Page 5231 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Gaming and Racing) (4.49): I will speak to amendment No 3 circulated in Ms Gallagher’s name. This amendment is to insert a note to require in the legislation that there be a definition and reference to the public servant and the statutory office-holder as they are defined in the Legislation Act. I think it is important that the Assembly makes that clarification, because, if it is not there, there is some potential legal confusion in relation to someone who may be a public servant in their main job but will be on the board in their private capacity. We believe it is important that this is clarified so that, when we are talking about public servants elsewhere in the legislation, there is a very clear definition of what we are talking about.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (4.51): I need to move the amendment circulated in my name; therefore, I move amendment No 3 [see schedule 1 at page 5263].
Proposed new clause 4A agreed to.
Clause 5.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (4.51): I move amendment No 4 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 5263].
The fourth amendment is required to deal with the situation in which the only available board members for appointment to the chair or deputy chair roles are public servants. This might arise in cases where the Assembly has approved a higher percentage of public servants to a governing board, such as in the case where the entity is being restructured or wound down or several vacancies occur at short notice. In that case, the requirement for the board to have a chair and usually a deputy chair would not be possible if public servants were not allowed to be appointed to those roles. Therefore, the amendment is so that the restriction does not apply if a board has less than two non-public servants. The amendment also includes the provision for the Legislative Assembly to approve these appointments by resolution.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (4.52): I move amendment No 1 to the Treasurer’s amendment circulated in my name [see schedule 3 at page 5265].
This amends the Treasurer’s amendment No 4. We have had a circumstance like this before where the government came and informed the Assembly that it was to wind up Rhodium. As a consequence of that winding up, the board was almost entirely made up of public servants. There was a resolution that was passed by the Assembly, which seems to be a reasonable process to follow. In the amendment as put forward by the minister, they can do one thing or the other. If they are going to follow the course of putting a public servant in as a chair or a deputy chair, it is not unreasonable to follow the process that was followed in Rhodium where we had a debate in this place and it was agreed to.
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