Page 3414 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
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MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.06): I will speak briefly on this and just make a couple of general points about this line item in the budget. Firstly, I think it is very important that governments lead by example when it comes to the executive in terms of staff numbers and the use of resources. We note that the executive has gone from 31 staff to 36 staff from 2010-11 to 2011-12. That is not a massive increase, but it is important that we make sure that is monitored. At a time when the government has asked other areas of the government to make savings, it is important there is an example in the executive.
It is not our position that that is an excessive number at the moment. It is in the right ballpark, but I think it is important that leadership is shown when it comes to the executive so that we do not see any cynicism from governments by increasing the staff numbers in the lead-up to an election as that might assist them.
That said, Madam Assistant Speaker, we know we need a reasonable number of staff in the executive to support ministers. They play a very important role, as do the public servants who come and go from time to time in those ministers’ offices. We believe it is important, though, as in all other areas of public sector management, that that is done in a reasonable way, and we simply put that point to the government.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (4.07): There is one issue in the executive area that resulted in a recommendation from the committee—the policy on the use of mobile phones by staff in the executive. The recommendation is:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government inform the ACT Legislative Assembly with regard to the ACT Executive’s mobile phone policy. This should include detail on policy guidance concerning: allocation—delineating between Ministers and ministerial staff, terms of use, acquittal of conditions attached to use, and payment plans.
The government’s response is, “Yes, we’ve got a mobile phone policy and that has been developed and it is distributed to the executive and to the staff.” So it is a typical response from a secretive government. If you have got a policy on the use of mobile phones, I do not see why it cannot be tabled in this place as per the suggestion of the estimates committee. I guess that is probably expecting too much from this new era of openness and accountability.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (4.08): The Greens will be supporting this line item, which is around the staffing for the executive. There has not been a huge increase; it is one that would be expected. We do not have any issues and certainly nothing came out from the estimates committee or the estimates process.
There was a discussion within the estimates report, as Mr Smyth has alluded to, around the executive’s mobile phone policy and having a policy and guidance on that. We believe good administration is a good thing, and we can always improve on being open and accountable about money we spend. The Greens will be supporting this line item.
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