Page 2115 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
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Ms Follett got up, most concerned and pained, and said:
Mr Deputy Speaker, what the Government has done is to set aside some funds in order to engage an independent expert to advise us further on the fairest way of implementing the decision of the Canberra people.
She went on to say:
I also think, unlike Mr Humphries, that it is very important that that person -
meaning the independent expert -
be independent and be seen to be independent.
That was the net result of the Government's actions, according to the Chief Minister, as of 23 June - more than four months after the ACT election. With the greatest respect to the Chief Minister's power to motivate the large, perhaps cumbersome workings of the ACT administration, setting aside some funds in four months is not a particularly impressive record of fast-tracking. Certainly it is a hopeful sign but not a particularly dramatic one.
We were reassured by that. We particularly liked the idea about the independent expert. We assumed that an independent consultant or someone of that kind would come in and give the Government high quality, independent advice on what to do about getting Hare-Clark in place. I suppose they needed that because there was not much independence or empathy towards Hare-Clark within the Government's own ranks. Nearly two months elapsed until 20 August. The Opposition waited faithfully for some sign of action on the part of the Government, but in the whole time from 23 June to 20 August nothing transpired. Then on 20 August we spied in the Gazette - - -
Ms Follett: The Commonwealth Gazette.
MR HUMPHRIES: The Commonwealth Gazette. Thank you, Chief Minister. We saw an advertisement for a senior officer grade B position with duties including:
Provide policy advice, coordination and liaison in relation to the development of an electoral system for the ACT, and in particular: develop advice to senior management and to Government on all matters relevant to the development and administration of an ACT electoral system ...
The first thing that I have to say about that, Madam Speaker, is that we seem to have put to one side the concept of an independent expert. The advertisement is not for an expert or specialised person, a person who might be working in the electoral commission of another State - for example, Tasmania - or of the Commonwealth. It is not for an independent academic such as Malcolm Mackerras. Rather, the Government is advertising for a public servant - not independent and not necessarily expert. In fact, I think we would have to say that it is extremely doubtful that the ACT Government would have been able to secure the services of an expert on electoral systems from within its own ranks.
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