Page 2421 - Week 09 - Thursday, 17 September 1992
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While I am on my feet, Madam Speaker, I take the opportunity to advise the house that today I formally launched the Government's environment budget, which draws together all the elements of the environment. It has become a very comprehensive document, a document that very well demonstrates the commitment of the Labor Government to the protection and enhancement of Canberra's environment, so that many years down the track it will still be a wonderful place in which to live - perhaps even better than it is now, and that is saying something.
Government Service - Staff Cuts
MR DE DOMENICO: My question is to the Chief Minister, and I refer the Chief Minister to the answer she gave to Mr Kaine's question. It appears that it is now the responsibility of the public service and public servants in particular to determine whether there will be any staff cuts. Should the redeployment and voluntary redundancy methods both be exhausted and the decision be that more staff cuts should be required, would the Chief Minister stand by the decisions made by those public servants and ensure that there is no political or other interference to make sure that those decisions are adhered to?
Mr Berry: On a point of order, Madam Speaker: That is hypothetical.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr De Domenico, you are not really allowed to ask questions of a hypothetical nature. I clearly heard you say, "Should this, that or the other happen". If you would like to read the question again, I will listen carefully.
MR DE DOMENICO: I refer to the answer given by the Chief Minister when she suggested to Mr Kaine that the Government had no intention of making any staff cuts but that she had given various amounts of money to various sections and that they were to determine whether there were to be staff cuts. My question is: Should those public servants now determine staff cuts - - -
Mr Berry: You are becoming hypothetical again.
MR DE DOMENICO: When they determine that there will be staff cuts, will the Chief Minister assure the Assembly that she will likely not interfere in those decisions?
MS FOLLETT: I am afraid that I am at a bit of a loss as to the nature of Mr De Domenico's question. If his question asks whether I will interfere in a political manner in a staffing matter, the answer is no, I will not. If his question asks what action will be taken where a program manager or managers apparently fail to live within their budget, that is hypothetical. I have made it abundantly clear, I believe, that I expect program managers to live within their budgets, and I believe that the budgets that they have been given are livable with. I do not anticipate the course of events Mr De Domenico is referring to. I think also that it is rather early in the day for him to be anticipating such a course of events.
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