Page 2347 - Week 06 - Thursday, 10 May 2012
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Office of the Legislative Assembly; identify specific functions that the office is required to perform; state in clear language that the office and its staff are not subject to direction from the executive; introduce new arrangements for appointing, suspending and ending the appointment of the Clerk; place limits on the executive’s involvement in the affairs of the office in a number of areas, including procurement, annual reporting and the role of the Commissioner for Public Administration; and give the Clerk enhanced procedural fairness protection while at the same time preserving the prerogative of the legislature to make a determination relating to such matters.
Much of what is encapsulated in this bill is largely administrative in nature, as is to be expected with a bill seeking to codify roles and functions. I understand that there have been issues raised which will be discussed in the detail stage. We will be having additional debates on those matters and I will make our views clear at the time. We are supportive of initiatives that will strengthen our democratic processes in the ACT. We have great respect for the role that the Clerk performs for all members and the staff who work for the Clerk. We will, therefore, be supporting this bill.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (12.19): This is a very important bill and the Greens are very happy to support it. We are a mature democracy and many things just happen without any of us ever giving much consideration to them. However, it is important that we have in place the systems and the legal framework to protect the institution and ensure that it continues to work as well as it has, for many years to come.
It is appropriate that the Office of the Legislative Assembly is a separate statutory agency. Certainly, in the Westminster model there is a blurring of the executive and the legislature. However, that does not mean that there needs to be a blurring of the office of the parliament and the executive. They are separate functions. The Greens strongly support the aim of the bill to clearly separate the office of the Assembly and the rest of the executive.
Turning to the details of the bill, the Greens agree with the proposed functions of the office and of the Clerk. We have an amendment to the process for the appointment of the Clerk. However, that particular concern aside, the Greens are generally supportive of the proposed process. Equally, we are happy with the proposed process for suspending or ending the appointment of the Clerk and confident that the proposed process will be capable of dealing with whatever misdemeanours he or she may have, through us.
I would note also at this point that the Greens do not believe that there should be a regulation-making power delegated to the executive and will be opposing the clause. I will talk more about that in the detail stage.
The Greens also support the reporting provisions, as well as the other provisions adapting other administrative acts with the office of the Assembly. We agree with the proposal that there be a separate appropriation act for the Legislative Assembly and the proposed mechanism for arriving at that budget. We certainly recognise the concern that it would be more appropriate for the Assembly to determine its own
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