Page 2116 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 9 September 1992
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Gone was the idea of an independent expert, presumably a consultant, which the Chief Minister espoused on 23 June this year. Obviously, on 23 June, in answer to Mrs Grassby's question, the Chief Minister was making policy on the run: "Yes, we will have an independent expert. Yes, that is the best idea. We will grab one of those. That will be the best way of doing it". No-one could be found in that category, so there has been a change of course. We decide that we are not going to have an independent expert but instead a government employee to prepare the usual submissions and get things done so that we can eventually have legislation for the ACT.
Not long after, on 3 September, another advertisement appeared in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette for the same position. As far as I can tell, it is exactly the same position, a senior officer grade B. The difference on this occasion is that, rather than it being a new position, as was indicated on 20 August, now it is a designated position, position No. 12573. The Chief Minister was gracious enough yesterday to acknowledge that the Government had made a mistake, that there was some problem with its earlier advertisement and that a later advertisement had to be put in to correct that matter. I am not sure what the basis of the problem was. Perhaps there was no date in the first advertisement or perhaps the position number was not advertised or something of that kind - I am not sure. But, whatever the problem was, a further delay of two weeks or so was incurred in advertising for the services of somebody who will, in due course, start to draft our legislation for us.
These processes are extremely slow and cumbersome. I would have expected a delay of at least a month, and more likely two months, in the actual filling of this position. So from the beginning of September we are now looking at filling the position by the beginning of November. The person, unless a ready-made expert on Hare-Clark and the ACT electoral system, which is most unlikely, will have to get down to the job of learning the system in the ACT and the system in Tasmania, working out how electoral systems generally operate, studying the Commonwealth Electoral Act, et cetera. It would be most unlikely that that officer would be in much of a position to begin work on drafting instructions until 1993 next year.
I have been in government too. I know what an extraordinarily long time it takes to get sometimes very simple pieces of legislation in front of the Cabinet. It is a very long, laborious process. It is not just a question of how much priority the Government gives it. It is a question of what resources are available and what expertise is available within the public service, which has to produce that legislation. The food legislation we considered only last month is a very good example of that. It was 12 years in the making. I can assure members of the Assembly that the electoral Bill will be a considerably more complex piece of legislation than the Food Bill. There is a sad shaking of heads from those opposite. They do not think it is in the same category, but mark my words. You are going to have trouble getting this legislation into the Assembly within the timeframe that you are thinking of. You are going to have trouble; that is my prediction.
We were also told yesterday by our wounded Chief Minister, "Indeed, we have an officer working on this question. There is now a person dedicated to the job of researching and getting on with the job of preparing us for Hare-Clark". Presumably, at this stage this officer is looking principally at the electoral
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