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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (13 May) . . Page.. 1288 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

With regard to our senior Public Service executives, last year when we passed the new legislation to remove tenure from those people and to move them onto performance-based contracts - legislation that the majority of this house supported - there was a process entered into to engage independent consultants, who have done similar work for every other government in this country, to size the jobs involved. That was done. Those recommendations were passed on to the independent Remuneration Tribunal, set up by this Assembly, and at arm's length from this Assembly, to determine what those salaries should be.

Since then there have been two Remuneration Tribunal hearings on senior executive salaries, both public hearings and both able to receive submissions by anybody in this place, or for that matter anybody in the community, who wants to put forward submissions. I have heard both Mr Osborne and the Greens make comments in this area, and I do not think either of them have ever put submissions to the Remuneration Tribunal with regard to senior executive salaries.

Ms Horodny: Yes, we did.

Mr Osborne: I found out only last week.

MRS CARNELL: No. Spot on. I do not think they have. If they have a problem with senior executive salaries, there is a forum in which to fight that out, a forum in which to put their position. I think it would be an extremely retrograde step to move to a situation where we set our own salaries - because it is the same issue here - or alternatively had hands-on control of our senior executives' salaries now that they are on performance-based contracts with us and do not any longer have continuous tenure. To move to that situation again would not be the approach that this side of the Assembly would take. Looking around Australia at similar jobs around the country, it would appear that in most cases our senior executives are on similar salaries to other State and Territory public servants' salaries set at arm's length from government. I think, as a result of our new approach, we have the best group of senior public servants in this country.

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mr Osborne?

MR OSBORNE: Mr Speaker, I have no idea what question Mrs Carnell was answering then, but it certainly was not the one I asked her.

Mr Kaine: Did you not listen, Paul?

MR OSBORNE: My question was about whether or not Mrs Carnell thought that we were getting close to crossing the line of decency. Nevertheless, there was a nice bit of - - -

MR SPEAKER: That was asking for an expression of opinion, so it would be out of order.

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