Page 5215 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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particular circumstances.” Whilst Rhodium obviously was a territory-owned corporation and slightly different, it provides a good example of the situation where it makes sense to perhaps change the management of a particular organisation. Whilst it is not exactly the same, I think it illustrates the kind of situation we might consider.
Mr Smyth’s bill also revokes the appointments that were made in the middle of the year that took the representation of TAMS on the EPIC board far higher than was the intention of the Assembly when we debated this matter earlier in the year. The Greens will be supporting these amendments. We believe that they do match the discussion we had earlier in the year.
We will come back to discussing the amendments later because I understand there will also be government amendments, some of which I think also have merit, and we will discuss each of those as we come to them. But in terms of the in-principle stage, I would like to flag that the Greens will be supporting Mr Smyth’s bill in principle.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (3.52): Like the Greens, the government does not oppose the general governance practice and principles behind the provisions of the bill. The general thrust of the bill, with the exception of the last clause, is to limit the potential for conflict of interest issues in cases where public servants also act as members of the governing board of a territory authority. While the Assembly has not felt the need previously to incorporate those principles in legislation in such a prescriptive manner as is contained in this bill, they do in fact reflect, in the main, the current practice adopted by this government.
The government recognises the potential for public servants to have conflicting interests when sitting on the board of a territory authority. On the one hand, they are employed by the territory and, in most cases, within the department that administers the enabling legislation of the authority. On the other hand, they have a responsibility to that authority to act in its best interests. The government’s recognition of that potential for conflicting interest is reflected implicitly in the very low numbers of public servants that are currently appointed to the boards of our authorities.
Having said that, we do not oppose the bill in principle. However, there remain a number of concerns as to how these principles are captured and reflected in the legislation and, if this bill is passed unchanged, it would present some difficulties in the administration of our territory authorities. I will therefore in the detail stage move a number of minor amendments to the bill, designed to make it more workable. I understand Mr Smyth will be moving a couple of amendments. I can speak to the amendments in the detail stage.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (3.53): In speaking to this bill today, I recognise that the reason we are here is a result of some dissatisfaction from opposing parties to the government’s position in relation to Exhibition Park. In terms of the government’s view of Mr Smyth’s bill, we cannot support it unless there are significant amendments to it. As the Treasurer has indicated, we will not be doing that unless there are significant amendments. We will
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