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Autumn 2004

Appointment of new State Service Commissioner heralds far-reaching changes

A NEW APPOINTMENT and changes to State Government structures governing the public service will have far-reaching consequences.

Bob Watling, the Deputy President of the Tasmanian Industrial Commission has been appointed to the role of the State Service Commissioner. This follows the resignation of the previous State Service Commissioner last year.

Bob Watling comes to the office with impressive credentials, having worked in Industrial Relations for many years and subsequently as a Commissioner, then Deputy President of the Industrial Commission.

HACSU met with Bob recently, where he outlined very important changes in relation to the way the State Service Act will be administered into the future.

The most significant change is the separation of employer and review functions in the State Service Act.

The proposed changes will make the Office of the State Service Commissioner completely independent from Government.

The State Service Commissioner's responsibilities will now be generally limited to reviews, for example reviews of Government agencies, reviews of actions (appeals) and evaluations, for example evaluations of the performance of government agencies and agencies obligations under the State Service Act.

The other employer functions, for example policy formulation, will now be administered through a separate office called the Division of Industrial Relations and State Service Management.

The State Service Commissioner has advised us that he is in the process of handing the employer functions over to the new office.

However, this is a short-term arrangement until the Act is amended to facilitate the changes formally.

During the review of the Act prior to 2001 HACSU argued strongly that the review functions and employer functions should be separate, as without the separation of powers members would effectively be forced to "appeal to Caesar".

Again it would appear that we were ahead of our time. Member will be informed of changes to a range of matters as we work through the process.