Page 4103 - Week 15 - Thursday, 17 December 1992
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Finally, the Commonwealth has agreed to mobility between the two public services. The details of this mobility arrangement have yet to be negotiated with the Commonwealth and with the unions, but the principle is clear: The Prime Minister and I agreed that the two services should be porous in the sense of allowing free movement between them. The model which we will put on the table will provide for total mobility based on merit. This would preserve the current right of public servants to seek promotion or transfer between the Commonwealth and ACT departments, while recognising that employees will belong to either the Australian Public Service or the ACT Government Service, but not both.
Mobility between the two public services offers benefits to the ACT Government Service as a whole as well as to its individual members. The larger employment pool of some 150,000 Commonwealth public servants, many of whom live in Canberra, will enable us to continue to recruit employees with a diversity of backgrounds without compromising the concept of a career service. Along with mobility, other terms and conditions of employment will be the subject of negotiation with the Commonwealth and unions. The principle we will follow is that the rights and entitlements of affected staff will not be reduced as a result of the creation of a separate service.
With the threshold issues resolved, the Government will be focusing on its vision for the ACT public sector. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to create an excellent framework for public sector management in a single exercise. This opportunity is all the more favourable because of the implementation at the same time of enterprise bargaining. The flexibility available is substantial.
Madam Speaker, we have in mind, and will be tabling with unions, a unified ACT Government Service, the kind of service where the courier can climb the ladder to department head; where there is nothing to stop the office assistant from making it to the general manager of a government enterprise. It will be a service where that office assistant can become the general manager because she or he was given the skills needed through employer-sponsored training, and where she or he received equal employment opportunity in every respect.
I do not think there would be any disagreement about the prime characteristics of our public sector. It needs to be a career service with entry and advancement on merit. It needs to be equitable, and the legislation should set out the values and principles we expect our public servants to apply in the discharge of their duties. It needs to be accountable to the Government and through it to the Assembly and the community. Management needs to be proactive, responsible and responsive. Its staff should all be well trained and we need to provide them with the working conditions that allow them to contribute fully to the level of their ability. The structures and procedures of our Public Service should allow it to operate efficiently and effectively. In short, Madam Speaker, we have the vision; we recognise the excellence of our existing ACT Government Service; and our employees can rest assured that we will not be seeking in any way to detract from their rights and entitlements as a result of this move.
I turn now to the timing of the move to our own service. The 1st of July next year was always an ambitious target. There is no magic about that date, and indeed there is no magic about any date. While I would expect at this stage that a separate service will be achieved by 1994, we should take as long as needed to develop an excellent framework within which to manage an excellent service.
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