Page 561 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 June 1989
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the Residents Rally clearly demonstrated that, in relative terms, administrative salary costs in the ACT were almost twice those in South Australia, and when further information, if obtained by the Minister, would have shown that the South Australian education department has this year reduced its administrative share of the overall salaries budget from 4.6 to 4.1 per cent?
Ms Follett: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The question has clearly made an imputation about the Deputy Chief Minister in saying that he has sought to mislead the Assembly, and I would ask that that be withdrawn.
MR SPEAKER: I uphold that.
MR MOORE: I withdraw that.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, thank you, Mr Moore. Would you like to rephrase your question?
MR MOORE: Why did the Minister allege that the ACT Schools Office compared favourably with the South Australian education department when figures released previously by the Residents Rally clearly demonstrated that in relative terms administrative salary costs in the ACT were almost twice those in South Australia, and when further information, if obtained by the Minister, would have shown that the South Australian education department has this year reduced its administrative share of the overall salaries budget from 4.6 to 4.1 per cent, thereby reflecting a level of efficiency of more than twice that of the ACT Schools Office?
MR WHALAN: Part of the problem that the Standing Committee on Social Policy will find when it examines this matter, as I have tried to indicate in response to several questions from Mr Moore in his campaign to have us sack people from the staff of the Schools Office, is that it is difficult to compare State with State. That will be one of the difficulties the Committee will face, because it will find that certain elements of administration in some States are included as part of the professional staff. Precisely where one draws the line between the professional element and the administrative element is not always easy to know. If you wish to change the balance of your figures, you can construct the figures in such a way that you can include them in one category or the other.
So there are some grey areas where they can be included in one category or the other. It will be part of the task and the challenge which that committee will have, and we hope to have the assistance and benefit of its deliberations when it reports back to the Assembly.
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