Senator FAULKNER (Leader of the Opposition in the Senate)(10.32 a.m.) —I move:

(4)   Clause 35, page 17 (lines 12 to 14), omit subclause (3).

This particular amendment is an important one relating to omitting the provision allowing the CEO to employ staff outside the provisions of the Public Service Act. On this occasion I would like to very briefly read an extract from the minority report on this issue to put this issue in context. The minority report said:

The Bill provides the Agency with the capacity to employ staff outside the provisions of the current Public Service Act, on terms and conditions determined by the Chief Executive Officer. As the CPSU noted in evidence, `we could have people within the Agency under different categories of employment performing the same levels of work for different pay and condition outcomes'.

While we recognise the precedents for employing staff outside the provisions of the Act under legislation establishing other Commonwealth authorities, we are concerned that such precedents have yet to be tested in the context of new industrial relations arrangements.

We are not persuaded by the Department's argument that the present Public Service Act hampers their capacity to employ temporary staff to deal with peak workloads. We note also that this and other significant issues will be dealt with in the context of the government's foreshadowed changes to public service terms and conditions. In the meantime, and given the Department's stated intention to negotiate a single enterprise agreement with Agency staff which could deal with arrangements for peak workload staffing, we see the provision as unnecessary.

There are at least two tools available to the agency to deal with emerging or temporary staffing problems. Revising the enterprise agreement negotiated with the staff of the agency and in the longer term the government's announced reforms to the Public Service Act. What I say is: use these. There is no need to employ staff outside the Public Service Act, no need at all. The agency can do the things it needs to do within the confines of the Public Service Act.

I think we ought not lose sight of the fact that even in a very limited debate like this the point needs to be made that the agency is delivering a public service. Labor cannot allow you to erode the pay and conditions of public servants by what I consider to be a backdoor mechanism. It is for those reasons that I urge the Senate to support this amendment.