Page 1664 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 May 1990
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development internally of savings options within the ACT Government agencies, the Priorities Review Board's report will be a key input to the development of the 1990-91 budget, to future budget strategies and to ongoing public sector reform programs.
Over the next months in the lead-up to the presentation of the 1990-91 budget, the Government will be considering the specific recommendations made in the Priorities Review Board report. In doing so the Government will seek the views of community and business groups, the unions and the managers and staff who make up the ACT Government Service. We are committed to consultation with unions and staff on matters which affect them in the workplace. We seek their cooperation and active assistance in achieving improved productivity with maintenance of standards of service to the community.
The Government, Mr Speaker, will give careful consideration to the responses it receives on the report as it decides its position on the various recommendations. In tabling the report I, however, do wish to outline the Government's attitude to a number of the key recommendations contained in the report, in particular in connection with the ACT Government Service employment arrangements.
While protecting the professionalism of the ACT Government Service as a career public service, the Government will be looking to incorporate into its operations more of the competitive discipline and commitment to ongoing service and productivity improvement found in the private sector. We will be giving a particular priority to the development of management skills and to investing in the training and development of ACT Government employees with the aim of achieving additional and cumulative productivity and performance improvements.
Striving for innovation and excellence in our public sector does not, in the Government's view, require us to break the current links between ACT Government Service employment and the Australian Public Service. Indeed, there are important advantages in retaining the existing high level of mobility that allows staff to develop their skills and experience across both the ACT and Commonwealth public sectors. The Government therefore has no plans for the foreseeable future to establish a separate ACT public service. We will also, as part of our ongoing moves towards single stream employment within the ACT Government Service, explore with the Commonwealth opportunities to bring additional categories of ACT Government Service staff under the Public Service Act.
The Priorities Review Board has recommended the establishment of a public sector management board to provide an ongoing focus and source of advice for the Government's public sector reform program. The Government has decided to take immediate action to give effect to this recommendation. The public sector management board will be
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