Page 2675 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 October 1992
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QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Agency Heads - Selection Process
MR KAINE: I would like to address a question to the Chief Minister as the Minister responsible for the public service. Chief Minister, in response to a question yesterday the Minister for Education said that the inclusion of political staffers on interview boards for senior officer appointments was now the norm in the ACT. Do you support the Minister in saying that the politicisation of the appointment process for senior public servants is now the norm in the ACT? If so, when did it begin?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, members opposite have been trying to make a scandal out of the appointment of Ms Vardon for some five question times now. I would put it to them that if there is a scandal - they seem to believe that there is - then they ought to put it on the table. They really are flogging a dead horse on this issue. I think it is utterly disgraceful that they seek to denigrate an appointment of the person best qualified for that position - a position which is very sensitive and a position in which the community, the education system and, of course, this Assembly must have confidence. I think it is shameful that they continue to run this line. As I say, Madam Speaker, if they have a scandal, they have to put it on the table. We have been going on and on with this for five question times.
Madam Speaker, in June of this year the Government did recognise that there was a need to clearly spell out the processes that we would follow in making appointments to agency head positions. That need was highlighted clearly by the vacancies which had occurred - the Under Treasurer's position and also the Secretary of the Department of Education and the Arts - and the impending expiration of the appointment of the Secretary of the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning. We also recognised, Madam Speaker, that the fixed term statutory nature of the appointment of agency heads was a factor and, accordingly, the process for their appointment differs from the process for the selection of public servants.
The Government also agreed that the principles of openness, fairness and selection on merit should underpin the process for those appointments. Accordingly, we decided that a merit selection would be followed in those appointments, that positions in all cases were to be advertised, that the field of applicants could be augmented if that was seen as necessary, and that the responsible Minister should consult with me about the appropriate interview process. So, it was a conscious decision of the Government and that decision was put on the public record at the time that it was made by way of a press release, Madam Speaker, which went out on 24 July 1992.
I would like to add, Madam Speaker, that that approach was determined after we had examined the processes in other government services across Australia, because they have also needed to recognise the different nature of these sorts of appointments from the general public service appointment. There is, of course, as I am sure members opposite would recognise, a special relationship between an agency head and her or his respective Minister. So, Madam Speaker, we have agreed on that process. We have taken a conscious decision upon it and we have been very public about it.
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