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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 10 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 2788 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

The system that I have just outlined, Mr Speaker, is the same system as that used in the Australian Public Service. I will quote again from Mr Tony Ayers, the Secretary of the Department of Defence. I trust that Mr Kaine will actually listen to this. He might understand some of the facts, or at least some of the facts which escaped him on Tuesday. This is what Mr Ayers said about Defence and contracts:

On the question of extending fixed term contracts to senior executive officers, I have no problems with the present system in the Australian Public Service. In fact, in Defence, we recommend to the Public Service Commission fixed term contracts in appropriate individual circumstances, such as external appointees in time limited posts, and the system works well.

Mr Ayers knows how to use a contract in the Department of Defence. I have no doubt that he makes proper arrangements for monitoring the performance of officers under those contracts as well; and, in his words, the system works well.

Mr Speaker, for the reasons that I have elaborated, the Opposition regards this legislation as based on false premises and lacking an intellectual basis. There is little that the Government asserts that it wishes to do that cannot be done within the existing framework of the Public Sector Management Act. The proposed new provisions seem likely to reduce the standing of the ACT public service in this city and to lessen its attractiveness to career public servants. The overwhelming majority of the Bill is unacceptable to the Opposition. Mr Speaker, if it should pass the in-principle stage, then I will be proposing a significant number of amendments to implement fully the recommendations of the majority report of the Public Accounts Committee. Those amendments have been circulated to members this morning. I point out to members that, whilst I sought drafting of these amendments the very moment the Public Accounts Committee report was made public, it has taken a considerable amount of time for the amendments to be drafted. They were in fact finalised only this morning.

Mrs Carnell: Was that not last Wednesday?

MS FOLLETT: Indeed it was, and that is when I issued drafting instructions, Mrs Carnell. As you can see from the date on the amendments, they were finalised this morning, and I circulated them as soon as they had been finalised. It was a complex task, and there are many interrelated amendments proposed in that set. Mr Speaker, I am unable to say whether it was the complexity, the length of the task or the workload within the parliamentary drafting office that led to the late presentation of these amendments. Nevertheless, they are here now. I should say to members that there is no real need to be daunted by the amendments. There are two principal amendments, and a vast raft of others hang off either of those two principal amendments. When we come to debate them, I will certainly speak to them in greater detail; but I wanted to explain to members why those amendments had not been provided to them earlier. Had they been available, I would certainly have distributed them earlier.

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