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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 3533 ..

Questions without notice

Advertisement for ministerial staff

MR STEFANIAK: Mr Speaker, I table the following document:

Chief of Staff to Jon Stanhope MLA-Advertisement for position-Extract from The Canberra Times, dated 5 October 2002.

On 5 October, the Canberra Times carried this advertisement under the ACT public service headline for the position of Chief of Staff to Jon Stanhope MLA-the document now having been seen, as it is tabled, by Mr Stanhope and the three crossbenchers. To any reader it appears to be an ad for a public service job. It is in the standard public service template, complete with the ACT government web-page and the standard text describing the ACT public service obligations, such as equal employment opportunity, and the words "Successful applicants will become permanent officers (unless noted otherwise) of the ACT Public Service".

Chief Minister, as there is nothing in the advertisement to indicate otherwise noted, since when has it been appropriate for a political position to be a public service position, and why should a public servant have a commitment to implementing Labor principles and policies, which appears in the guts of the document, as a condition of their employment? Finally, why is the public service paying for the recruitment of what is effectively your own political staff?

MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mr Stefaniak. I sort of enjoy all these opportunities to highlight the appalling behaviour of the Liberal Party, and I thank you for that.

Mr Humphries: There's not much for you to talk about these days, is there-you don't answer the questions.

MR STANHOPE: Well, there's so much to talk about. That is the trouble. There is so much to talk about. You know, we have barely started. We can hardly wait until tomorrow when we get onto these computers. Are you going to have a good restful night tonight, Mr Humphries? A good restful night tonight will be had by all in the Liberal Party. It goes from bad to worse, doesn't it?

Mr Smyth: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The minister alludes to, I assume, the tabling of the contempt report. How would he know whether the contents would give the Liberal Party a bad night or not?

MR STANHOPE: Well, it doesn't require much imagination, Mr Smyth.

Mr Smyth: Again, Mr Speaker, he alludes to a breach of the Privileges Committee.

MR STANHOPE: There's nobody in Canberra that doesn't know it's going to be dreadful for you, mate.

MR SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister! Come to the point of the question.

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