Page 1913 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 14 June 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
One of the big problems with the Bill, Madam Speaker, is that it is a document that lacks any sign of any political direction as to what it is intended to achieve. Our public servants were left to their own devices to determine for themselves, without any political guidance or direction, what it was that they were supposed to be producing. What was the objective of this Bill? What purpose was it intended to serve? We have a document of 215 pages - without the consequential and transitional provisions Bill that goes with it - that introduces no innovation, no new thinking whatsoever.
What in fact does it do? How does it change the way things are done in this Territory? It does not change them at all. How does it change what is being done in the Territory? It does not even address that issue. Where is the best management practice that this Government continues to talk about? There is no best management practice in here. It is simply a cut and paste job on the old Commonwealth Public Service Act and a few other related Acts that somebody has stuck together and said, "There is an ACT public sector administration Bill". What about best management practice? We have so much information available to us about the way things should be done in this country today, and there is not one word of it in the Bill. The Bill is totally devoid of reference to any of these things which should have been fundamental to the development of such a document in the year 1994.
One then has to ask: What is the purpose of this legislation? Clearly, to a large degree, the legislation is a direct replica of the Commonwealth Public Service Act and related Acts, and its purpose is clearly to retain the status quo for those people who currently are public servants. Further, it is clearly considered that the state of bliss of being a public servant is such as to warrant the encompassing of numerous other people who are not public servants and bringing them into this glorious fold, whether they want to be in it or not. Quite frankly, nobody asked most of them whether they wanted to be in it, and the evidence for that is plain to see. The noise outside that door today was indicative of it. Many of these people, I have to say, Madam Speaker, are totally unconvinced of the benefits being conferred upon them and they - - -
Mr Wood: There are 20,000 out working.
MR KAINE: Who heard from them, Mr Wood? Everybody who gave evidence to my committee said that they were not consulted. Most of them said that they did not like what was being done to them. Out there today was the Public Sector Union, which, I submit to you, represents a very large number of your employees. What were they making a noise about? As I said earlier, they were not out there clamouring for the Government to put this Bill into place. They were clamouring to tell you not to put it into place. Whom do you listen to and when, Mr Wood?
Mr Wood: How many did you say there were?
MR KAINE: You want to interject. You tell me whom you listened to and when you listened to any of them. The answer is that you did not listen, and you are not listening now. I hope that you will listen to what I am saying, since you did not bother listening to any of them.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .