Page 1896 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 14 June 1994

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I have been privileged as a member of this committee to visit both South Australia and the Northern Territory with my former committee colleagues Mr De Domenico and Mr Lamont. The committee learnt, during the early briefings provided to us by government, that elements of the South Australian legislation were being considered as the basis for the ACT legislation, and it made good sense for the committee to visit South Australia to understand, in particular, issues of best practice as they related to the South Australian Public Service and as they related to the South Australian Government Management and Employment Act of 1985. The committee also noted that in years past the Northern Territory had itself separated from the Commonwealth Public Service, and it seemed to make good sense to committee members at the time to visit the Northern Territory to learn what we could about the transition to a separate Northern Territory Public Service.

The information gathered by the committee as a result of these visits is summarised at page 2 of the committee's report. There were some recommendations arising from committee members' discussions and deliberations interstate about the separate public service which I believe would have been easy for the Government and the committee to adopt, and indeed we have done so. These include the need for a single, simple piece of legislation which outlines the fundamentals of a separate ACT public service and is easy for people to access and understand. The legislation also needed to outline and describe the values and principles of public sector employment and management, which the Public Sector Management Bill does at pages 7, 8 and 9. The legislation also needed to identify the key roles of the commissioner for public employment, which the Public Sector Management Bill does through the creation of a position of Commissioner for Public Administration.

In general, the functions of the Commissioner for Public Administration will be as set out in clause 20 of the Public Sector Management Bill, where the general functions of the Commissioner for Public Administration are described. It reads:

(1) The Commissioner shall -

(a) advise the Chief Minister on the management of the Service as a whole;

(b) implement administrative rearrangements at the direction of the Chief Minister; and

(2) The Commissioner may exercise the powers of any person on whom Chief Executive powers have been conferred other than the chief executive officer of an autonomous instrumentality.

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