Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

The role of the proposed Chief Minister’s Department is to provide leadership to the ACTPSincluding by enhancing coordination, cohesion, and alignment of effort towards delivery ofGovernment priorities. It will achieve this through:• policy advice to the Chief Minister and Treasurer, and Cabinet, on the Government’sstrategic priorities and whole of government issues;• articulating a comprehensive whole of government view of policy and other issues underconsideration by Cabinet and its Committees;• supporting the annual Budget cycle and managing the ACT Government Budget;• evaluating and providing advice on program and service delivery by the ACTPS;• providing administrative and procedural support to Cabinet and its Committees in theirdecision making processes, including through more stringent enforcement of Cabinet’sagreed Budget process rules;• coordinating and driving policy development or responses to emerging issues;• coordinating whole of government reporting and evaluation;• leading and coordinating the ACTPS’s engagement in intergovernmental processes;• leading circuit breaker teams established by the Government; and• supporting ACTPS capacity and capability through development of public sectorgovernance and employment frameworks.For the proposed single ACTPS model to function effectively, changes in the effectiveness ofcurrent coordination mechanisms will need to be embedded, including in relation to supportto the ACTPS Strategic Board. The proposed Chief Minister’s Department will provide thecentral capacity to support the proposed new ways of working.Sustainability Policy CoordinationOne issue that emerged through consultation inside and outside the ACTPS was the nature ofthe current CMD’s role in “sustainability policy coordination”. That function first appearedin the Administrative Arrangements after the 2008 election – coinciding with the creation ofDECCEW. It was intended to embody the role of CMD, from a whole of governmentperspective, in supporting the coordination and alignment of sustainability policies across theenvironmental, social and economic spheres that comprise the Government’s triple bottomline framework. In this context, the Review endorses the Sustainable DevelopmentDirectorate’s role in fostering collaboration on matters affecting environmental sustainability,but the broader, whole of government triple bottom line perspective is properly the functionof the centre and should continue to be part of the role of the Chief Minister’s Department inthe proposed structure.In this context the Review notes Helen Swan argued in her Submission to the Review:CMD has responsibility for the Social Plan and the Economic White Paper in collaborationwith a number of other government agencies. ACTPLA in partnership with other keyagencies has responsibility for the Spatial Plan. Each individual initiative has value in its ownright. However, they tend to be “siloed” which makes it difficult to achieve an integrated andAdministrative Arrangements Changes: 120