Page 1836 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 30 May 1990
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Priorities Review Board
MR JENSEN: Mr Speaker, my question is directed to the Chief Minister. It has been suggested that some concerns with regard to the PRB report have been raised amongst some members of the Government Service staff. Can the Chief Minister provide some information on his intention which may allay those concerns?
MR KAINE: It is a fairly broad question, Mr Speaker.
Mr Wood: You wrote the question, did you not?
MR KAINE: No, I did not, Mr Speaker. So the inference is again unworthy of Mr Wood. But, expecting questions of all kinds about the Priorities Review Board, I have a great deal of information here, and if I get any question on the matter which is really relevant I will sensibly go to my notes to make sure that I can give a proper and full answer. I think that, Mr Wood, is what you would expect a Minister to do.
Mr Wood: I have no argument about that.
MR KAINE: I think your inference that somehow I wrote the question is unworthy of you.
Mr Moore: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker, on relevance.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Moore.
MR KAINE: But it was a very broad question as to what assurances I can give the members of the ACT Government Service about the implementation of the recommendations of the Priorities Review Board. Mr Speaker, I think it is significant that one of the first decisions that the Government has taken in relation to the Priorities Review Board is to maintain and strengthen the current links between the ACT Government Service and the Commonwealth Public Service. In other words, we do not intend to break away and establish our own public service. I think it would be unproductive to do that. So, to that extent, members of the ACT Government Service will continue to enjoy the same conditions of service and the same interchangeability between our public service and that of the Commonwealth as they have enjoyed in the past. There will be no change in their status in that respect.
I think that reflects the Government's view that the current arrangements have been beneficial both to the ACT - that is, the ACT Government and the community - and to the staff involved. I think this Government at least recognises and appreciates the exceptional efforts which Government Service staff have made in the lead-up to, and since, self-government. In that time managers and staff have had to cope with a great deal of change. They have done so very well. They have adjusted to it. They
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