Page 3521 - Week 11 - Thursday, 14 October 1993
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PUBLIC SERVICE - PROGRESS TOWARDS SEPARATION
Ministerial Statement
Debate resumed.
MR KAINE: I had almost concluded. We could almost have adjourned. I have always seen the ACT as a place which, by its very nature, is capable of creating the best, the most professional, the most efficient and the most effective public service in Australia; but it will happen only if that initial guidance comes from the Government. Otherwise I fear that we will merely replicate very largely what we have already. I think it would be a great shame and a great pity if all of this effort and this opportunity to create a new public service were wasted.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (4.31): From the outset the Government has been committed to full consultation with interested parties in relation to the establishment of a separate public service, but in particular the union movement. We raised this as a threshold issue with the Commonwealth and we were very pleased that the Commonwealth joined with us in committing itself to full consultation with the unions. The self-government legislation, specifically subsection 21(7) of the ACT Self-Government (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988, requires that the Commonwealth and Territory governments consult with unions. We commenced this process of consultation in May when I met with the Commonwealth Minister for Industrial Relations, Mr Brereton, and union representatives at Parliament House.
Those discussions with the Commonwealth have continued since then at officer level, and, over that time, most of the 20 points that we put to the Commonwealth have been agreed in principle. Discussions at officer level have entered their final round and our officials are hopeful of resolving the remaining points, I am told, by the end of the month. We will enter shortly into formal bilateral negotiations with unions to discuss other specific issues that do not involve the Commonwealth, such as matters to be covered by the new Public Sector Management Act. As recently as yesterday our officials met with TLC officials and agreed on a consultative process for these bilateral negotiations. I am confident that our commitment to this process will pay dividends in the form of a legislative framework built on the best management industrial practices.
Apart from direct discussions with unions, our commitment to full union involvement has been reflected in a number of ways. We have funded a full-time TLC official to work on the separate service project, and that person currently is holding meetings with staff right across the Government Service. Officers from the Office of Public Sector Management also are attending these meetings in order to provide factual information to staff. We have produced five editions of a staff newsletter, "Our Own Service", to point out to staff what is going on. We have set up a staff hot line within the separate service task force in the Chief Minister's Department. That would indicate to members that it is really all go. We are consulting closely with workers in the workplace and through their unions. We believe that this extensive consultation with our work force and their reps will reduce both the time and the cost of the project. I think everybody would agree that if we were to do our own thing it would be a difficult process to
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