Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Indigenous Affairs Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2011 contains several minor amendments to Indigenous affairs legislation. Some amendments make minor governance and business changes for portfolio bodies under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005. That act established several statutory positions that currently have the title 'general manager'. This is the case for the heads of Indigenous Business Australia, the Indigenous Land Corporation, Aboriginal Hostels Ltd and the Torres Strait Regional Authority. To respond to changes in the roles of these positions since they were created, the term 'chief executive officer' will replace 'general manager'. This will reflect more accurately the responsibilities and expectations of these agency heads.

Most other Commonwealth statutory authorities and companies have agency heads with the title of chief executive officer, such as the Australia Council for the Arts, Screen Australia, the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and the Australian Sports Commission. Therefore, this change is an alignment with the mainstream for agencies established under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act. It is more appropriate for agencies that have a board of directors, as these agencies do, to be headed by a chief executive officer, in view of a general expectation that chief executive officer is more senior than general manager. The change in title should help the boards of these agencies to attract a higher calibre of candidate for the agency head positions.

Another minor amendment in the bill will remove a redundant reference in a provision that refers to review being available under the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977. The provision currently mentions two discontinued Aboriginal Hostels Ltd schemes, the Community Support Hostel Grant Scheme and the Student Rent Subsidy Scheme, as having access to this avenue of review. However, the two schemes have not existed for a number of years and we are taking the opportunity to remove the reference, which is clearly no longer appropriate.

The bill also amends the provision for handling of information held by Indigenous Business Australia. This provision has a narrow focus that has in the past prevented information from being disclosed to agencies with responsibility for overseeing Commonwealth administrative practices, such as the Ombudsman and the Privacy Commissioner. The provision also prevented information being given to Commonwealth agencies working on joint initiatives with Indigenous Business Australia and to state and territory agencies seeking to work more closely with Indigenous Business Australia to achieve better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.

The amended provision should overcome these difficulties, however the appropriate protection of sensitive information will be continued after the amendment. It is important that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to have confidence in how information is managed. The amended provision will be consistent with established information-handling arrangements that protect information while still permitting the proper work of the Commonwealth and its agencies. Such arrangements can be found in the family assistance law and the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010. The amendments are supported by the Indigenous Business Australia board.

The last measure in the bill as it was introduced would have amended the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 and the Coordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services Act 2009. This was to allow the minister to delegate to the secretary or a deputy secretary of the department the power to appoint a person to act for short periods as Executive Director of Township Leasing or as the Coordinator-General for Remote Indigenous Services.

During parliamentary consideration of this schedule of the bill some members of parliament have raised issues that require further discussion on operational details. The government will therefore move an amendment to withdraw schedule 2 to enable other elements of the bill to proceed.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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