Page 3288 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 October 2022
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candidate, because few Canberrans are scouring the public service Gazette for jobs. Third, this role was advertised for just one week. Fourth, the internal Cultural Facilities Corporation paperwork related to advertising of the role says:
The aim of advertising is to make as many people as possible aware of a vacancy and persuade suitable potential applicants to apply …
—that is, to attract from the widest range and largest number of suitably qualified candidates. It continues:
… advertising in the ACT Gazette alone is unlikely to attract a competitive field of qualified applicants for a position. Please consider placing advertisements in a variety of media.
Despite that, the only box that was ticked for advertising in this case was the ACT Gazette.
It would be funny if it were not such an egregious and serious misuse and blatant manipulation of ACT public service processes to, once again, find a job for a mate. And, lo and behold, despite ticking the minimum number of boxes for the recruitment process, the person hired for the role was Mr Ramsay’s former political chief of staff—the person who backed him during his time as a minister in this place. The person who was hired for the role is someone who has continuously worked for Mr Ramsay, including during his time at the Kippax Uniting Church. On the information that I have seen, it seems absolutely clear what has happened here: a deliberate gaming of the recruitment process so that the CEO could hire his preferred candidate, in a $150,000 per year role, to help him run the organisation because he is not qualified to do it himself.
During the estimates hearing the relevant minister and the CEO himself were unable to explain the urgency to fill the role and the apparent reluctance to advertise widely for a reasonable period of time or at a more sensible time of year in order to attract a competitive field of suitably qualified candidates. The CEO clearly ignored the advice of his own organisation to rush through this recruitment process, and now we are left asking why. This is a blatant misuse of public processes and funds and is a result of the toxic culture of more than 20 years of this Labor-Greens government, which too often looks the other way when there are egregious breaches of public confidence and faith.
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (11.25): I rise to speak on the Appropriation Bill 2022-2023, as it relates to the Cultural Facilities Corporation. The Cultural Facilities Corporation is the central arts organisation in the ACT and manages the Canberra Theatre Centre, the Canberra Museum and Gallery, and ACT historic places. We have spoken in this place in a range of other debates about some work that has gone on at CMAG, the Canberra Museum and Gallery, to make it more dementia-friendly, including changing some of the ramps. I would also like to give a special shout-out, in the ACT historic places area, to Lanyon, in my electorate of Brindabella, which I visit on a regular basis. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the staff at these facilities for all of their hard work and everything that they do for our arts community here in the ACT. That is especially true following on from and continuing with the COVID-safe arrangements.
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