Page 2002 - Week 06 - Thursday, 8 June 2006
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entirely. The ESA needs its autonomy and it needs to have complete control over its operations.
I do not agree with Mr Corbell’s attitude either that by moving ESA inside JACS, because they will be that much closer to other authorities and agencies, their counter-terrorist role will be enhanced. That is just a load of old codswallop. Why do we have joint working parties drawn together from scattered agencies? That is why we have joint working parties and joint task forces. You do not have to lump everybody under the one bureaucracy just so they can all talk together in planning terms about the terrorist threat. I think the minister is not coming clean enough in saying why this move is underway.
I will turn quickly now to ACTION. ACTION is currently a statutory authority, and the opposition believes at this point that it should remain that way. While the operation is not profitable, due to the nature of the public transport system, it runs. The way its fees are set up by the ICRC and despite the fact that it requires funding top-ups by government to cover costs, there are sure to be more effective ways to address the problems and inefficiencies within ACTION than simply transferring it across to the territory and municipal services department.
This is simply another attempt at a quick fix, while failing to address the real problems within the ACTION operation. The opposition will be voting against the amalgamation of ACTION into the Department of Territory and Municipal Services, to take a stand against the whole-of-government approach to restructuring the public service in general. Therefore, we wish to move an amendment to the administrative bill debated here today to remove all the clauses which pertain to the transfer of the ACTION to the department.
The opposition wishes to note for the record that we are against the rush job that this bill presents in transferring these multiple authorities to the management of the departments. These types of transfers should be considered under a much more detailed mechanism, and we do not think the government has done that. We think that you are taking two good, autonomous agencies, that you are going to ruin them, and that you will have major impacts on the community in a loss of the delivery of good service, particularly emergency services.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Industrial Relations) (8.48): I am conscious of the late hour, so I will restrict my comments to some changes that directly affect my portfolios in tourism, sport and recreation.
In this bill we are proposing that sport and recreation moves into the new Department of Territory and Municipal Services. This will enable all sporting facilities to be managed in one department. There has been a call in the community to see the centralisation of all sports functions in a one-stop shop and we are delivering that in this reform.
We will see the Stadiums Authority take over control, within the Department of Territory and Municipal Services, of Manuka Oval and Phillip Oval. I think it makes sense to pick up the skills within the authority under the broader umbrella of territory and municipal services—a one-stop shop, as I say.
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