Act Name (Title of Office) Appointment Year

I, the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, GovernorGeneral of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council and insert appropriate text—see accompanying notes.

Dated

Sam Mostyn AC

GovernorGeneral

By Her Excellency’s Command

Name of Minister recommending appointment DRAFT ONLY—NOT FOR SIGNATURE

Title of Minister recommending appointment

Accompanying notes for instruments of appointment to be made by the GovernorGeneral

1 Choosing the correct template

These notes are for instruments of appointment that are to be made by the GovernorGeneral, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, other than instruments of appointment to be made by commission. Please check that you have chosen the correct template.

If you need to draft a commission of appointment, please refer to the example in the Federal Executive Council Handbook.

In addition, you should also have a copy of the document entitled “Instrument Templates—User Guide” which can also be found on OPC’s website with the template documents.

2 Choosing the name of the instrument

There are a number of elements in the name of an instrument. The name of each instrument should be unique so that it can be accurately identified. The following information should help you to name your instrument appropriately.

2.1 Act name

The name of the Act or instrument under which the appointment is to be made should be inserted, excluding the reference to “Act” or the kind of the instrument, and the year of the Act or instrument.

For example, an appointment under the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 would include the words “Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games)” in the instrument name. Similarly, an appointment under the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Determination 2014 would begin with the words “Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games)”.

2.2 Title of office

The name of the instrument should include a reference to the title of the office to which a person is to be appointed. For example, the appointment of the ViceChief of the Defence Force under the Defence Act 1903 would be called the Defence (ViceChief of the Defence Force) Appointment 2016.

2.3 Acting appointments

If the appointment is to appoint a person to act in an office, then the word “Acting” should be included in brackets with the title of the office. For example, an instrument to appoint a person to act in the office of Statistician under section 15 of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975 would be the Australian Bureau of Statistics (Acting Australian Statistician) Appointment 2016.

2.4 Appointment

The template refers to “Appointment” in the title. The reference to “Appointment” can remain even for reappointments (as a reappointment is merely an example of an appointment).

2.5 Year

Include a reference to the year in which the appointment is to be made.

3 Inserting appropriate text

3.1 Instrument that only appoints a person to an office

The following text should be inserted if the instrument is only appointing a person to an office. The appropriate information should be included where the text is highlighted in yellow and the yellow highlighting should be removed:

I, the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, GovernorGeneral of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council and under provision under which appointment is made, appoint name of person being appointed as title of office for period of appointment.

The provision under which the appointment is to be made should refer to both the actual provision and the title of the Act or instrument under which the appointment is to be made (such as “section 15 of the Enabling Legislation Act 2015”).

If the Act or instrument under which the person is to be appointed does not specify whether the appointment is to be on a parttime or fulltime basis, then the words “, on a parttime basis,” or “, on a fulltime basis,” (as required) should be inserted after the title of the office.

If the period of appointment does not begin on the day the appointment is to be made, the period should be expressed as “insert number years beginning on insert day”.

3.2 Instruments that include revocation or conditions

The following text should be inserted if the instrument (the new instrument of appointment) being drafted:

revokes another instrument of appointment (the previous instrument of appointment) and appoints a person to the same office; or

appoints a person to an office subject to a simple condition; or

revokes a previous instrument of appointment and appoints a person to the same office subject to a simple condition.

The previous instrument of appointment may be revoked:

under a specific provision in the same Act or instrument as the one under which the appointment is made; or

if the Act or instrument is silent on revocation, under the same provision as the appointment is made, as a result of subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (which deems a power to make an instrument to include a power to revoke an instrument).

Which of the paragraphs below should be included will depend on which of paragraph 15(a), 15(b) or 15(c) applies. After the relevant paragraphs have been chosen, the appropriate information should be included where the text is highlighted in yellow and the yellow highlighting should be removed:

I, the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, GovernorGeneral of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council and:

(a)	under provision under which previous instrument of appointment is revoked, revoke the appointment of name of person whose appointment is revoked as title of office; and

(b)	under provision under which new instrument of appointment is made, appoint name of person being appointed as title of office for period of appointment; and

(c)	under provision under which condition is imposed, determine that a condition on which name of person being appointed holds office as title of office is insert condition.

The provision under which the previous instrument of appointment is revoked and the provision under which the new instrument of appointment is made should refer to both the actual provision and the title of the Act or instrument under which the appointment is revoked or made (such as “section 15 of the Enabling Legislation Act 2015”).

If the Act or instrument under which the person is to be appointed does not specify whether the appointment is to be on a parttime or fulltime basis, then the words “, on a parttime basis,” or “, on a fulltime basis,” (as required) should be inserted after the title of the office.

If the period of appointment does not begin on the day the appointment is to be made, the period should be expressed as “insert number years beginning on insert day”.

3.3 Instrument of acting appointment

The following text should be inserted if the instrument is to appoint one or more persons to act in a single office. The appropriate information should be included where the text is highlighted in yellow and the yellow highlighting should be removed:

I, the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC, GovernorGeneral of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council and under provision under which acting appointment is made, appoint to act as title of office during any period when title of office is circumstances for acting:

(a)	name of first person to act; and

(b)	if name of first person to act is circumstances for acting—name of second person to act; and

(c)	if names of first and second person to act are circumstances for acting—name of third person to act.

In this example, 3 persons have been appointed to act. However, the number of persons being appointed to act should be decided in individual cases.

The provision under which acting appointment is to be made should refer to both the actual provision and the title of the Act or instrument under which the acting appointment is to be made (such as “section 15 of the Enabling Legislation Act 2015”).

The text inserted at circumstances for acting is generally “absent from duty or from Australia or is, for any other reason, unable to perform the functions of the office”. However, you should ensure that the language is consistent with the language of the provision under which the acting appointment is to be made.

4 Name of Minister recommending appointment

The name of the Minister recommending the appointment, and his or her title, should be inserted where the text is highlighted yellow and the yellow highlighting removed. The words “DRAFT ONLY—NOT FOR SIGNATURE” should be deleted.

5 Before finalising your instrument for signing

Before finalising your appointment for signing, you should check that you have done the following:

chosen the correct option from sections 3.1 to 3.3 above and inserted the option chosen in the appropriate position;

correctly inserted appropriate text where there is yellow highlighting;

removed all yellow highlighting;

deleted the grey highlighted text “DRAFT ONLY—NOT FOR SIGNATURE”;

deleted these accompanying notes.