Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the minister's comments just then, acknowledging that this has been a bipartisan commitment. I thank him for that. It has been. The shadow minister for health has pursued these issues with vigour in the last few years, and the Leader of the Opposition also. I also acknowledge the minister's commitment. In my own electorate he has met with groups and attempted to solve some of the challenges that I think there are, particularly in regional mental health issues. You would know yourself, Madam Deputy Speaker Saffin, that they are a different set of issues and are very hard to fix. I know the minister has put some attention on that, and we appreciate that. I am not sure we have yet got it right, so it is an issue which we need to continue to focus on.

I want to turn my attention to the administration of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, particularly with the parliamentary secretary here. Some of the machinery aspects of government which I think are important have been downplayed by ministers in this place this week, but I think they are substantially important to the operations of an effective executive government. During the Howard years, of which I had some experience as a staff member, there was a focus on ensuring the proper process was always followed—certainly from the Prime Minister, who very much respected the office that he held and the processes and traditions of that office. What has become apparent this week in estimates and in questioning in this place is that it seems that there are a series of ministers, through the chaos and dysfunction of the events of March this year, who have not received their charter letter from the Prime Minister.

For those unfamiliar with it, a charter letter is the letter which in effect is a job description for the minister. It outlines what it is the minister is responsible for, acts and the expectations of the minister. In the Howard years, the Prime Minister would have a session with each minister every 12 months to go through the charter letter and work through whether the outcomes that he expected to be achieved in the portfolio area to further the government's agenda were indeed being achieved. It was a very important letter for internally holding ministers to account to ensure that the aims and the pursuit of the policy direction of the government—which is usually announced at the beginning of a term in the Governor-General's speech—were being achieved.

It strikes me as quite remarkable that the Minister for Human Services, who is responsible in this budget for $157 billion worth of payments—the agency of human services is responsible for $157 billion worth of payments which Australians rely on, whether it be pensions, childcare payments, payments in relation to family tax benefit or Medicare rebates; you name it, they are responsible for it—does not have a charter letter from the chaos and dysfunction of March. There was no charter letter. It was then revealed in the portfolio of the minister for social and community services, Minister Macklin, that she does not have a charter letter. I presume the minister for mental health and other issues has a charter letter.

After that short preamble, my questions to the parliamentary secretary are as follows. How many ministers have not received their charter letter? Will they get the charter letter prior to the government entering into its caretaker period, which is about 78 days away? Have the Prime Minister and her department drafted those letters yet? Is this stuck in the in-tray? Do they intend to put some urgency to it? Can the parliamentary secretary update us on these matters?

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