Page 1876 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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Authority, along with elements of the former Chief Minister’s Department relating to heritage and the government architect. It will also be the new home for transport planning and provide support for the Conservator of Flora and Fauna.
Treasury will remain largely unchanged, although it will pass gaming and racing to Economic Development and regain Shared Services and the Territory Records Office.
Justice and Community Safety will remain unchanged, aside from gaining two new regulatory functions in the area of transport, being road safety and driver and vehicle licensing.
Territory and Municipal Services will lose the units mentioned but will gain responsibility for government accommodation and property, while the directorates of Health, Education and Community Services will remain unchanged.
In moving from “chief executives” to “directors-general”, there will need to be widespread consequential changes across the ACT statute book. I will be introducing another bill containing these amendments in June. The government will be looking to debate both bills cognately with a view to commencement on 1 July.
The people of Canberra are now a long way from being reliant on the whims of a federal minister for territories. As the Hawke review rightly pointed out, after 21 years, the territory has come of age and the time is right for reconfiguration. The bill I present today is one of the logical conclusions arising from the work of Dr Hawke, taking as its starting point many of the review’s fundamental recommendations about a better structure to meet the government’s and the community’s needs.
But we do need to be clear that this project is not easy. What we are doing here is more than mere housekeeping—this is about generational change. The success of the new model will depend on effective cultural change and effective change management.
In closing, the bill I am presenting today is about new ways of working for the public service, a more efficient use of resources and a more effective alignment of government and public service efforts. It should result in some immediate changes to how the ACT public service operates. Other outcomes will, of course, take time. However, I am convinced that this is the right thing to do and will set the ACT public service on a path of reinvigoration, for now and, more importantly, for the future. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Seselja) adjourned to the next sitting.
Payroll Tax Bill 2011
Ms Gallagher, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (10.12): I move:
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