This Government came to office having committed itself to high standards of integrity, transparency, responsiveness and accountability. These four requirements of good government are intertwined and all are achieved and maintained only through vigilance and constant endeavour. Today I want to place on the record, not a final statement of achievement in these areas, but an account of the significant steps the Government has taken during 2008.
For the first time, integrity and governance functions have been brought together under a single Minister: Ombudsman, Privacy Commissioner; APSC; IGIS; ANAO and National Archives.
One of the first actions of the new Government was to adopt a more demanding code of conduct for all Ministers. In the Standards of Ministerial Ethics there is the clear message that the privilege of public office goes hand-in-hand with the observance of the high standards of behaviour that this Parliament and the public have a right to expect.
To limit the scope for conflicts of interests to arise in the performance of ministerial duties, Ministers are required by the Standards of Ministerial Ethics, to divest themselves of all shareholdings other than through arm’s length investment vehicles. The Standards have also introduced a bar on Ministers, for a period of 18 months after they leave ministerial office, seeking to have business dealings with members of the Government, the Australian Public Service or the Australian Defence Forces on any matters that they dealt with in an official capacity in the preceding 18 months.
The Government also introduced, for the first time, a Code of Conduct governing ministerial staff. In a ground breaking move the Code provided an unequivocal statement that executive decision making is the preserve of Ministers and public servants (who may be held accountable directly to Parliament through its committees) and not ministerial staff acting in their own right.
We also recognised that the intricacies and challenges of the role of a ministerial staff member should be supported by an understanding of the obligations that they owe not only to the Minister who employs them but to the Government, Parliament and public more generally. The obligations should be backed by a sound understanding of the workings of government, Cabinet and the public service. The Government therefore, again for the first time, organised early in 2008 a program of induction training from within Government and from senior public servants.
The Government is introducing an annual report on Ministerial and Parliamentary staffing, following the recommendations for more transparency contained in the Forshaw Report. This annual report will provide an overview of the numbers of Ministerial staff and the costs of their employment. It will significantly enhance the transparency of employment arrangements for all MOP(S) Act employees and the report will be tabled before the end of the year.
The Members of Parliament Staff annual report will include: an overview of the employment framework; a staffing overview, including position allocations and employment numbers and types; a summary of employee home bases and approved non-standard home bases; salary ranges and information about non-salary benefits; and other related information such as fraud prevention and control, occupational health and safety, and professional development.
The Government has held eight Community Cabinets this year, the ninth soon to be held in Geelong. More than 4,000 people have attended the meetings. One has been held in Western Australia, one in South Australia, two in Queensland, two in New South Wales, one in Tasmania, and one in remote Northern Territory.
There is an open forum at each, followed by pre-arranged one to one meetings with individuals and community groups, and Cabinet ministers.
There have been more than 400 one to one meetings held between members of those communities, and Cabinet Ministers. And the Rudd Government ensures a timely response to those who raise matters in their meetings with Ministers.
No other Commonwealth Government has ever done this.
The Government believes that Community Cabinet allows communities across Australia to have direct access to Cabinet ministers, and allows Cabinet Ministers to understand, first-hand, the concerns and challenges of those communities.
Mr President, the Government identified a number of areas where it considered that greater transparency and greater accountability were required. One of those related to Government campaign advertising, a matter that had caused us concern over many years. In July I announced the introduction of revised advertising arrangements that saw the processes of campaign advertising placed primarily with the public service. In a major initiative the guidelines established a requirement that no advertising campaign that cost more than $250,000 could proceed without a report from the Auditor-General. These new advertising guidelines, which were designed to take the politics out of government advertising, have been introduced and are operating effectively. In addition, the Public Service Commissioner has issued new guidelines which prevent the appearance of public servants in government advertising, other than in exceptional circumstances.
As honourable senators know, I have introduced amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act that will enhance transparency and accountability in the area of electoral funding and donations. It is my hope that that legislation will be passed early in 2009. In the course of the year, work has been underway, in consultation with the states and territories, on the first of two Green Papers looking more broadly at the fundamentals of our electoral system. The first of the Green Papers, which deals with donations, funding and expenditure, will be published shortly. Comments on the paper will be invited and will be analysed in the new year. Work is also well underway on the second Green Paper which will cover the remaining elements of the Commonwealth electoral system.
A major element of integrity and accountability is, of course, transparency. I was pleased last week to introduce the Freedom of Information (Removal of Conclusive Certificates and Other Measures) Bill.
This Bill implements the first stage of the election commitments to reform the FOI Act. Its main purpose is to repeal the power to issue conclusive certificates in the FOI Act and the Archives Act.
The removal of certificates is an accountability measure – all decisions to refuse access to documents will be subject to full merits review by the AAT.
It does not mean information that should be protected from disclosure will be released. Where an exemption claim properly applies to a document, that exemption will continue to provide protection against its disclosure.
The Bill has been referred to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee, which will report by 10 March 2009.
This is a first and significant step towards meeting our commitment to greater openness and transparency. Early in 2009 an exposure draft of legislation covering other pre-election commitments on FOI, including the proposal to establish an Information Commissioner to champion FOI across Government, will be released. The Government is determined to make access to information an easier process for members of the community. Naturally we accept, as I know those opposite have in the past, that there is some information which, for the protection of Australian interests, will not be made public. My goal is to ensure that information is withheld only when there are sound reasons.
As part of the Government’s determination to strengthen integrity in governance, the Australian Government is committed to a pro-disclosure culture within the public sector.
Our efforts go beyond FOI. We are also examining how we should protect public interest disclosures, often referred to as ‘whistleblowing’.
The Government has referred the issue of whistleblower protection in the federal public sector to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, chaired by my colleague Mark Dreyfus. The Government has asked the Committee to consider and report on a preferred model by February 2009.
The Government will examine the Committee’s recommendations with the aim of developing legislation implementing strengthened whistleblower protections during the course of 2009.
On 1 July 2008 a Lobbying Code of Conduct and Lobbyists Register commenced operation. The primary purpose of the code and register is to ensure that Ministers are always aware of the interests being represented by the people who lobby them. As of this week, there are 221 approved entities and 551 individual lobbyists on the register. The Code also imposes restrictions on Ministers, Ministerial staff and public servants who leave Government, from immediately engaging in third party lobbying activities on issues they were dealing with in their prior positions.
The Government has also introduced a number of measures to wind back the benefits of incumbency. Firstly, it announced a most significant reduction in numbers of ministerial staff. From the figure of 477 when the previous government left office, we have reduced the number of staff to 334, representing a substantial budget saving.
Honourable senators will also be aware that the printing entitlements for senators and members have been reduced.
An ethical, apolitical public service is regarded by this Government as an essential part of the overall fabric of good government. We have therefore taken a number of steps to strengthen the ethical base of the Australian Public Service and to protect it from political interference.
The Prime Minister honoured his pre-election commitment that Secretaries of departments would be judged on their merits and would not be the subject of arbitrary sackings. He has implemented his undertaking that Secretaries would not be appointed for terms shorter than five years and that performance pay, with its potential to deter Secretaries from giving unwelcome advice, would be abolished.
Early in the Government I announced new guidelines for senior appointments to Australian Public Service positions. The guidelines set out the transparent and merit-based assessment process to apply to appointments, including that all positions will be advertised publicly. Further work is underway in relation to other public sector appointment processes.
Significantly, the Government is also planning to establish an Ethics Advisory Service within the Australian Public Service Commission to:
Finally, I would like to illustrate the Government’s commitment to accountability by recording the way it recognises the dignity and stature of the Parliament. In the course of the 2008 parliamentary year, this Government has made 65 ministerial statements. This compares with an annual average of fewer than seven over the previous five years.
The Government is also attaching greater importance to the answering of questions on notice. As a particular example of increased accountability, I observe that all questions taken on notice at the February and June estimates hearings this year by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet were answered by the due dates, with every effort being made to do the same for the October round – a marked improvement over previous years.
One area of improvement that I will announce today is that the Government wishes to reduce the time taken to respond to parliamentary committee reports. There are currently reports outstanding dating back to 1995. Many of those will by now have been overtaken or are not matters that can sensibly be addressed by this Government. In relation, however, to responses to reports tabled since the change of Government, we will be making a concerted effort to meet the deadline of three months for responses. We accept that this will not always be possible, but in future there will be a monitoring requirement on all departments that will ensure Ministers are alerted ahead of the three month mark to any response that is not likely to be available by the deadline and a realistic indication given of when the response will have been drafted. Obviously it will be incumbent on Ministers and their offices to ensure that delays in tabling are not due to their inattention. Twice each year, the Government in both Chambers will provide an account of progress that actually means something.
As I said at the beginning of this statement, the challenge to achieve and maintain integrity, transparency, responsiveness and accountability in government is never really over. The Government will continue to work towards even better outcomes. The start that has been made, however, is I believe impressive. It amply demonstrates the strength of our commitment to these principles.
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