Page 1782 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 6 June 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Title read by Clerk.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for the Arts) (3.49): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The Administrative (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2006 in great part reflects the government’s response to the strategic and functional review and the budget measures which I have just announced. It is part of the government’s budget strategy for the 2006-07 financial year and beyond.
The bill repeals a number of acts that establish independent statutory bodies with specialist functions and makes necessary amendments as a consequence of those repeals. It is intended that the repealed provisions and the necessary consequential amendments will come into operation on 1 July 2006.
Some of the provisions in this bill are to ensure that the objective of integration into mainstream government departments of the specialist functions previously carried out by the statutory bodies can go ahead smoothly. Special commencement provisions have been included in the bill to allow some of the facilitative provisions to come into operation before 1 July 2006, as they are designed to assist in making the transition process as smooth as possible.
Mr Speaker, amongst the government’s highest priorities are: to strengthen the economy of the territory; to continue to deliver high-quality services to the community; to protect and develop our city and surrounding environment; and, most importantly, to build and safeguard a better future for the generations to come. To ensure we can meet these priorities, our focus is to continue to implement our plans and commitments while seeking greater efficiencies across the full spectrum of service delivery.
Mr Speaker, my government is the first since self-government to undertake such a comprehensive analysis of government services and structures. The government commissioned the strategic and functional review to scrutinise the outlook for the ACT budget, to benchmark government expenditure against other jurisdictions and to identify options to improve efficiency through more effective government structures.
One of the areas where we can obtain efficiencies is in abolishing statutory bodies that have been carrying out functions on behalf of the territory and reintegrating those functions into mainstream government departments. This will reduce overheads but retain important core functions. Existing high-quality services can continue to be provided without the expense of duplicated administrative structures.
Mr Speaker, this bill repeals the ACTION Authority Act, the Australian Capital Tourism Corporation Act, the Health Promotion Act, the Small Business Commissioner Act and the Stadiums Authority Act.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .