In a rather unconventional departure from Westminster tradition yesterday, Chief Minister Kate Carnell chose to announce a new ministerial appointment to a gathering of invited guests and the media at the National Press Club. The normal procedure is to announce such things to the Parliament first.
The event was billed as an announcement about changes to the structure of government in the ACT. And some significant bureaucratic changes were announced.
Mrs Carnell predicated her announcement with a rundown of the ACT’s financial performance in the past four and a half years. In 1995 the ACT Budget had an operating loss of $344 million. This year it would be as good as balanced with a loss of a mere $6 million and into the black the following year.
In the context of a Federal Government slashing the territory’s main industry – federal administration – that is a significant achievement. It is made better by the fact that the Federal Government’s funding of the ACT continued to fall dramatically over the period with the exception of the last year.
Further the employment position in the territory has been turned around. The ACT now has the highest participation rate and second lowest unemployment among the states and territories. True, some of the credit must go to the people of the ACT who have proved flexible and resilient in the face of adversity.
Mrs Carnell made a very pertinent point yesterday. She said that getting government finance into the black was a prerequisite to being able to fund health, education and other government services on a continuing basis. Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania ultimately paid very heavily for deficit spending and services had to be slashed to get the house back in order. It is a salutary lesson. Today’s profligacy is tomorrow’s hardship.
It is now time for the ACT to make greater effort in determining whether we are getting good value for money with the amounts we spend on education and health – which is over the national average.
Further, with government financing seemingly on a sound footing it was time to look at getting smarter, she said.
(However, it may be prudent to wait until next Budget to see if the figures have come in as predicted.)
Mrs Carnell announced a couple of education and IT initiatives, which are welcome, as is the proposal to issue a state of the territory annual report, which is to concentrate of quality of life matters, not just the bottom line as the present Budget does. That is a welcome widening of the lens.
However, there are a couple of alarming things about the bureaucratic and ministerial changes.
The fact she appointed Gary Humphries treasurer without reallocating any of his other portfolios indicates the shallowness of talent in the parliamentary Liberal Party. It further indicates that Mr Humphries is to be the fall guy once again, as he was in the Alliance Government when he was given the double poisoned chalice of Education and Health at a time when school and hospital closures were inevitable. Now he faces the daunting Treasury portfolio at a time when the Auditor-General is about to give verdict on previous Treasurership of Mrs Carnell over Bruce Stadium. He has been passed the ball just as it has become obvious that one person should not be Treasurer and Chief Minister at the same time.
The other alarming thing is that while Mrs Carnell has divested herself of the ministerial responsibility of Treasury, she announced she would set up a policy group within her own department to give policy advice across all departments. It sounds suspiciously like the centralisation of control, hitherto exercised through Treasury, will now be done bureaucratically.
And it has all been done under the guise of the divestment of the Treasury portfolio.