Page 1525 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 July 2020
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going. I would therefore like to better promote what is available locally. I do believe that a flexible working arrangement will give individuals more of an opportunity to venture out to their local cafes and eateries, thereby generating more business for them locally.
In discussing this motion, I also want to acknowledge all of those frontline and essential workers who have not had the opportunity to work from home and whose resilience and efforts have allowed others in our community to benefit from these new procedures. This pandemic has shown us that community and our local networks are so deep in our day-to-day lives that we are all linked up in one way or another. It is therefore essential that we continue to support one another. Flexible working will allow employees the freedom to manage their work commitments in a way that will work for them. A by-product of this is that our local businesses will also be better supported.
The COVID-19 crisis has generated unprecedented experiments for our modern workplaces. It has allowed businesses and organisations to try out hitherto untested, novel working procedures and practices. It has taught us that much of what we need to do can be done remotely, be done well, and to the satisfaction of both an employer and its employees. People are learning new ways to interact, manage and develop work procedures and work relationships. We live very much in a digital world, and the coronavirus pandemic has shown us that we can also work effectively in the digital context.
I therefore call on this motion in favour of flexible working arrangements. I ask, firstly, that the ACT government continue to support such arrangements, going forward, in a way that suits our workers and their directorates. Secondly, I ask that the Chief Minister write to the Australian Public Service Commissioner to request that the commonwealth government support flexible work arrangements for the Australian public service.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (3.45): I thank Mr Gupta for bringing this motion before the Assembly, and join him in commending those workplaces who have offered their employees flexible working arrangements. The ACT, like all jurisdictions, is dealing with an ongoing public health emergency and the effects of what is now a global economic recession. The pandemic has forced a swathe of industries, businesses and organisations to adapt incredibly quickly to rapidly changing circumstances whilst prioritising the welfare of their employees. The ACT public service has been at the forefront of flexibility in the workplace. Unlike the APS, the ACT PS moved quickly to ensure that staff that could work from home were able to do so.
The ACT public service was well prepared for flexible and remote working prior to the introduction of necessary measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transition. Work was already underway to prepare directorates for a transition to activity-based working arrangements. When the pandemic began to impact the territory, laptops and other hardware were distributed to public servants who needed them as quickly as possible, which ensured a smoother transition to working from home. Of course, some
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