Defence Forces Retirement Benefits Act 1948

The Finance Minister may, by instrument under his hand published in the Gazette, declare employment, whether within or outside Australia, by a person, or by persons included in a class of persons, specified in the instrument to be public employment for the purposes of this Division.

A declaration under subsection (1) shall come into force on the day on which the instrument of declaration is published in the Gazette or, if an earlier day (not being earlier than 1 January 1970) is specified in the instrument as the day on which the declaration is to be deemed to have come into force, shall be deemed to have come into force on that earlier day.

A person shall be taken, for the purposes of this Division, to have been employed in public employment at a particular time if, and only if, the employer by whom he was employed at that time was a person, or was a person included in a class of persons, specified in a declaration by the Finance Minister under this section that was, or is to be deemed to have been, in force at that time.

Where any public employment in which a person is employed terminates and, within 3 months after the date of the termination, he again becomes employed in public employment, he shall, for the purposes of this Division, be deemed not to have ceased, by reason of the termination, to be employed in public employment but, in ascertaining the period in which he has been employed in public employment, any period between the termination of a period in which he was employed in public employment and the commencement of a further period in which he was employed in public employment shall not be treated as itself being a period in which he was employed in public employment.