Page 911 - Week 03 - Thursday, 10 March 2016
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government update the Assembly. It is important that we know the progress on this. It affects everyone in the city, whether it be through the funding of the scheme or so that loved ones and neighbours know.
Recommendation 7, 8 and 9 look at public interest disclosures. There are very specific requirements in the Chief Minister’s directions about that. They are hardly ever complied with in totality and they should be. For instance, we have added in recommendation 9 that it is very important that we know why, for instance, a public interest disclosure was not investigated. It is just noted as “not followed up” or “not continued”. It would be interesting to know what those things are. The public interest disclosures are important. They should be investigated thoroughly and the Assembly should know the reason for a public interest disclosure not going ahead.
Recommendations 10, 11 and 12 look at bullying. It has been a sad hallmark of this government that we have had the 10-year war in obstetrics all the way through to bullying in areas such as TAMS, inside the education system, inside the Ambulance Service, inside the fire brigade. A number of organisations over the past 15 years have suffered through poor management. The government, to give it its due, is now putting the RED framework—the respect, equity and diversity framework—into place and these recommendations look at whether that is working.
Recommendation 12 says that the government should report by the last sitting day in August on progress in implementing the recommendations made in the KPMG review report on clinical training and the culture at the hospital. It would be good to find out where that is going.
I think recommendation 13 is particularly important. The committee recommends that the ACT government reconsider funding arrangements for the Office of the Legislative Assembly to develop and resource an appropriate function to support contemporary protective security requirements and emergency procedures in the Assembly precinct. As you would be aware, Madam Speaker, this was not funded in the last budget.
Unfortunately, we live in the world that we live in. Some people choose to use violence as a way of expressing a political ambition or a political objective. It is inappropriate that the Assembly is not resourced to ensure not just the safety of the MLAs—you have got to get through the guards before you can get to us—but also the people that work here. The security officers need the tools to do their job properly and the constituents, when they come here, would expect they are coming to a place that has appropriate security arrangements. It is an urgent matter that needs to be addressed.
Recommendations 14 and 15 talk about things like governing boards being constituted in accordance with the membership requirements as proposed in their acts. Recommendation 16 looks at the concessions program and asks for some information to be tabled by the last sitting day in April.
Recommendations 17 and 18 look at Icon and particularly their debt strategy. We are asking for updates by the last sitting day in June. We are asking for updates on the
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