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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (18 February) . . Page.. 41 ..

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Minister for Health and Community Care): I seek leave to have incorporated in Hansard the financial management report for November that relates to Mr Berry's press release.

Leave granted.

Document incorporated at Appendix 2.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (3.38): Mr Speaker, for the information of members, I present the autumn 1997 sittings legislation program. I move:

That the Assembly takes note of the paper.

Today I am pleased to present the Government's legislation program for the autumn 1997 sittings. An important test of any government is the outcomes achieved through its legislation program. This is not reflected in statistics on how many Bills are introduced or passed or the size of the program, big or small. It is reflected in how well the program meets the needs of its customers, the ACT community, and the outcomes that it delivers to that community. A legislation program must meet the challenge of successfully combining established priorities with the capacity to respond quickly and adequately to emerging community needs.

The autumn 1997 program has been carefully crafted to ensure that it is manageable and responsible but also capable of responsiveness. As part of this commitment to responsiveness, the Parliamentary Counsel's Office has been given additional resources to improve its overall capacity to deal with both Government and private members' demands for its services in autumn 1997. The Government is in the process, as I said, of providing substantial additional resources to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel. Two officers who left recently will be replaced and four additional officers will be recruited. That is an addition of four all up. Advertisements have already been placed and inquiries have been received. This is a scarce resource, Mr Speaker. All around Australia it is very difficult to find people who have expertise in the area of parliamentary drafting, but hopefully we will be able to find people with that sort of expertise. If that is not the case, Mr Speaker, we will be in the position of being able to recruit and train those people. If we are lucky enough to attract experienced drafters, they can commence work immediately, as resources have been made available. Otherwise, we will have no alternative but to invest in training. Mr Speaker, I would like to indicate to all members of this house that we believe it is very important, particularly in the run-up to the end of this year, that adequate resources are available for all members of this Assembly to ensure that programs can be achieved.

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