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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 102 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (11.52): I do not intend to oppose the motion. I think it is reasonable for the Assembly to express concern about the lack of resources available within the Parliamentary Counsel's Office. Indeed, the Government has been very concerned about that as well and believes that action needs to be taken. Indeed, it has initiated action to deal with this problem. There are some things about the motion which I think are factually inaccurate, but I do not really propose to get into the business of amending it, because we have a lot of private members business today - - -

Mr Osborne: Please try.

MR HUMPHRIES: If you want me to waste the time of private members business, I am happy to do that; but I think it is better if I simply point out what is inaccurate about the motion.

Paragraph (3) argues that the current lack of resources made available by the Government is the cause of the problem that the Parliamentary Counsel has at the moment. The Government has not reduced resources available to the Parliamentary Counsel at all. The fact is that those resources are rare and not easily obtained. A number of resignations have occurred and other resources have been withdrawn for reasons entirely beyond the control of the Government. This has resulted in fewer parliamentary counsel staff being available than was the case before. Mr Osborne suggested parliamentary counsel used to number 17. There have never been 17. There were 13 before a recent spate of resignations. Two have left. One person has become pregnant, another person - - -

Mr Osborne: What?

MR HUMPHRIES: The Government is not responsible for that action. I can comprehensively assure Mr Osborne of that. I gather that another person has been poached by another jurisdiction to go and work there. We have a very high quality of parliamentary draftspeople, which results in their being highly desirable and eminently poachable. The numbers have dropped to 11. That level of reduction in so small an office results in a very severe reduction in the capacity of the Parliamentary Counsel's Office.

We have responded to that by seeking not just to recruit two people to fill those vacancies but to increase the total establishment of the office from what was 13 before to 17. We are replacing the two who have recently left and recruiting a further four, to give an actual increase of six and a net increase of four in the establishment of the Parliamentary Counsel's Office. We advertised for those positions last Saturday, and a healthy number of expressions of interest have been received. To say that the lack of resources must be the fault of the Government is an argument that belongs in the league of the argument that daylight saving fades curtains. We accept responsibility for lots of things, but we cannot accept responsibility for the fact that the number of people working in the office has been reduced because of choices they themselves have made about their future careers.

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