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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (14 December) . . Page.. 3033 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

I think that the bottom line of this debate, Mr Speaker, is that the ACT, after passing the Public Sector Management (Amendment) Bill this week, no longer mirrors the Commonwealth. We will have our senior executives on contracts, which is not a mirror of the Commonwealth situation. It certainly is much closer to situations that exist in New South Wales, Victoria and other States. On that basis, how silly is it to have a remuneration tribunal to set wages in a system that simply is not the same system any longer? It may have been sensible when the system was virtually a mirror image. It is no longer a mirror image. This is part of our move to have our own public service which mirrors the needs of the people of Canberra. I think I remember Ms Follett saying in the debate when we passed the Public Sector Management Bill last year that what she was aiming at was a public service that reflected the needs of the ACT; one that was not the poor relation of the Commonwealth but was an entity in its own right. I believe that the amendments that we passed yesterday were part of that transition to having a public service that reflects the ACT, and I believe that this Bill is another part of that process. It is an essential part of mirroring a public service that is a stand-alone entity; one that can do its own thing and can reflect the needs of the people of Canberra, not the needs of the Commonwealth Government.

Question put:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

The Assembly voted -

AYES, 9 NOES, 8

Mrs Carnell Mr Berry
Mr Cornwell Mr Connolly
Mr De Domenico Ms Follett
Mr Hird Ms Horodny
Mr Humphries Ms McRae
Mr Kaine Ms Tucker
Mr Moore Mr Whitecross
Mr Osborne Mr Wood
Mr Stefaniak

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.

Bill agreed to.

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