Page 2591 - Week 09 - Thursday, 8 August 1991
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I was very pleased to see in the speech by Mr Berry that the Labor Government appreciates that half of our public servants are governed by the Federal award and the other half are not, and that it is appropriate that there be compatibility and appropriate that accord mark VI should apply to all of our public servants.
When the Alliance Government was in power the then Chief Minister floated for discussion the idea of an ACT public service. I think that is something, just like an ACT police force, that must eventually be faced in the Territory. At some stage in the future we will have, just like the Northern Territory, our own public service and our own police force. That is in the future, but I think it is very appropriate that the mechanisms be looked at now.
The accord mark VI agreement - I think it is relevant to state it again - provides for $12 payable from 16 May in return for a commitment to continue the process of award restructuring, and three wage increases, in September 1991, March 1992 and September 1992. I am pleased to see that those increases will be strictly conditional on demonstrated productivity achievements and that the amount of the increases will have regard to a market rates survey. Further, there is a no extra claims provision for the life of the agreement. That is essential, because excessive wage increases like we saw during the Whitlam period, and they were in the public sector, wrecked this country. We are still recovering from the adverse effects of that.
The Fraser Government did little to stop it. We still have had huge problems as a result of the great increase and the inflationary increase in public sector wages during the time of the Whitlam Government. Australia has to tighten its belt, the ACT has to tighten its belt and, of course, the public sector has to tighten its belt. Accordingly, it is essential that any wage increases be tied to demonstrated productivity achievements.
Mr Collaery again, I think, was quite accurate in how he looked at productivity. How do you assess it? In some areas it is quite easy to assess it. As he stated, it is quite easy to assess it in a government workshop perhaps by ascertaining how many vehicles are repaired. In areas such as the police force, the shopfront of the government legal profession, some of the other government services, people on counter duty in various ACT Government offices, it is easy to see the work they do. In the policy areas and in some of the administrative areas it is often a little bit more difficult. If cuts are to be made and rationalisations are to occur, it is those areas that should be looked at, because those are certainly, in terms of productivity, the more nebulous areas.
Productivity is difficult perhaps, when looking at the public service, to fully define; but, using a bit of commonsense, it is not too difficult and we should be able to see whether there are productivity improvements within
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