Page 3352 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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government would be unable to support it and did that knowingly just so that they could grandstand some more on what is a very important issue. I did try to look at amendments to this motion that would make it acceptable, possibly, so that all parties in this place could support it. But in a sense it was going to be deleting the entire section from 1(b) down and elements of section 2.
The fact that Ms Hunter has another motion that is similarly canvassing the issues that are outlined in Mr Seselja’s motion—and the government will foreshadow some amendments to add some content to Ms Hunter’s motion—I think, gives us the opportunity today to deal with this subject in a mature and responsible way, a way in which the Liberal’s motion does not allow us to deal with. Indeed, if one listened to Mr Seselja one could be mistaken for believing that I sign off and approve or disapprove every single action taken across the public service in dealing with individual staffing matters. And that, as Mr Seselja knows, is simply not the case.
I do, however, come to this position as Chief Minister with a very firm and clear view that we need to look at all of the ways that we deal with our staff, with the way that their conduct is managed within their individual workplaces. And that goes for each staff member, their immediate manager, the manager’s manager, the senior executive service, the chief executives or directors-general and of course the ministers that sit above those directorates.
I think there are some areas where we need to improve, and I think we will have that debate under Ms Hunter’s motion. Certainly from my own point of view, from the work that I have put in during the last six weeks in looking at this matter, particularly around complaints handling and issues of public interest disclosure and how best review and reform of that piece of legislation is to be managed, there is much to work on across the ACT government.
As I said, one of the responsibilities that I have as Chief Minister is to ensure that we do not abuse our position of power and privilege. We should think long and hard before we, in an attempt to score cheap political points, name in this place individuals who are often in difficult circumstances. And we see that very clearly in Mr Seselja’s motion today. Of course that should not mean that we do not discuss systemic issues in public administration in the ACT but we should do so with the facts in front of us and in a genuine desire to improve the systems as they exist. Ministers and officials should be held to account for their actions and decisions but I do not know that individually naming particular individuals in the way that Mr Seselja’s motion has allows us the ability to deal with those systemic issues or have an honest discussion around them in this place.
In the ACT the Public Interest Disclosure Act is the governing legislation for whistleblowers. It establishes a process by which a person can make an allegation to an appropriate authority about conduct that calls into question the honesty or impartiality of the public official or government agency or constitutes a breach of public trust or a misuse of information or material in the exercise of public functions. In addition, the conduct being disclosed must be of such seriousness to possibly constitute a criminal or disciplinary offence or grounds for termination of a public official. The ACT public interest disclosure legislation clearly and appropriately
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