Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mackellar for moving her amendment and for her genuine interest in ensuring integrity to appointments to independent bodies. I want to make a few points, the first and primary one being that the government has appointed Ms Lynelle Briggs AO to lead a review of the public sector board appointments and their processes. The review forms part of the government's public sector reform agenda under the priority area of an APS that embodies integrity in everything it does. The review will consider and propose appropriate standards for the processes by which members are appointed to government boards. This will include a focus on the role of public sector boards and how needed skills and standards are set; options for transparent processes to identify and recruit board members; how ministers are advised on the selection of board members; and improving the diversity of board membership, including in terms of gender, cultural and linguistic diversity and First Nations and geographic representation on public sector boards. Despite the well-intentioned motives of the member and the genuineness of her efforts to change the legislation, given that review is underway, we will not pre-empt the recommendations of that report, particularly on an ad hoc basis by separate amendments to bills.

The bill in the House has significant criteria for the appointment of board members. The appointment of the commissioner and deputy commissioners are guided by the Cabinet Handbook and the Australian Public Service Commission guidelines. Additionally, I think the proof is in the pudding. I have appointed Professor Peter Dawkins as interim JSA director. Professor Dawkins has been doing a remarkable job steering JSA through this formative stage, and his credentials and expertise are quite evident. There is a statutory review requirement in this legislation which can also consider the appropriateness of the appointment processes. The government is committed to implementing high-quality appointment processes. For those reasons I have outlined, we won't be able to support this amendment.

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