Page 4012 - Week 13 - Thursday, 10 November 1994
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the selection process is the formal appointment, promotion or transfer of a person by a chief executive into the public service office. The public servant filling the position will carry out the full functions of the position, including those directly related to the statutory office. The public servant will receive direction from and report to the chief executive, and the chief executive, in turn, has reporting responsibilities to the Minister.
Using this model of the chief executive making the decision about filling the office, it logically follows that the chief executive should also have responsibility for administrative tasks associated with the performance of the functions of the statutory offices. These tasks include, amongst other things, issuing certificates and issuing identity cards. There are a very small number of instances where it is more appropriate for a non-public servant to be appointed. For example, Madam Speaker, nature conservation officers may be members of the rural patrol of the Australian Federal Police, Commonwealth employees in Jervis Bay, or New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service staff. Similarly, fishing inspectors may be New South Wales Department of Conservation and Land Management staff. They are necessary to perform the role of cross-border law enforcement. Animal welfare inspectors may be representatives of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and, in the event of an emergency, such as an outbreak of disease, we may need to seek the expert skills of professionals within the community. In these cases the Bill provides that a chief executive may appoint such a person to perform statutory office functions without the person becoming a public servant.
I now turn to the organisation of the Bill. The Bill has three parts and one schedule. Part I sets the commencement arrangements in place. Part II provides for the amendment of 102 pieces of existing legislation. In particular, it identifies the new statutory appointment arrangement model applied in the affected Acts and regulations, details of which are specified in the Schedule. Part III provides for arrangements which preserve existing appointments and the continuing legal effect of certain official action - for example, signatures on official certificates. The Schedule has two parts. The first contains amendments to Acts which put in place the arrangements for chief executives to create and fill positions with statutory office functions. The second part deals with the same arrangements as they apply to regulations.
Madam Speaker, this Bill represents a significant step towards establishing the structural arrangements for the separate public service and it clarifies accountability and responsibilities. It rationalises the former outmoded and inappropriate Commonwealth model. It recognises the new role of chief executives in a separate service environment, and it relieves Ministers of the unnecessary administrative burden associated with rubber-stamping a legitimate public service merit selection process. I commend this Bill to the Assembly, and I present an explanatory memorandum to the Bill.
Debate (on motion by Mr Kaine) adjourned.
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