QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

ACTEW - Corporatisation

MS FOLLETT: I address a question to the Chief Minister in her capacity as Minister with responsibility for public service matters. I ask Mrs Carnell: Will the corporatisation of ACTEW involve removing ACTEW employees from Public Sector Management Act coverage? If so, what conditions of employment will ACTEW employees lose as the result of this change?

MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much for that question. The Government has already made it very clear that, as part of the corporatisation of ACTEW, conditions and pay rates will be mirrored in the new corporatisation approach of this Government. Also, there is no intention for there to be job losses.

MS FOLLETT: I ask a supplementary question. I take that as a yes, and I ask: What will happen if, as a result of consultation with the unions, if and when you do undertake that consultation, the union members do not want to be employed outside the Public Sector Management Act? Will you in fact drop that proposal from your changes to ACTEW?

MRS CARNELL: That would appear to me to be a hypothetical question.

Community Councils

MS TUCKER: I direct a question to the Chief Minister in relation to her proposal to expand and formalise the role of community councils. Chief Minister, what model or processes does the Government plan to use for consultation between community councils and the Government and between community councils and the wider community? How does the Government propose to broaden the representation on these councils? What specific resourcing measures does the Government have in mind? How does this relate to local area planning? There are a few parts to the question.

MRS CARNELL: It certainly has a lot of parts. Thank you for the question, because it is something that was very much part of our election promises. As you would know, we do have a policy in this area. We believe that community councils must start having a very real role in how consultation occurs in the Territory and also in how this Assembly works. We have already announced a number of things that we will be working towards. One is, of course, making sure that community councils are adequately resourced. That will obviously be determined in budget Cabinet; but the sorts of things we are looking at include how we can make sure that they have adequate secretarial resources so that, when we ask them to consult or when they determine that they want to input back into the Assembly, they can do so with adequate resourcing. At the moment it is very difficult for them, because most of them have jobs during the day and are trying to do it

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