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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 4025 ..

MR SPEAKER: Order! The Opposition will stop getting excited and the Government will stop groaning.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, my understanding is that temporary accommodation allowance is a general term for a range of benefits available to officers who transfer from interstate. These arrangements were put in place by the previous Government. They mirror the Commonwealth arrangements and those for most other jurisdictions. Mr Speaker, the provisions of these entitlements are currently set out in a schedule - someone said, "What Act?", which is why I am trying to help here - to the public sector management standards, No. 14, chapter 6, and apply to all officers transferring from interstate. Mr Speaker, this is not just about executives. It is about all officers that are transferring from interstate.

If those opposite are really saying here that they plan to get rid of these entitlements, they had better tell the public servants in the ACT, our public servants, that right now. It is an entitlement of our public servants - not just senior managers, not just the fat cats, as those opposite call them and seem to want to have a go at. This is for all public servants. Mr Speaker, it would appear that those opposite plan, if the polls are right and they get into government next year, to cut those entitlements totally. I think public servants need to note that.

MR OSBORNE: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister, Mrs Carnell. Chief Minister, this morning I received a letter from you saying that the Commonwealth-State roles and responsibilities for the environment are under review and that a number of changes have been recommended to the Council of Australian Governments. Your letter says that you have passed on the information because Mr Moore currently has before this house a Bill which will, if passed, require the Government to refer all intergovernmental agreements to Assembly committees for consideration. I thank you for today's letter and I congratulate Mr Moore on his Bill. The letter says that this issue kicked off in May 1996, and goes on to say that COAG will seek to finalise the agreement within two weeks. Chief Minister, do you concede that this letter only serves to demonstrate the flaws in the way COAG operates, as yet another major change is afoot and this Assembly gets to glimpse it as it crosses the finish line?

MRS CARNELL: I think we can always improve the way that we operate in this place. That is the reason that we have been having discussions with Mr Moore on his Bill. The issues that you are talking about have been on the public agenda. They have not been secret in any way. In fact, a communique comes out at the end of every COAG meeting. I always make a statement in this place about the issues that were raised. It is certainly not as if any of these issues have in any way been secret.

Mr Speaker, we have indicated that we are more than willing to work with the Assembly on working out better ways of having information on the table in a timely fashion. That is what a number of the debates we had last week were about. I think we have come to a quite appropriate set of words to achieve what the Assembly seems to

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