Page 4704 - Week 14 - Thursday, 24 November 2005

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Urban Services—ranger numbers
(Question No 719)

Mr Pratt asked the Minister for Urban Services, upon notice, on 20 October 2005:

(1) Given that the Department of Urban Services annual report 2004-05 identifies that there are currently five full-time equivalent (FTE) rangers employed within the department however, in last year’s annual report it was identified that there were 39.4 FTE Urban Services rangers, why has there been such a large drop in the number of FTE rangers within Urban Services;

(2) Have these rangers been transferred to another department; if so, (a) where have they been transferred to, (b) how many were transferred and (c) why were they transferred; if not, have they been retrenched;

(3) What effect will the drop in Urban Services rangers have on the operations that they had previously carried out;

(4) What are the total savings that will be made for the Department of Urban Services due to this reduction in rangers.

Mr Hargreaves: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

(1) Under Machinery of Government arrangements which was effected 21st December 2004 under Sections 15,16 and 119(2) of the Public Sector Management Act 1994, 31.4 FTE rangers transferred to the Chief Minister’s Department. During the 2004/05 financial year, of the remaining 8 FTE, two ACT Forest Ranger positions were reclassified to GSO 5 (and hence did not appear under the “Ranger Classification” within the annual report and one Ranger position was transferred to Arts, Heritage and Environment in May 2005. The five FTE reported in the 2004/05 annual report was made up of one Forest Ranger and four Sportsground Rangers.

(2) Refer to (1).

(3) There is no effect on operations as the functions and the staff all transferred to Chief Minister’s Department as outlined in (1) above.

(4) Nil savings on a whole of government basis.

Policing—surveillance cameras
(Question No 720)

Mr Pratt asked the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, upon notice, on 20 October 2005:

(1) How many times has the ACT Ombudsman recommended that the Australian Federal Police upgrade the video surveillance system at the city watch-house;

(2) Why, after repeated calls to upgrade the surveillance system, has no action been taken to implement the upgrade;


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