Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will be supporting these amendments. They've been made to give certainty and clarity to the legislation for staff and for parliamentarians. The first part ensures that the legislation will be managed by the minister who's traditionally the minister responsible for matters relating to our workplaces, expenses and resourcing, and that's the Special Minister of State. This is appropriate in that it will ensure that the matters that relate to us as a workplace are managed together in a holistic way.

The second is a small but important amendment. In the original drafting of the bill, the PWSS would have been required to provide reports through the minister before they were tabled in parliament. This amendment will mean that the bill will be provided directly to the chambers in such a way that no member of the ministry determines the timing of publication and that there's no perception of politicisations of these reports, particularly those reports that relate to noncompliance with the PWSS mandatory policies and education. In respect of the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service Bill 2023, I move opposition amendment (1) on sheet 2115:

(1) At the end of the sheet, add:

"(5) Clause 23, page 23 (line 19), omit "Minister", substitute "President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives"."

This amendment corrects an error in the drafting following the government amendment. It will change a now outdated reference to section 23 to reflect the changes made in the amendments in ZB244, where there will be no longer reference to a minister in section 22(5). We're moving this amendment just to assist in the legibility of the legislation and correct that oversight.

Question agreed to.