This determination sets the salaries, allowances, and superannuation rights and obligations of appointed Judges of the Court Martial Appeal Court and the Chief Judge and other Judges of the Court Martial.

The Remuneration Authority (the Authority) is required to have regard to the following when setting remuneration for those judicial officers:

• the need to achieve and maintain fair relativity with the levels of remuneration received elsewhere; and

• the need to be fair both to the persons whose remuneration is being determined and to the taxpayer; and

• the need to recruit and retain competent persons.

In addition, the Authority must take into account—

• the requirements of the position concerned; and

• the conditions of service enjoyed by the persons whose remuneration is being determined and those enjoyed by the persons or members of the group of persons whose remuneration and conditions of employment are, in the opinion of the Authority, comparable with those of the persons or members of the group whose remuneration is being determined.

The Authority must also take into account any prevailing adverse economic conditions, based on evidence from an authoritative source, and may determine the remuneration at a rate lower than it would otherwise have determined.

During the last 18 months, the Authority has completed a significant review of its approach to setting remuneration, allowances, and superannuation entitlements for judicial officers (including the appointed Judges of the Court Martial Appeal Court and the Chief Judge and Judges of the Court Martial) listed in section 12B of the Remuneration Authority Act 1977. This determination implements the outcome of that part of the review that is related to the provision of salaries, allowances, and superannuation to the appointed Judges of the Court Martial Appeal Court and the Chief Judge and other Judges of the Court Martial.

The review took into account a wide range of information, including—

• submissions (written and oral) received from the various benches:

• the views of key stakeholders:

• remuneration data on comparable jobs in private sector legal practices requiring similar skills and experience and for groups from which it can be expected that the judicial officers could be recruited:

• remuneration data for senior positions in the public sector:

• remuneration arrangements covering judicial officers in international jurisdictions:

• terms and conditions of employment of members of the judiciary:

• information on the recruitment and retention of judicial officers:

• a survey of recurring and contemporary issues affecting the courts.

A key finding of the review was the importance of maintaining appropriate relativities between the salaries of the various judicial officer positions. While such relativities should not be regarded as fixed in perpetuity, the Authority recognised the risk in the significance that some might attribute to any change in relativities that have been stable for some time. As the superannuation subsidy for Judges of the Court Martial has changed in this determination to bring the subsidy into line with that of other judicial officers (who are covered by the Judicial Superannuation Determination 2019), the remuneration increase for these Judges is less this year than in previous years.

The Authority has set the salaries for the Judges at what it considers to be the appropriate rate for full-time positions. Judges acting on a part-time basis will be paid for the time they act, calculated on a pro rata basis as a proportion of the salary payable to a Judge acting on a full-time basis. The salary divisor for calculating the part-time daily rate is 226 pro-rated in proportion to the amount of the day worked.

However, an outcome of the review suggested that remunerating the Chief Judge of the Court Martial on a reimbursement basis was no longer appropriate for the maintenance of a judicial resource that needs to be available at all times and for what can be quite variable levels of activity. The Authority has decided that it is more appropriate to set the part-time salary to be paid to the Chief Judge of the Court Martial at four-tenths of the full-time equivalent annual salary level. This remuneration is to be paid as annual salary rather than as a reimbursement. In addition, if the Chief Judge acts for more than four-tenths of full-time (which is 90.4 full working days), the Chief Judge will receive compensation for that extra time up to the maximum yearly rate payable.

The Judges, when fulfilling their statutory roles, continue to incur expenses in the running of their private practices. The Authority has accordingly specified allowances to be paid as a contribution towards the costs incurred by Judges in maintaining their practices while carrying out their statutory functions. These allowances are reviewed annually. The recently completed review of judicial officers’ salaries, allowances, and superannuation indicated that the allowances currently covering the Judges are set appropriately and the Authority considered that there was no need to increase them at this time. However, the Authority intends to complete an in-depth review of the purpose, applicability, and rate of the relevant allowances during the coming year.

This determination is for a year from 1 January 2019. The making of the determination was delayed beyond the expiry of the previous determination in order to allow the Remuneration Authority to carry out preparatory work on the determination. The determination expires on 31 December 2019.