House of Representatives Annual Report 2002

Annual Report 2001–02

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Review by the Clerk

Our role

The Department of the House of Representatives has the important responsibility of supporting the House of Representatives as it fulfils its role as a representative and legislative body.

Since 1901, our department has been privileged to provide a range of services and support to all arms of the House, including the Chamber and all its committees; individual members and their offices; and the Parliament as a whole, including in its relations with other parliaments both within Australia and overseas, and with the broader Australian community.

As circumstances have changed, our services and the way we deliver them have kept pace with the needs and expectations of our clients. This annual report discusses issues that would have been unknown to the Clerk of the House of the First Parliament, ranging from upgrades in information technology to the introduction of an international standard for the management of the people who constitute the Department of the House of Representatives. However, the underlying aim of our activities to provide the best services in the best way, and to measure our success by seeking feedback from all our stakeholders remains unchanged.

Members often take the opportunity, during their valedictory speeches in the House at the end of a year or a Parliament, to make positive comments about the services the department provides to them. At the last sitting of the Thirty-ninth Parliament a retiring member commented:

To me, the staff of this place were a revelation. Coming from private enterprise, I had worked with a lot of people; but I have never seen such a group of people who either enjoy their job or appear to enjoy their job and are so helpful and energetic in helping those they are here to assist They are absolutely outstanding.
House of Representatives Hansard, 27 September 2001, p. 31,765.

As always, the departments work during 200102 was strongly driven by the activities of the House itself and of the Parliament as a whole. Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 provide details of a number of indicators of the activity of the House and its committees. The figures mostly indicate a lower than usual level of activity the number of House sittings and Main Committee meetings was down by 24 per cent compared with figures for 200001, while the number of committee meetings had dropped by 59 per cent and the number of committee reports by 18 per cent. Despite fewer sittings, though, the number of bills introduced was up by 17 per cent. The fluctuations in level of activity are a normal part of the parliamentary cycle, which is attuned to the approximately two and a half year intervals between elections for the House of Representatives.

The year in review

Like any year in which a federal election takes place, 200102 presented particular challenges and opportunities for the department. Although demand dropped during the period of the election, the workload including many important tasks typical of the end of a Parliament, such as winding up committee inquiries and a heavy legislative program was compressed into an extremely busy period in the months leading up to the dissolution and, for bills, at the beginning of the new Parliament. This imposed very tight time frames and illustrated our ability to be responsive to the variable demands of the election cycle and political processes. The reports on performance of each of the departments outputs confirm our responsiveness.

The hiatus between Parliaments from 8 October 2001 to 12 February 2002, being the longest such break since 1910 provided an invaluable opportunity for the department to put its own house in order and make improvements to many aspects of service delivery. Those improvements will benefit both the department and our clients in the course of the Fortieth Parliament. Some of the tasks we undertook included refurbishing accommodation in the House of Representatives wing, acquitting archival material and trialling new software, hardware and other equipment.

Some of our staff utilised the election period to take up additional opportunities to enhance their skills and experience through training programs, information seminars or secondments, both within and outside the department. Those opportunities complemented the departments various ongoing forms of development and training. We continued to emphasise on-the-job training, and implemented better follow-up and evaluation tools in relation to the development of parliamentary procedural skills.

The beginning of a new Parliament is an exciting and challenging time for the department which, apart from imposing special administrative and ceremonial demands, gives us a spur to think particularly about how we can best help new members settle into their parliamentary roles. Separate targeted seminars were held for new members and new staff of members, and the periodic newsletter to members, House Update, was used to convey important information and guidance. An important aspect of the new members seminar was the opportunity for members and senior staff to get to know one another and open up channels of communication.

The year 200102 was also exceptional for historical events, from the celebrations of the Centenary of Federation to the collapse of Ansett and the violent attacks on the United States in September 2001. The effects of those events on the operations of our department are reported in detail in the performance sections of the report.

In our parallel roles of supporting House activities and encouraging community appreciation of the role of the House, we were instrumental in convening a number of historical events. Notably, we helped to host the Forty-seventh Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, which welcomed more than 600 participants from 117 parliaments. We produced major educational products to mark the centenary of the House, and took part in centenary celebrations for our own department and for the wider Australian Public Service. In June 2001, several former and current staff were honoured by the presentation medals awarded by the Institute of Public Administration Australia for their contributions to the good governance of Australia.

Our activities involving other parliaments were not limited to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. As in previous years, we continued to provide opportunities for training and information exchange, particularly with Pacific and African parliaments. This year we also provided specialist advice to the parliaments of Indonesia and the newly formed legislature of Kosovo. We continued to be active members of international parliamentary organisations: for example, in 200102, I was privileged to serve as a Vice President of the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments, an organisation of senior parliamentary staff which is associated with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and from September 2002 I will be Acting President.

We continued to refine our administrative processes, including by agreeing to a new enterprise agreement covering general staff and service charters setting out our service undertakings for members and the general public. Our adoption of the Investor in People set of international indicators for improving productivity through good people management will help achieve continuous improvement and accountability in this important area.

Our success in maximising and evaluating the effectiveness of our staff will continue to be vital, given that the House of Representatives of the Fortieth Parliament has two more members and four more committees than did its predecessor and that we have undertaken to attempt to support them without additional resources. We also enhanced our processes by adopting new information technology software and hardware that will be compatible with the new platform to be introduced to the parliamentary network in the near future.

Making best use of technology is very important to the department, especially given our responsibility for disseminating information to a wide range of audiences in Parliament House, right across Australia and around the globe. In conjunction with other parliamentary departments, we played an important role in designing and testing modifications to the Parliament of Australia website modifications that were welcomed by our internal and external clients. As our success in making electronic publication of departmental documents attractive to users grew, we continued to update and refine all our publications, from the very popular About the House magazine to the completely revised, fourth edition of House of Representatives Practice.

Our financial result for 200102 set out in detail in the financial statements was a surplus, reflecting, amongst other things, the drop in demand that naturally occurs in an election year. That surplus will be applied to the running of the department during the life of the Fortieth Parliament. Our budgetary position can be expected to tighten as the Parliament moves into mid-term and legislative and committee activity increases. We will continue to monitor our performance closely as the parliamentary term progresses, aided by a new financial management system that was selected in 200102.

Outlook

I am pleased to report that at the end of 200102 we had successfully met the objectives of the 200002 corporate plan. Our 200205 corporate plan, annual business plan and portfolio budget statement targets as well as our enterprise agreements, service charters and performance appraisal mechanisms will underpin all our activities during the next 12 months, and assist us to achieve our goals and evaluate our performance. Our key longer term corporate objectives include broadening our corporate leadership capability, and promoting the Parliamentary Service Values and Code of Conduct and integrating them into our day-to-day responsibilities. We will also be looking to enhance electronic forms of information and service delivery, especially for members.

Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the security of the Parliament building has become a focus for attention across the Parliament. Security arrangements, which were stepped up significantly in 200102, have been undergoing continuous review. A new parliament-wide security board, of which the Serjeant-at-Arms is a member, will continue to oversee and direct security policy and administration. Security will continue to be a priority for the foreseeable future.

At the request of the Presiding Officers, the Parliamentary Service Commissioner, Andrew Podger, commenced a review of the administration of the Parliament in financial year 200102. The review, to which the department is contributing, is considering organisational matters affecting the parliamentary administration and focusing, in particular, on the administration of security, management and corporate functions across the Parliament, and on purchasing arrangements. Mr Podger reported on security in July 2002 and is due to report on other matters by October 2002. The review is expected to have far-reaching effects on the way we operate.

Along with other public sector agencies, our department is grappling with the issue of how it can retain and develop skilled and capable staff to lead it into the future. Our age profile indicates the likely departure of significant numbers of experienced staff over the next few years. As much of our work depends on specialist skills and knowledge, such a loss of experience will pose challenges. We have commenced further work on planning for our future workforce, instituting a development framework and improving the way we manage and share our knowledge.

Summary

Throughout 200102, which was an extraordinary year for domestic, global and historical reasons, the department continued to provide a wide range of services efficiently to its clients very satisfied clients, according to the feedback received from members, other parliamentary staff and public servants, parliaments of other nations and members of the general community at home and abroad, as detailed in the performance sections of this report.

I am delighted to congratulate our staff on their efforts during 200102. They are an outstanding group of highly motivated and skilled people who have demonstrated their commitment and flexibility in a range of ways, in a variety of circumstances. I consider it a privilege to be one of them and I look forward to supporting them, and being supported by them, as we face the challenges of 200203.

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