Mr BAILEY - 1998-10-15
Under Planning for Growth, 205 corporate services positions will get the axe. Many public servants affected have not been comforted by the Treasurer’s claim of a soft landing. Many fear being squeezed out slowly, many fear impractical transfers and options of unsuitable training being imposed. Now you have scared these people and their families, when will you spell out specifically what their futures will be?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is amazing, is it not? The Planning for Growth process was first announced on 28 April. The shadow treasurer now, claiming concern about what may or may not happen in the workplace, is finally showing a bit of interest. Did he, or any of his 6 colleagues, take the opportunity in the intervening period to write to me or anyone suggesting what should be done in the planning process? Was he constructive or productive or innovative or looking forward as to what might be done for Territory public servants?
Mr Bailey: The question is what are you going to do?
Mr REED: No, the question is that you are incompetent, and you are now trying to take an opportunity, to take an advantage. He is now trying to take advantage of a situation following action by the government to improve both the public sector, the workplace for public servants, and the services they provide to Territorians. In doing so, he has again put down public servants.
Mr Ah Kit: No, no, no.
Mr REED: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! The honourable member for Arnhem interjects in his toad-like way that he so frequently does, croaking from the swamp. The fact is that the – and you cannot deny it, it will be in Hansard. The fact is …
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Madam SPEAKER: What is your point of order?
Ms MARTIN: We asked a very specific question, and the Treasurer has not yet got to answer that. He is just raving. So let’s hear an answer to the question.
Madam SPEAKER: We go through this every time. Less interjections, straight to the answer please, minister.
Mr REED: Madam Speaker, I am being straight with the answer because I am referring to a statement he made in his answer in relation to training and, in so doing, denigrated the public servants that he is standing up, purportedly, to protect. His statement was that they will get inadequate training. The fact is that there are hard working public servants out there who will organise that training. They will organise it with the additional funding over and above the training allocations in the last budget, that was provided in my statement yesterday, an extra $100 000. So he is putting down the hardworking public servants who are going to either deliver or organise that training, or retraining, for those people who will be going to other workplaces.
In going to other workplaces, if they are affected by the Planning for Growth process, for example if they are moving to the Department of Corporate and Information Services, they will be in an agency that will be specifically directed at providing those sorts of services. If they are coming from smaller agencies, where their promotional opportunities were limited, they will find themselves in a department with much wider opportunities for advancement in their particular area of expertise.
From the point of view of the 205 positions, 75% of those positions are already vacant. That has been something that has consciously been worked to by whom? By the hard-working public servants he criticises. Because it’s been obvious from the process that we’ve been following, there would be some positions by definition, that will no longer be required. As a consequence, to ease the burden on public servants, the recruitment into some of those positions has not taken place and as a consequence the change to the new arrangements will be much easier. Isn’t it a great shame that the honourable members opposite cannot recognise benefits in the Planning for Growth announcements that were made yesterday for public servants.
The superannuation benefits to existing contributors to the NTGPASS scheme, where they’ll get improved benefits and their entitlements will be protected. Isn’t it a pity, that the ...
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The minister is totally off the point now. We asked him about 205 positions. The question ...
Mr DUNHAM: Madam Speaker, speaking to the point of order
Madam SPEAKER: What is your the point of order?
Mr DUNHAM: The question is not relevant to the Planning for Growth statement.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The question is relevant to the Planning for Growth.
Mr REED: Madam Speaker, it wasn’t a point of order - and that again demonstrates the incompetence of the member for Fannie Bay. It is the content of the answer that they don’t like. It is the fact that it is being distributed through the broadcast of this Question Time to the people listening to this broadcast, and it’s the fact that it’s clearly shown that he in his own actions and his own comments in asking the question is putting down public servants who will provide the training, who will organise the training and who are now out there working hard to implement the arrangements that are going to be put in place to establish 3 new departments, to better work to provide better workplaces and opportunities for employees in the public service and a better service for Territorians. He should welcome that as the private sector has on news broadcasts and in the newspaper today, because they can see the advantages of it, even if the honourable member for Wanguri is too narrow-sighted to be able to see it.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is amazing, is it not? The Planning for Growth process was first announced on 28 April. The shadow treasurer now, claiming concern about what may or may not happen in the workplace, is finally showing a bit of interest. Did he, or any of his 6 colleagues, take the opportunity in the intervening period to write to me or anyone suggesting what should be done in the planning process? Was he constructive or productive or innovative or looking forward as to what might be done for Territory public servants?
Mr Bailey: The question is what are you going to do?
Mr REED: No, the question is that you are incompetent, and you are now trying to take an opportunity, to take an advantage. He is now trying to take advantage of a situation following action by the government to improve both the public sector, the workplace for public servants, and the services they provide to Territorians. In doing so, he has again put down public servants.
Mr Ah Kit: No, no, no.
Mr REED: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! The honourable member for Arnhem interjects in his toad-like way that he so frequently does, croaking from the swamp. The fact is that the – and you cannot deny it, it will be in Hansard. The fact is …
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Madam Speaker!
Madam SPEAKER: What is your point of order?
Ms MARTIN: We asked a very specific question, and the Treasurer has not yet got to answer that. He is just raving. So let’s hear an answer to the question.
Madam SPEAKER: We go through this every time. Less interjections, straight to the answer please, minister.
Mr REED: Madam Speaker, I am being straight with the answer because I am referring to a statement he made in his answer in relation to training and, in so doing, denigrated the public servants that he is standing up, purportedly, to protect. His statement was that they will get inadequate training. The fact is that there are hard working public servants out there who will organise that training. They will organise it with the additional funding over and above the training allocations in the last budget, that was provided in my statement yesterday, an extra $100 000. So he is putting down the hardworking public servants who are going to either deliver or organise that training, or retraining, for those people who will be going to other workplaces.
In going to other workplaces, if they are affected by the Planning for Growth process, for example if they are moving to the Department of Corporate and Information Services, they will be in an agency that will be specifically directed at providing those sorts of services. If they are coming from smaller agencies, where their promotional opportunities were limited, they will find themselves in a department with much wider opportunities for advancement in their particular area of expertise.
From the point of view of the 205 positions, 75% of those positions are already vacant. That has been something that has consciously been worked to by whom? By the hard-working public servants he criticises. Because it’s been obvious from the process that we’ve been following, there would be some positions by definition, that will no longer be required. As a consequence, to ease the burden on public servants, the recruitment into some of those positions has not taken place and as a consequence the change to the new arrangements will be much easier. Isn’t it a great shame that the honourable members opposite cannot recognise benefits in the Planning for Growth announcements that were made yesterday for public servants.
The superannuation benefits to existing contributors to the NTGPASS scheme, where they’ll get improved benefits and their entitlements will be protected. Isn’t it a pity, that the ...
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Madam Speaker. The minister is totally off the point now. We asked him about 205 positions. The question ...
Mr DUNHAM: Madam Speaker, speaking to the point of order
Madam SPEAKER: What is your the point of order?
Mr DUNHAM: The question is not relevant to the Planning for Growth statement.
Madam SPEAKER: There is no point of order. The question is relevant to the Planning for Growth.
Mr REED: Madam Speaker, it wasn’t a point of order - and that again demonstrates the incompetence of the member for Fannie Bay. It is the content of the answer that they don’t like. It is the fact that it is being distributed through the broadcast of this Question Time to the people listening to this broadcast, and it’s the fact that it’s clearly shown that he in his own actions and his own comments in asking the question is putting down public servants who will provide the training, who will organise the training and who are now out there working hard to implement the arrangements that are going to be put in place to establish 3 new departments, to better work to provide better workplaces and opportunities for employees in the public service and a better service for Territorians. He should welcome that as the private sector has on news broadcasts and in the newspaper today, because they can see the advantages of it, even if the honourable member for Wanguri is too narrow-sighted to be able to see it.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016