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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 3 Hansard (6 March) . . Page.. 627 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

Again I would commend to this government that they do not pussyfoot around too much on the prison. For God's sake, pick a site and get on with it. If we run it properly, that will assist the criminal justice system.

Question put:

That the motion be agreed to.

The Assembly voted-

Ayes 5

Noes 8

Mr Cornwell

Mr Stefaniak

Mr Berry

Ms MacDonald

Mrs Dunne

Mr Corbell

Mr Quinlan

Mr Pratt

Ms Dundas

Mr Stanhope

Mr Smyth

Ms Gallagher

Ms Tucker

Question so resolved in the negative.

Motion negatived.

Sitting suspended from 12.33 to 2.30 pm.

Questions without notice

Public service

MR HUMPHRIES: My question is to the Chief Minister in his capacity as the minister responsible for the public service. Chief Minister, after your first 100 days in office, Peter Clack of the Canberra Times reported on your pride in issues such as competence and attention to proper process in government. Have you been competent enough to instruct or at least indicate to the public service that, under your government, process must be impeccable?

MR STANHOPE: I thank Mr Humphries for the question. I am particularly interested in Mr Humphries' devotion to process and integrity in government and to integrity in all other things in the maintenance of high moral standards for himself and his staff, which is something that we expect also in relation to the public service. I am not sure, in terms of the discussions I have had with the head of the Chief Minister's Department or the Public Service Commissioner, that I have ever used the word "impeccable". I am not sure that I have ever suggested that I would expect impeccable standards of them. It is a term of art, perhaps, that we would have to debate.

As you know, Mr Humphries, the Public Service Commission is engaged in a major review of the public service in its operations and the standards expected of it and that it demands of itself. Another review, perhaps a review that Mr Humphries initiated in one emanation, was that of the public service renewal process, a process that arose out of the hospital implosion and the scandal around the Bruce stadium redevelopment. To the extent that we are concerned about public service standards, a lot of work is being done. It is work that arose out of those issues around the hospital implosion.

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