Page 2358 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 June 1994
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I was at a loss to understand what sort of person we were talking about. Under this Act, if you work for the Government you are either an officer or an employee or you may be a statutory office-holder. I was a little confused as to what other kinds of people there are to whom the commissioner or a chief executive may wish to delegate all or some of his or her powers. For the Chief Minister to say that this is an extension of the Administration Act 1988, whatever that means, does not really clarify the issue. Perhaps the Chief Minister could explain to us to what class of employee or paid person this provision applies.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.43): To answer Mr Kaine's question, clause 36 defines the people to whom the clause applies. You need to bear in mind that there may be a need from time to time to delegate to someone who is not a public servant. For example, the CEO of Totalcare is not a public servant, but he has public servants working for him, and we need to empower him to subdelegate. The definition of "public sector officer" includes a person, therefore, who may not be a public servant, although rarely, such as the CEO of Totalcare. He is not a public servant, although he has public servants working for him, by arrangement with Urban Services. So it is to pick up that fairly unusual case.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause, as amended, agreed to.
Clause 39
MR STEVENSON (3.45), by leave: I move together amendments Nos 4, 5 and 6:
4. Page 21, lines 14 to 27, omit the definition of "designated group".
5. Page 22, line 10, paragraph (a), omit "and persons in designated groups".
6. Page 22, lines 12 and 13, paragraph (b), omit "and persons in designated groups".
The clause defines equal employment opportunity programs, and in paragraphs (a) and (b) suggests that people should not be discriminated against, specifically women and persons in designated groups, so that they are able to pursue careers, et cetera, as effectively as anyone else. On page 21, "designated group" is specifically defined as any one of a number of classes of persons from (a) to (e), including Aboriginal persons, Torres Strait Islanders, persons who have migrated to Australia and whose first language is a language other than English, persons with an impairment, and any other class of people that it may be considered later on should be included.
I agree that these people should not be discriminated against, and I do not doubt that that is the view held by the vast majority of people in the ACT. However, I am concerned about the idea of quotas, the idea of affirmative action, the idea that anyone within any of these designated groups, or a group named at some later time, would be given
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