Sunday, November 4, 2012

Labor to make room for Rattenbury - ABC Online


Updated November 05, 2012 09:03:46


The ACT Labor Caucus will meet today to decide who will be dumped from the ministry to make room for new Greens Minister Shane Rattenbury.


Labor has been returned to power after reaching a deal with Mr Rattenbury which includes a ministry and support for 100 Greens' policies.


Chief Minister Katy Gallagher will spend this week finalising her new Cabinet.


She will remain as Health Minister but also wants to take on regional affairs and higher education.


"The other area I'm very keen to take on is growing the university sector," she said.


She says Andrew Barr will remain as Treasurer and Simon Corbell will also stay in Cabinet.


That means either Chris Bourke or Joy Burch will go to the backbench.


"When you are looking at someone missing out in the short-term you would probably go to the junior ministry," she said.


Ms Gallagher plans to expand her Cabinet to six within the next 12 months but that needs legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly.


Mr Rattenbury will be the first Greens MLA to hold a Cabinet post.


Ms Gallagher says Mr Rattenbury is likely to hold a portfolio related to his interest in light rail.


"He hasn't specifically asked for anything. We have had discussion around areas of interest for him, that's focussed on things like the light rail project," she said.


"At the moment the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate has a role in there, as would TAMS (Territory and Municipal Services) have a role with transport.


"I need to consult with the people who are going to be the ministers about what their interests and likes are and when I've got that all together have a look at how the portfolios are split."


Ms Gallagher also wants to merge the Chief Minister's Directorate with Treasury to cut duplication and drive jobs growth.


But she says the associated ministerial positions would not change.


"We have a small administration, a small number of ministers and at times the disagreements between the central agencies I think complicate some issues," she said.


"What I'd like to see is that merging together of that central policy advice so that we can bolster that up but provide a single piece of advice to the Cabinet and better support our decision-making.


"There's policy elements within Treasury, there's policy elements within CMD, both have staff that look after Commonwealth-state relations so I think there is some duplication there and it's a fragmented policy arrangement.


"If we pull it together we'll get better outcomes for the resources that are put in."


Topics: greens, state-parliament, states-and-territories, alp, act, canberra-2600


First posted November 05, 2012 07:55:22



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