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• that the Commission, pursuant to the powers conferred on it under the Industrial Relations Act, 1979, orders the Award be varied; and
• that the variation takes the form of deleting and replacing two award schedules: Schedule F (Clause 30, Camping Allowance) and Schedule J (Travelling, Transfer and Relieving Allowance); and
• that the variation has effect on and from 5 December 2001.

The replacement Schedule F sets out camping allowance daily rates segregated by geographical zone (south and north of 26° South Latitude) and by four itemised circumstances: Permanent Camp with cook provided by the Department; Permanent Camp with no cook provided; Other Camping with cook provided; and Other Camping with no cook provided. Representative figures in the inserted Schedule F include, for example, south of 26°S: Permanent Camp (cook provided) $29.30 per day and Other Camping (no cook) $58.60 per day; north of 26°S: Permanent Camp (cook provided) $35.20 per day and Other Camping (no cook) $64.50 per day.

The replacement Schedule J is a detailed table of allowances covering incidental expenses, accommodation involving overnight stays in hotel or motel (with separate columns showing daily rates, rates for officers with dependants, and relieving/transfer allowances), accommodation at other than a hotel or motel, travel not involving an overnight stay (meals), deductions for normal living expenses, and midday meal reimbursement. The inserted Schedule J includes metropolitan and locality-specific figures (for example, WA metropolitan hotel/motel $172.60 daily allowance; named remote localities with specific dollar amounts such as Karratha $284.85 daily, Fitzroy Crossing $259.35 daily, and many others), interstate rates (Sydney $218.95, Melbourne $224.95, other capitals $177.30), and meal rates for travel without overnight stay (e.g. breakfast $12.70 south of 26°S, breakfast $14.05 north of 26°S and interstate). The Schedule also specifies deduction amounts for normal living expenses (each adult $20.45; each child $3.50) and a midday meal rate per meal $4.95 with a maximum reimbursement per pay period $24.75.

In short, the Commission effected a consent variation to the award by directly inserting new numeric rates and related provisions into Schedules F and J and fixed the commencement date as 5 December 2001.

Why the court decided this way

This is an administrative arbitral order rather than a judgment containing extended legal reasoning. The operative language of the order shows the Commission acted under the statutory authority of the Industrial Relations Act, 1979 to make award variations. The order explicitly states it was made "by consent", indicating the parties agreed to the terms of variation put before the Commission. The Commission's role in this setting is to make an industrial order when competent jurisdiction exists and the parties have presented agreed terms; here the Commission recorded the consent and made the variation operative.

There is no written judicial reasoning provided in the extract beyond the statutory delegation and the consent notation. The practical steps taken by the Commission were:

• identification of the particular award to be varied;
• express deletion of the existing schedules (Schedule F and Schedule J); and
• insertion of replacement schedules containing the updated allowance rates and incidental provisions.

Thus the "why" is procedural and statutory: the Commission had the statutory power and parties agreed; the Commission recorded that agreement in an order which specified the amended text and an operative date.

Before and after state of the law

Before: The Award as it stood prior to the order contained earlier versions of Schedule F and Schedule J setting camping and travel/relieving/transfer allowances. Those earlier schedules are not reproduced in the provided document, so the exact prior numeric values or structural arrangements are not available here.

After: The Award was varied by deleting the previous Schedule F and Schedule J and replacing them with the new textual and numeric content contained in the Schedule to the Commission's order. The inserted Schedules show a structured approach to allowances:

• a geographic split based on the 26° South Latitude line (south vs north);
• itemised camping allowance categories differentiating permanent vs other camping and whether a cook is provided;
• a multi-column structure in the travelling allowances table distinguishing incidental expense allowances, rates for officers with dependants and without dependants, relieving/transfer allowances, and particular locality-based accommodation rates including named remote towns;
• defined meal rates for travel without overnight stays and specified deductions for normal living expenses.

Operationally, from 5 December 2001 those new rates and structures governed entitlements under the Award.

This order is an example of how industrial commissions implement negotiated or agreed adjustments to award monetary rates and allowances by formal variation and is typical of award maintenance practice in industrial jurisdictions.

Key passages with plain-English translation

1. Source text: "and by consent, the Commission, pursuant to the powers conferred on it under the Industrial Relations Act, 1979, hereby orders: THAT the Government Officers Salaries, Allowances and Conditions Award 1989 (No. PSAA 3 of 1989) be varied..."

   • Plain English: The Commission used its statutory power and, with the parties' agreement, made a formal change to the stated award.

2. Source text: "...be varied in accordance with the following Schedule and that such variation shall have effect on and from the 5th day of December 2001."

   • Plain English: The specific changes are set out in the attached schedules, and they start to apply from 5 December 2001.

3. Source text (Schedule F opening): "Schedule F - Clause 30 - Camping Allowance: Delete this Schedule and insert the following in lieu thereof:"

   • Plain English: The Commission removed the old camping allowance section and replaced it with a brand new set of camping allowance rules and dollar amounts.

4. Source text (Schedule F sample lines): e.g. "South of 26o South Latitude ... Permanent Camp ... Cook provided by the Department 29.30"

   • Plain English: If a worker is camping in a permanent camp location south of 26°S and the department provides a cook, the daily camping allowance is $29.30.

5. Source text (Schedule J opening): "Schedule J - Travelling, Transfer and Relieving Allowance: Delete this Schedule and insert the following in lieu thereof:"

   • Plain English: The travel and related allowances section of the award is replaced by the new table and rules that follow.

6. Source text (Schedule J sample lines): e.g. "WA - Metropolitan Hotel or Motel 172.60 ... Interstate - Capital City Sydney 218.95 ... DEDUCTION FOR NORMAL LIVING EXPENSES Each Adult 20.45 Each Child 3.50"

   • Plain English: For WA metropolitan hotel or motel stays the daily allowance is $172.60; for travel to Sydney the daily allowance is $218.95; when calculating some payments there is a normal living expense deduction of $20.45 per adult and $3.50 per child.

These passages are the operative elements establishing rates and the Commission's method of effecting change.

What fact patterns trigger this precedent

This document is a consent variation order by an industrial commission. Fact patterns that would lead to similar orders include:

• parties to an award (or organisations with standing under the award) agree on updated monetary allowances or structural changes to award schedules and request the Commission to record and formalise that agreement;
• periodic enterprise-wide or system-wide adjustments to allowances (e.g. travel, camping, remote locality allowances) are negotiated and require formal insertion into the Award text;
• administrative housekeeping where the Commission is asked to replace outdated schedules with current figures and fix an operative commencement date.

Key features triggering such an order are: (a) a formal application (or consent) before the Commission; (b) agreement among the relevant parties or representative organisations; and (c) a statutory power in the Commission to vary awards (here under the Industrial Relations Act, 1979).

How later courts have treated it

The provided document does not record any later judicial treatment, appellate consideration, or citation history. The order is an administrative commission variation recorded as [2001 WAIRC 04364] and identified as an Award variation. Without additional materials, no subsequent treatment, reliance, or interpretation by later courts or commissions can be extracted from this text.

Practically, such consent orders function as primary source modifications to awards: subsequent disputes would be decided by reference to the Award as varied. Any later interpretation or challenge would appear in separate proceedings or published decisions, which are not present here.

Still-open questions

The document is concise and procedural. It leaves open several matters that a practitioner or researcher might want clarity on but which the text itself does not address:

1. Prior text and comparative figures: The order deletes and replaces Schedules F and J but the prior numerical entitlements and structure are not included here. To assess the scale of change, one would need to compare with the pre-variation Award text.

2. Rationale for particular rate levels: The document records the agreed figures but does not state the basis for the chosen amounts (e.g. CPI indexing, negotiations, government policy, or cost studies). The Commission records consent but no explanatory reasons.

3. Interaction with other Award clauses: The order replaces the two schedules but does not specify any consequential amendments to cross-referenced clauses beyond the headings. A reader should check the rest of the Award to confirm how the new schedules operate in conjunction with drafting elsewhere (for example, clause numbers referred to in Schedule J: clause 38(1)(b)(ii), clause 41(3) are noted in the table heading).

4. Scope of application to particular employees and employers: The order applies to the Award generally; it does not single out which employers bound by the Award are affected, though the parties to the proceeding included the Albany Port Authority and others. One might wish to confirm which employers and employees fall within the Award and whether any modernisation of coverage occurred.

5. How deductions and calculation methods are to be implemented in payroll practice: The schedule sets deduction amounts and meal reimbursement caps, but the procedural mechanism for payroll or claims processing is not elaborated.

6. Whether the order was subject to any later amendment, suspension, or superseding variation: The document is a snapshot; further variations could have been made after 5 December 2001.

7. Whether the Commission’s consent order reflects negotiated enterprise-level settlements or broader award maintenance processes: The text shows consent but does not indicate the negotiation level.

For these open questions, the primary documents to consult would be the pre-variation Award text, any commission minutes or reasons for the variation (if available), and subsequent variations or citations.

Note: This is a descriptive, source-grounded analysis of the Commission order recorded as [2001 WAIRC 04364]. It sets out what the order says and what it does, based on the text supplied. It is not legal advice. I can make mistakes. Before you act on, rely on, or use any part of this analysis or any draft of documents arising from it, get a qualified Australian lawyer to check it.