Page 1108 - Week 04 - Thursday, 21 April 1994
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The object of the Bill is not only to set out employment matters but also to give clear direction as to how the public sector should be managed. The Bill, therefore, deals with a range of matters from equal employment opportunity, ethical behaviour and industrial democracy to whistleblowing and the public administration principles that managers are required to apply.
I would now like to outline some of the major provisions associated with the Public Sector Management Bill. The Government has made clear its commitment to enhanced accountability and improved service in the ACT public sector. To achieve this, the Bill sets out the values and principles that guide the work of the public sector and the obligations that public employees are required to uphold in the execution of their duties. Through these provisions, ACT Government Service employees will be aware of what is expected of them, as will the community.
The Bill promotes a whole-of-government approach to public administration. One way in which it does this is by requiring chief executives, in addition to their traditional direct responsibility to their Ministers for their departments, also to take responsibility in regard to the interests of the Government and the service as a whole. The Bill also creates the new position of Commissioner for Public Administration. The responsibilities of this job will go beyond the traditional role of personnel management to include a broader statutory role of management review across the service. The commissioner will have an overall responsibility to advise the Government on the administration of the public sector, including equal employment opportunity, access and equity and industrial democracy issues.
Madam Speaker, consistent with the Government's commitment not to reduce the conditions of members of the new service, the provisions relating to the creation and abolition of offices, employment, retirement and redeployment, long service leave and maternity leave are similar to those that apply in the Australian Public Service. We therefore will have in a single Bill the provisions that are found in a number of pieces of legislation in the Commonwealth public sector. Whilst this makes the Bill fairly large, it has the strong advantage that all of the law about the public service can be found in the one place. We will be adopting the same approach in relation to the public sector management standards which are provided for in the Bill. The standards will be a single compendium of all the subordinate rules that govern the new service, apart from the finance directions.
The processes for discipline remain unchanged from the Commonwealth model, although the definition of misconduct is now much simpler: An officer is guilty of misconduct if he or she fails to comply with obligations contained in clause 10 of the Bill, and clause 10 sets out what those obligations are. The existing public servants retain access to the Merit Protection and Review Agency on appeal and grievance matters, and this service has been extended to teachers and employees of ACTEW and the Legal Aid Commission.
I am pleased to advise also that this Bill includes provisions for the protection of public servants who blow the whistle on maladministration, corruption, fraud or risks to public health or safety in the ACT Government Service. The legislation is based on the recommendations of the 1991 review of Commonwealth criminal law chaired by a former Chief Justice of Australia, Sir Harry Gibbs. Whistleblowers will, in specific
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