Page 2602 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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executives within government agencies, a critical issue that would face any government, especially a government that has just won office and is faced with wanting to introduce its own approach to the style of government. The report states:
The Committee notes that the amendments in the Bill pertinent to this inquiry relate to new arrangements to facilitate executive mobility. The Chief Minister stated:
… that given the small size of the ACT public service it was vital that governments had greater flexibility to meet emerging challenges or changed work environments by redeploying its top executives across the service. The amendments … would allow governments to transfer chief executives laterally, at level, or to transfer them to lower-level positions, while allowing them to retain their current remuneration for the term of their contract.
The report continues:
Further, the Chief Minister stated that the amendments to Chief Executive and Executive employment conditions were intermediate changes to address key issues identified in the PSM Review Report and marked the beginning of a Government response. Further, the Government was currently considering its response to the wider recommendations in the PSM Review Report.
The Committee notes that the PSM Review Report recommended that:
… there needs to be a clear framework to balance the requirements of due process with the practical need for the early removal of a chief executive when his or her relationship breaks down with a minister.
I would suggest that this is central to what this whole inquiry focused on, in that it is a matter that we would strongly suggest needs to be tackled by governments and will be a matter in which both sides of this house, I think, will take an interest and appreciate a measure of reform and improvement. The committee expressed the view that this issue had not been addressed in the bill previously introduced and that the division of responsibility as specified by the respective roles of ministers and chief executives does rely on a good working relationship and the maintenance of trust and confidence between ministers and chief executives. We also, as a committee, recognise that the relationship between a minister and a chief executive is unique. The relationship can break down for any number of reasons and, if it does, it will impact on the ability of government to implement its policies and on the agency’s ability to operate and deliver services.
Members will note that in recommendation 4 of the report the committee has recommended that the Public Service Management Act 1994 be revised to prescribe principles of procedural fairness for the early termination of a chief executive that balance the requirements of due process with a practical need for early removal of a chief executive whose relationship with the minister has broken down.
Let me say that a report such as this one does not come to completion without the hard work and professionalism of many. I conclude by thanking my committee colleagues, Dr Deb Foskey and Ms Karin MacDonald, those who assisted the committee with its deliberations, and the committee secretary. I commend the report to the Assembly. My colleagues may wish to add further comment.
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