency: the actual legal consequences for an employee depend on how terms such as \"remainder employee\", \"fund employee\", \"interim arrangement employee\" and subsections of s.4C operate in the Act itself. Those definitions and the omitted subsections are in the principal Act, so understanding the full effect requires checking the Act’s text (the Declaration modifies how the Act applies rather than restating substantive entitlements).\n- Concentration of choice: the option to elect is given only to Central Land Council staff (cl.6). The Schedule otherwise specifies particular organisations; the benefits or burdens of the Declaration are therefore concentrated on named groups rather than on all public servants generally.\n\n**Bottom line**\n\nThis Declaration is a targeted administrative instrument that (1) designates a set of named employee groups as \"class employees\" for the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act (Schedule; cl.5), (2) provides CLC staff with a default classification but an ongoing written election right to join specified funds (cl.6), and (3) operates retrospectively from 1 January 1988 (cl.2). To know the precise financial or benefit consequences for individuals or employers, one must read the cited provisions of the principal Act referenced throughout the Declaration (notably subsection 4A and section 4C), because this instrument changes classifications and the Act’s application rather than setting contribution or benefit rules itself."},"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":"This declaration appears consistent with its original purpose under the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act 1988. It implements the Act's framework for 'alternative arrangements' for employees outside the main scheme, which was the intended mechanism from the outset. The specific list of entities reflects the government's business enterprise structure of the late 1980s/early 1990s, but this is implementation detail rather than scope creep."},"complexity_factors":["Multiple cross-references to the Superannuation (Productivity Benefit) Act 1988 (subsections 4A(1), 4A(2), and 4C(1))","Conditional logic for Central Land Council staff involving elections, revocations, and deemed status changes (clauses 6(3)-6(8))","Retroactive commencement date (1 January 1988) despite being made in December 1990","Schedule contains a heterogeneous list of entities ranging from airlines to medical laboratories to Indigenous land councils","Modification of the parent Act's operation through deemed provisions (clause 6(7)) rather than direct amendment"],"plain_english_summary":"This 1990 ministerial declaration creates alternative superannuation arrangements for employees of certain Commonwealth business enterprises and statutory authorities who don’t fit the main public‑service scheme. It specifically covers entities like Australia Post, Telstra and Qantas and gives Central Land Council staff a choice between interim coverage or joining specified super funds. It preserves retirement coverage and adds flexibility for these distinct employee groups."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/superannuation-productivity-benefit-alternative-arrangements-declaration-no-1","history":"/api/acts/superannuation-productivity-benefit-alternative-arrangements-declaration-no-1/history","analysis":"/api/acts/superannuation-productivity-benefit-alternative-arrangements-declaration-no-1/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/superannuation-productivity-benefit-alternative-arrangements-declaration-no-1/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/superannuation-productivity-benefit-alternative-arrangements-declaration-no-1/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/superannuation-productivity-benefit-alternative-arrangements-declaration-no-1/documents"}}