Page 221 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 30 May 1989
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boards comprising 50 per cent women members, if they are qualified for the job. I would take issue with her that some of these positions do not require any expertise at all.
I would submit that all have a requirement of background, qualification or skill of some kind, but that is not the point of my question. I understand, if I heard correctly, during her answer to that earlier question she said that the ACT Administration maintains a register of people who are interested in appointments to such boards.
If that is true, could the Chief Minister tell me who maintains the register, how one gets one's name on it, whether applications are publicly called for people who would like to be on the boards and authorities, and how it is ensured that anybody who wishes to be on a board and who is qualified to be so has his or her name on such a register?
I think in terms of open government and fairness to all the fact that such a register exists ought to be commonly and generally known, and the procedures by which one gets one's name on the list ought to be known also.
MS FOLLETT: Again I am very glad to enunciate further on this question. I would like, first of all, to make it clear that I did not say that these boards require no qualifications or experience. Quite clearly they do require a degree of knowledge of an area. That knowledge required varies greatly, and it varies from board to board and from subject to subject. Some of them are quite clearly things in relation to which a member of the community could well have a valid opinion and a broad experience, but others, of course, call for a slightly higher degree of experience. I think it is true to say that they are not expert advisory boards for the main part but that they are the kinds of bodies where a general appreciation is relevant.
On the question of the register, a register established is at present within the Women's Unit in the ACT Administration. That register, I am quite happy to admit, is in need of upgrading. It is particularly in need of some resources to work on the upgrading of it. I will be looking at what resources are required and how they will be provided in the very near future. I have a paper from the Women's Unit on that subject.
I believe it is appropriate that we should advertise quite widely for positions - not only for positions on the boards but also for people wanting to put their names forward on the register. Having said that, I would like to go even further and say that I would like to call for names not just from women but also from all sectors of the community, including men of similar experience, Aboriginal people, migrant people and so on.
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