Page 2489 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016
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I am delighted to report that the outcome report found that people who participated in the consultation process overwhelmingly supported the proposal to establish a reconciliation day public holiday in the ACT. Whilst there was no consensus on a preferred date in the focus groups or the interviews it was generally agreed that the day needed to have a strong link to something that is culturally or historically significant. 2017 will be a significant year in terms of reconciliation. 27 May 2017 will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum and 3 June 2017 will mark the 25th anniversary of the Mabo decision, which legally recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a special relationship with the land, a relationship that existed prior to colonisation and still exists today.
Madam Assistant Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to table the report.
Appropriation Bill 2016-2017
[Cognate bill:
Appropriation (Office of the Legislative Assembly) Bill 2016-2017
Cognate papers:
Estimates 2016-2017—Select Committee report
Estimates 2016-2017—Select Committee—government response]
Detail stage
Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate—Schedule 1, Part 1.5
Debate resumed.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (3.38): I am pleased to contribute to the debate on the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate and the appropriation for this year. Of course this is a new directorate that has seemingly grown by the day in terms of the scope and responsibility and covers everything from parking fines and vehicle registration, from land release to managing the ACT property portfolio and even having an international interest of late as well. The directorate has a huge budget of over $972 million. But, as I said, the scope of this directorate seems to grow each day. I think this poses a significant issue for many other public service agencies because as this agency grows bigger and bigger it leaves many of the other agencies, some of them small but some of them not so small, wondering exactly what their responsibility is.
For instance, I know for a fact that we are seeing a creep of this agency into areas in public transport and the government seems to be doing more and more out of the Chief Minister’s directorate rather than actually leaving it to the other agencies. Why the Chief Minister’s directorate did the recent survey into public transport usage is beyond me. Surely that is the sort of role that should be undertaken by the former TAMS where the public transport experts really are. I think it is very peculiar that you would see that sort of centralisation for something which is obviously better suited to the specialists inside agencies such as the former TAMS.
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