Mrs BRAHAM - 2005-08-24
‘Stronger regions’ and ‘governance’ are terms your government has bandied around. However, in the last term, many of the senior positions in Central Australia have been relocated to Darwin. In fact, most of the decision-making now has to be referred to Darwin. There are no career options for our public servants with talent in the Centre and we are losing good public servants. To get a balance back in and to create a career path for public servants, would you consider relocating a department to Alice Springs -- , and that could be done with Parks and Wildlife, for example - , andto actually strengthen up the public service so, once again, they can take control and start marking decisions without this continual centralisation that your government seems to have fostered?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question because it is an important issue. A couple of years ago, we realised that there had been a loss of decision-making outside Darwin. It is certainly something that was made clear to us as we travelled with Community Cabinet around the Northern Territory. Since that time, we have been making moves to build the decision-making capacity and those senior positions in the region. As a testimony forto the importance of regional development, the fact that the member for Wanguri is now the Minister for Business, Economic and Regional Development. That is certainly an indication from government in this term that that is where our focus will be, and it is a very deserving focus for the Northern Territory.
Around There are something like three thousand 3000 public servants who work outside Darwin. I cannot give you the actual time frame, but there have been positions transferred to, particularly, Alice Springs, and also new positions created in the public sector in Alice Springs. For example, there are 39 extra nurses, 28 new teaching positions and 20 new police officers in Alice Springs. Examples of some of the more senior positions,: in tourism, for example, we now have a Regional Director of Tourism based in Alice Springs to give better capacity to make those key decisions in Alice Springs, and two positions in the executive area of DEET have been upgraded to ECO3 and ECO2 positions respectively, and there are some initiatives within Health that I do not have details of.
Madam Speaker, we are very conscious of that, and it is a very valid point made by the member for Braitling. We are ensuring that we have appropriate decision-making capacity within our public sector. Having Aappropriate numbers working in the region is very important to this government, and I am very happy for you to continue to take us to task about this.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I welcome the question because it is an important issue. A couple of years ago, we realised that there had been a loss of decision-making outside Darwin. It is certainly something that was made clear to us as we travelled with Community Cabinet around the Northern Territory. Since that time, we have been making moves to build the decision-making capacity and those senior positions in the region. As a testimony forto the importance of regional development, the fact that the member for Wanguri is now the Minister for Business, Economic and Regional Development. That is certainly an indication from government in this term that that is where our focus will be, and it is a very deserving focus for the Northern Territory.
Around There are something like three thousand 3000 public servants who work outside Darwin. I cannot give you the actual time frame, but there have been positions transferred to, particularly, Alice Springs, and also new positions created in the public sector in Alice Springs. For example, there are 39 extra nurses, 28 new teaching positions and 20 new police officers in Alice Springs. Examples of some of the more senior positions,: in tourism, for example, we now have a Regional Director of Tourism based in Alice Springs to give better capacity to make those key decisions in Alice Springs, and two positions in the executive area of DEET have been upgraded to ECO3 and ECO2 positions respectively, and there are some initiatives within Health that I do not have details of.
Madam Speaker, we are very conscious of that, and it is a very valid point made by the member for Braitling. We are ensuring that we have appropriate decision-making capacity within our public sector. Having Aappropriate numbers working in the region is very important to this government, and I am very happy for you to continue to take us to task about this.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016