Page 179 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 16 February 2011
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MS BURCH: I thank Mrs Dunne for her interest in Bimberi. I understand that the induction program since July 2010 has seen 25 staff completing the induction program and a number coming on. We have staff commencing this month—we have a number of staff; I will confirm the numbers and come back—and March. As I said yesterday, there are five previous employees who have reapplied or have made contact, but I can come back with exact staff numbers that have started in December, January, February and what we expect in March and April.
MRS DUNNE: A supplementary question, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, what is the staff retention rate at Bimberi, and has it declined since you became the minister?
MS BURCH: It is my understanding that staff separation from Bimberi is around 12 to 14 per cent. I think that is a fairly consistent state of separation in an environment such as Bimberi. This is a challenging environment. The average separation, as I said, is about 12 to 14 per cent.
ACT public sector—Hawke review
MR HARGREAVES: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, could you tell the Assembly, please, what the initial response has been to yesterday’s release of the Hawke review on the structure and capacity of the ACT public service?
MR STANHOPE: I thank Mr Hargreaves for the question. I have to say it is very heartening to see, witness and experience that many—indeed, most—Canberrans are happy to embrace Dr Hawke’s report for what it is: an exciting opportunity for the territory to choose for itself, for the first time in our history, what administrative structures, what governance arrangements, best suit our city-state.
Canberrans who use all the services that this government delivers, whether it be government services, whether it be public servants that work within the service industry, the business community, the community sector—indeed, all Canberrans—understand intuitively the motives for this review. They understand these things intuitively. I am sure those that engage with the report, that read it, that read reports of it, that listen to discussion understand and, I am sure, intuitively accept, as I and my colleagues within the government do, the intuitive wisdom of the blueprint that Dr Hawke has recommended. Most particularly at this juncture, 21 years after the granting of self-government, as we head towards our second century as a city, as we grapple with a range of major issues of significant concern to all Canberrans, Canberrans understand the need for government to ensure that its administrative structures, its governance arrangements, that its public service, those that deliver the services, are best suited, best supported and best able to meet those needs.
That has been the overwhelming response, with one major exception, of course—the Leader of the Opposition, and the Liberal Party, who I think is the only voice, the only
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