Page 1201 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 11 May 1993
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values and principles upon which our service might be based. The words used by different representatives varied, but the underlying sentiments revealed several strong common threads, such as the need for responsiveness and accountability and a desire for well-articulated and enforceable ethical standards.
I turn now to the type of public service that we will be proposing. It will be a unique public service, designed not only to serve Australia's only city-State but also to facilitate Canberra's increasingly recognised role as the premier city of the south-east region. It will not be a smaller version of the Australian Public Service, which is designed to support a national government. It will not be a State public service. We can avoid the very hard lessons many of these are learning by insisting now on fundamental values such as accountability and the need to adhere always to ethical conduct. Finally, it will not be a local government service. The local government option for the ACT was dropped in 1986 and today local government functions consume less than 15 per cent of our budget.
The ACT Government Service shares an employment market with Canberra's largest employer, the Australian Public Service, and in many cases will be competing for the same talented staff. Our ability to attract these staff will be enhanced if there is free movement of employees between the two public services. Such movement will also enhance the skills base of both public services by increasing opportunities to gain new work experience. We will, therefore, be proposing to the Commonwealth and to the unions that the ACT Government Service maintains strong links with the Australian Public Service. The Prime Minister and I have agreed on mobility between the two services, and I am looking forward to a relationship between the two services that is as porous as possible. I expect the details to be settled at the meeting later this month when we will propose that the present ways that staff can move between the two services should, at the very least, be maintained.
Other matters that are very important to our staff include: Continued access to the Commonwealth superannuation scheme; continued access to present workers compensation arrangements through the Comcare scheme; the option of continuing to use Commonwealth base level recruitment and traineeship arrangements for at least some of our base level intake; continued access to the Merit Protection and Review Agency for grievances and appeals; and continued use of Commonwealth training and development programs, and to the competency standards that they are developing. Of course, Madam Speaker, we would not commit ourselves to these arrangements unless they proved to be the best option for the Territory and for its employees; but they are a good starting point for us and many will also assist us in monitoring and maintaining the quality of our own service.
All of these elements, Madam Speaker, will be reflected in a single Bill which we will bring forward, after proper negotiation with unions, for the management of the public sector. The Bill will include clauses dealing with some familiar principles, such as merit selection, equal employment opportunity and industrial democracy. It will also include some new provisions to give effect to social justice. For example, we will be including a provision to enshrine access and equity in the public sector, and another to prohibit sexual harassment. The unified service we are proposing will establish the Government as the sole employer for the public sector. All ACT Government Service employees, except casual or short-term employees, would hold an office in the service. This will include the so-called "continuing employees", the mostly industrial staff who at
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