Page 848 - Week 03 - Thursday, 14 April 1994
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Government Service Legislation
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, through you, I have a question to the Chief Minister, Ms Follett, in connection with the establishment of our own public service. Chief Minister, you have already slipped the date to establish the public service by one year, from 1 July last year to 1 July this year, and when you did that you said that you expected to have the legislation passed by this Assembly in November of last year. Then you revised that and said that you expected it to be passed by February of this year. It is now the middle of April. First of all, when do you intend to table the legislation in this house? Secondly, given your inability to get it to the point where you can do so, how long do you think is a reasonable time for committee consideration of that Bill after it is tabled? Having regard to that answer, how do you rate the probability of getting your public service in place on 1 July this year?
MS FOLLETT: I thank Mr Kaine for the question. Madam Speaker, first of all, I expect to introduce the Public Sector Management Bill into the Assembly next week. Members will then have an opportunity to have a look at the Bill and to examine it in conjunction with another Bill which will be necessary, and that is the Public Sector Management (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill. The drafting of those two Bills is on track and they will be with us in the Assembly next week. As to what is a reasonable length of time for the committee to consider the Bills, that is really a matter for the committee itself, Madam Speaker. Given that there is a deadline of 1 July, and given also that the committee has had a draft Bill available to it for some time now, I expect - - -
Mr Kaine: We cannot do anything with it because you gave it to us on the basis of confidentiality. We cannot discuss it with anybody.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, you have asked your question.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, given those two circumstances, I expect that the committee would not wish to delay the commencement of the separate public service arrangements beyond 1 July. I should also mention, Madam Speaker, that it is necessary for the Federal Parliament to pass complementary legislation. I have consistently been advised by them that they would match our timetable. In fact I wrote to the Prime Minister not so very long ago asking him to let me know if there was any impediment to that. I am not aware that there is any impediment.
Overall, Madam Speaker, the position as far as the ACT Government goes is that we are responding to the Commonwealth's timetable on this matter. It was they who established the date and we have done our utmost to work towards it. If the Commonwealth falls behind or in some way delays the commencement of the separate service beyond 1 July, we will have no alternative but to delay our arrangements as well. I do not expect that that will be the case. I expect that once the Bill is available the committee's consideration can proceed forthwith. What members do need to understand is that, apart from the Bills, there is a large amount of information that also has to be prepared. They are the public service standards and guidelines, which are very much more comprehensive than the Bill
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