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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (26 February) . . Page.. 468 ..

MS HORODNY: My question is to Mr Kaine, the Minister for Urban Services. He has had considerable notice of this question. You may be aware, Mr Kaine, that last August there were some media reports about staff cuts at the Yarralumla Nursery because of the Government's drive to commercialise the operations of this nursery. I directed a question then to Mr De Domenico, who confirmed that some 10 per cent of the propagation stocks of the nursery were being contracted out to private nurseries. I have since been contacted by constituents who are concerned about the future of the nursery and the impacts of this commercialisation both on jobs there and on the provision of free plants to new householders. Could you tell us exactly how many jobs have been cut at the nursery since the contracting out began - as voluntary redundancies or through not filling jobs of people who have left - and how many jobs are planned to be cut in the future with further contracting out?

MR KAINE: Ms Horodny did give me notice of this question yesterday. In fact, she sought an answer yesterday, but when I told her that I could not possibly answer the question off the top of my head she graciously agreed to wait until today so that I could get a comprehensive answer to it. I appreciate that.

The facts are that last year there was a review of the operations of the Yarralumla Nursery carried out by consultants, specifically Coopers and Lybrand. August last year was significant because that was just after the recommendations of that review had been put into effect. That consultants' report highlighted opportunities to improve efficiency and achieve considerable savings, which was the objective of the review, by outsourcing some tube stock production to local specialist propagation nurseries. The point about that is, of course, that the jobs have not left Canberra; they have just been taken on by the private sector instead of the public sector.

As a result of that exercise, six positions were notified as being potentially excess to the requirements of the nursery. Five of the officers concerned were offered voluntary redundancy, and one was relocated to another area of the Department of Urban Services. This was done with the agreement of the AWU and the AMWU as part of the current enterprise bargaining agreement. All nursery staff were made aware of the review and given regular progress updates. There is no question of the thing being done in some underhanded way or without the agreement and cooperation of the unions and of the staff. As a result of that exercise, the nursery now has a commercially competitive structure. That being achieved, of course, no further staff savings are planned or intended.

As a footnote, Mr Speaker, in relation to the operation of that nursery since the subsidy ceased in 1995-96, the nursery has achieved the objectives of the Government. It has expanded its sales into northern New South Wales, Sydney, the ACT region and Victoria; it has made an operating profit; it has increased tree production by 50 per cent, and shrub production by 15 per cent; it has received the Excellence in Public Administration Award for the ACT region from the Institute of Public Administration of Australia; and it has achieved full certification as to quality systems under ISO9002.

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