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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1748 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Mr Berry is aware of the shortcomings in the legislation, but he appears to think that they relate only to staffing matters. He tabled on 29 March 2000 an amendment to the Occupational Health and Safety Act to give the commissioner all the powers of a chief executive in relation to staff assisting him or her as if the staff were employed in a department under the control of the commissioner. This is a straightforward amendment.

Let me take you to the words that he uses, because they are very important indeed. Mr Berry seeks to give the commissioner all the powers of a chief executive over staff as if-this is the important phrase-the staff were employed in a department under the control of the commissioner, but the commissioner is not in charge of a department, an agency or, indeed, any other body defined under any laws of this territory.

Yes, my advice is that Mr Berry's latest bill certainly would give the commissioner powers in relation to staff, but he still has not given the commissioner an agency-a department, if you like. I am advised that the staff that the commissioner may engage would still have to be attached to a department. This creates a new accountability problem. The chief executive of the department that the staff would be attached to would then be accountable for their management. But the chief executive would have no ability to direct the commissioner in respect of the staffing decisions he or she may make. This level of ambiguity is not right.

Members also will have noticed that Mr Berry's bill does not simply add the employment powers for the commissioner to the act. These powers replace the existing provision that the commissioner may make arrangements with the chief executive for the use of the services of the staff or facilities of an administrative unit of a territory authority.

The effect of this is that the commissioner has no access to financial management services and holds no financial management powers. The commissioner cannot arrange for office accommodation or interstate travel, buy pens and pencils and even pay staff their salaries. Mr Speaker, this is a nonsense. In fact, it means that the staffing powers are meaningless. You cannot hire staff if you cannot pay them.

Mr Speaker, I am sure that members of the Assembly will agree that the bill as presented by Mr Berry is unworkable. It does not bring independence to the commissioner. In fact, it makes the commissioner's position completely unworkable and we must fix this quickly to enable a properly independent commissioner position to be implemented late in June.

In contrast, the bill which I tabled on 9 May-the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill 2000 (No 2)-gives the proper independence to the commissioner being sought by the Assembly when passing Mr Berry's original bill in December 1999. In constructing this bill, the government has been particularly mindful that the Assembly was explicit in December last year that an independent commissioner was required. The Assembly also clearly preferred a simple and efficient approach in delivering the necessary independence.

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