Less than a week after the ACT Government Service coming into being, events have shown that the ACT Government (and perhaps the Assembly as a whole) got it at least partially wrong.
The Public Sector Management Act provides that the Chief Minister can appoint heads of department and move them from one department to another without process. That much is fine. However, the Act provides for permanency for heads of ACT departments and that they cannot be removed without process.
In the past two days we have seen the appointment of Treasury head David Rosalky as new head of the Chief Minister’s department, the ACT’s highest bureaucrat, after a long period with Jeff Townsend acting in the job. The time lapse indicated that a selection process was being undertaken.
Then we saw the rapid appointment (in a matter of days) of a new head of Treasury and Health. The new Treasury head, incidentally, having been passed over when Dr Rosalky was appointed. That indicated that if there was a process, it was a very rapid one. In any event, all the processes were closed and not subject to an appeal process.
That means the reasons for Mr Townsend being passed over can only be left to guesswork, even to him because a direct appointment by the Chief Minister is not reviewable. It may be that Dr Rosalky was the better person for the job. However, people will be excused for wondering whether the Vitab affair had anything to do with it. Of the three public-sector parties in that affair _ the department headed by Mr Townsend, the minister’s office and ACTTAB _ Mr Townsend came out looking best. Noted Labor lefties and Labor appointees on the Minister’s staff and on the ACT TAB board did not come out as well by comparison. Mr Townsend was perhaps a bit too competent for his own good. And perhaps he was vetoed by the Labor left. In other words there may have been a political reason for his being passed over.
Events of the past few days and earlier appointments in services Australia-wide suggest it is almost inevitable that political considerations and other non-merit issues are going to carry at least some weight in the appointment of heads of department, even something simple as ability to get of with a minister personally.
It would be better to recognise that fact. At present the Act recognises it in the (ital) method (ital) of appointment (by chief ministerial fiat), but not in the (ital) nature (end ital) of the appointment (permanent tenure with no removal without process and cause). It would be better to make both ends of the appointment subject to chief ministerial fiat. As the ACT has a fixed parliamentary term, the heads of department should be appointed for a term of three years shortly after the election. Early termination without reason should be permissible on paying out the contract.
Alternatively, but less satisfactorily, there should be a full process upon appointment.
Either way spades would be spades. Heads of departments would be acknowledged political appointments or they would be fully fledged public service appointments. The present hybrid is unsatisfactory.