Page 4169 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 26 November 2013
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Professor John Halligan is quoted as saying:
A Ministry of only 5 confounds the basic tenets of effective cabinet government … Given the complexities of running both a city and a state government the span of Ministers’ portfolio responsibilities is immense.
The number of ACT government ministers is fixed at five … As a consequence each ACT minister is responsible for a number of portfolios plus having COAG roles. The evidence … is that this number is grossly inadequate for the complexities of state and local government in the 21st century. Ministers are stretched beyond their capacity to cover the span of responsibilities of an Australian state government …
That said, we have a situation now where the government is pushing this. I understand Mr Rattenbury will be supporting this bill, and the opposition agrees. It is now really a matter of the mechanics of getting that done.
There are some issues that have not been articulated to the Assembly. I do not know whether the work has been done by the Chief Minister; perhaps in her closing she will address those issues.
One is the issue of resourcing. What is the cost of doing this, and not only in establishing the ministerial staff? Perhaps there is a rebalancing. I know that Mr Rattenbury’s office is immense; maybe there is some rebalancing that could be achieved out of this. There are cost efficiencies. But what is the cost in establishing the minister’s office and also in the public service? Will there be additional costs in ministerial liaison and so on? Does this then initiate some broader restructure of the ACT public service? Will it create some realignment? Perhaps there are some efficiencies that can be gained out of this. We do not want to simply say, “Let’s appoint another minister,” or another two ministers. We need to understand those implications.
Other issues that have not been fully detailed are issues such as where the additional minister would sit. Where is the space in this Assembly for them to sit? I note that there is a lack of space on the top floor of the building. These are issues in relation to which I look forward to hearing the minister discuss what work she has done.
There is then the issue of who is going to be appointed. I eagerly await that appointment. And will it be one minister or two? I am not sure what time frame the Chief Minister is looking at, but now that we have bipartisan support for the creation of a new minister, I would urge her essentially to get on with it.
This is something that the government is acting on now. It does respond in part to my calls. When we are looking at the Legislative Assembly, and its efficiencies and its effectiveness, there are a number of measures that can be taken now to effect that. This is one of them. The committee system is not working well as it is currently structured, and there are other measures that can be looked at in terms of the resourcing of members to make sure that they can better carry out their functions. These are things that have been raised, and I welcome this response from the Chief Minister.
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