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Administrative arrangements

Commissioner's role

The Parliamentary Service Act provides for an independent Commissioner appointed by the Presiding Officers. The Commissioner's role is to advise the Presiding Officers on the management policies and practices of the Parliamentary Service and, if requested by the Presiding Officers, to inquire into and report on Parliamentary Service matters. The Commissioner is not subject to direction by or on behalf of the executive government in the performance of his functions.

The Parliamentary Service Act empowers the Presiding Officers to make determinations on a range of matters affecting the Parliamentary Service. The Parliamentary Service Act also requires the Presiding Officers to consult the Commissioner before making these determinations.

Section 42 of the Parliamentary Service Act requires the Commissioner to give a report to the Presiding Officers for presentation to the Parliament on the activities of the Commissioner during the year.

Merit Protection Commissioner's role

The role of the Merit Protection Commissioner includes inquiring into whistleblower reports
and alleged breaches of the Code of Conduct; functions prescribed in determinations made for the purposes of section 33 of the Parliamentary Service Act (review of actions); and inquiring into actions at the request of the Presiding Officers.

Section 49 of the Parliamentary Service Act requires the Merit Protection Commissioner to give a report to the Commissioner for inclusion in the Commissioner's report under section 42.

The Merit Protection Commissioner's report is at Appendix A.

Roles and responsibilities of the individual departments

Four parliamentary departments are established under the Parliamentary Service Act.

The Department of the Senate and the Department of the House of Representatives (the chamber departments) provide advice and support to the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively, and to parliamentary committees and to Senators and Members.

The purpose of the Department of the Parliamentary Budget Office is to inform the Parliament by providing independent advice and non-partisan analysis of the budget cycle, fiscal policy and the financial impact of proposals. As reported above, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, since 29 June 2013, has an additional function of reporting on designated Parliamentary parties' publicly announced policies by 30 days after a government forms following a general election.

DPS provides a range of support services for the Parliament and for Parliament House. Its services include information services to the Parliament, security, facilities, visitor services, building management and maintenance, landscaping, ICT, telecommunications management, broadcasting and records services.

Under the Parliamentary Service Act, the Secretaries of the parliamentary departments have roles and responsibilities similar to those of Australian Public Service agency heads.

Appointments to statutory offices under the Parliamentary Service Act are made by the Presiding Officers.

The Secretaries of the chamber departments are Dr Rosemary Laing, Clerk of the Senate, and Mr Bernard Wright, Clerk of the House of Representatives. Both were appointed for non-renewable terms of ten years from 5 December 2009. Mr Phil Bowen PSM is the Parliamentary Budget Officer and Secretary of the Department of the Parliamentary Budget Office; his appointment is for a term of four years from 23 July 2012. Ms Carol Mills is Secretary, DPS; she was appointed for five years from 28 May 2012.

Parliamentary Librarian

Dr Dianne Heriot holds the office of Parliamentary Librarian. Her appointment is for five years from 10 May 2012.

Staffing summary

The following tables present a summary of Parliamentary Service staffing as at 30 June 2013.

Numbers are actual staff numbers at 30 June 2013.

Department
Category	Senate	House of Representatives	Parliamentary Budget Office	Parliamentary Services	Total

Categories of employment

Ongoing	143	136	29	706	1014
Non-ongoing	18	36	4	126	184
Total	161	172	33	832	1198

Full-time and part-time employment (includes casual)

Full-time	130	141	32	594	897
Part-time	31	31	1	238	301
Total	161	172	33	832	1198

Employment by work group

Sec/SES	6	5	7	12	30
Executive*	48	58	17	166	289
Other	107	109	9	654	879
Total	161	172	33	832	1198

* Groups 7 and 8 of the Classification Rules

Total staff numbers at 30 June

Year	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Number	1259	1311	1286	1193	1181	1256	1223	1181	1179	1186

Staff turnover (ongoing employees)

There were 146 separations of ongoing employees during the year, representing 12.3% of ongoing staff.

Staff numbers by classification and gender at 30 June

Year	2008		2009		2010		2011		2012		2013
No/%	No	%	No	%	No	%	No	%	No	%	No	%
SES/Secretary – Male Female	11 11	50 50	13 11	54 46	9 10	47 53	8 14	36 64	8 14	36 64	14 16	47 53
Executive – Male Female	175 134	57 43	166 138	55 45	152 128	54 46	155 124	56 44	148 127	54 46	156 133	54 46
Other – Male Female	523 402	57 43	511 384	57 43	498 384	56 44	502 376	57 43	516 373	58 42	510 369	58 42
Total – Male Female	709 547	56 44	690 533	56 44	659 522	56 44	665 514	56 44	672 514	57 43	680 518	57 43

Workplace Diversity

Department	Senate	House of Representatives	Parliamentary Budget Office	Parliamentary Services	Total
Gender – Male Female	71 90	75 97	20 13	514 318	680 518
English not first language spoken*	3	8	2	71	84
ATSI origin*	–	–	–	4	4
Staff who have identified a disability*	–	4	1	3**	8

*Information provided on a voluntary basis.

** Likely to be under-reported. A diversity census scheduled for 2012–13 has been delayed to 2013–14 pending the release of a new workplace diversity policy.

Ongoing staff—age distribution

Age	Under 25	25–34	35–44	45–54	55 and over
Number	30	177	282	274	251
%	3.0	17.5	27.8	27.0	24.7

Financial summary

The following table presents a summary of the parliamentary departments' total revenue, 2012–13.

The Department of the Senate, the Department of the House of Representatives and the Department of Parliamentary Services are not responsible for preparing the administered schedules and notes relating to the special appropriations from which they draw down various monies to pay for Senators' and Members' remuneration and entitlements. The legislation establishing these appropriations is administered by the Department of Finance and Deregulation and the Australian Public Service Commission. These agencies are responsible for reporting these administered special appropriation items and they are not included in the table below.

Parliamentary departments	Total revenue				Equity injection
	Revenue from government $'000	Resources received free of charge $'000	Sale of goods and services etc $'000	Total $'000	Departmental capital budget $'000	Administered $'000
Senate	20,484	1,881	422	22,787	657	–
House of Representatives	21,913	1,957	1,501	25,371	1,050	–
Parliamentary Budget Office	6,191	185	–	6,376	–	–
Parliamentary Services	101,160	163	6,801	108,124	9,747	12,896
Total	149,748	4,186	8,724	162,658	11,454	12,896

 

An appropriation of $6 million for the Parliamentary Budget Office made under section 64 of the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 has not been expended and will be available in 2013–14.

 

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