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Annual Report 2004–05 You are currently viewing: Annual
report Output Group 1.5—Members’ ServicesServices and advice to the Speaker, members
and others in accordance with legislation and administrative decisions
DescriptionOutput Group 1.5 focuses on advice, services and support for members. Our duties include the payment of salaries and allowances, support for accommodation at Parliament House, and the delivery of office and communication services, such as stationery, printing and information technology. In the department’s 2004–05 Portfolio Budget Statements and Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements, Output Group 1.5 appeared as Output Group 3 (Members’ services). From 1 July 2004, the parliamentary security function and its funding were transferred from this department and the Department of the Senate to the Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS), which now reports on performance in that area. The Serjeant-at-Arms represents the department on the Security Management Board, which was established on a statutory basis by amendments to the Parliamentary Service Act 1999 with effect from 1 April 2005. The board has overall policy and coordination responsibility for security at Parliament House. The Serjeant-at-Arms remains responsible, as the delegate of the Speaker, for managing security in the Chamber and its lobbies and galleries at all times. The expenditure for Output Group 1.5 in 2004–05 was $3.17 million. The budget allocation was $3.55 million. A summary of the financial resources for the output group is set out in Table 1; staff levels, by location, are shown in Appendix 10. PerformanceThe strong performance by Output Group 1.5 in 2004–05 was achieved in response to the extra challenges typical of an election year. The period from the dissolution of the House of Representatives until the first sittings of the new parliament (from 31 August to 16 November 2004) was the busiest period in the parliamentary cycle for all offices contributing to this output group. The output group received positive formal and informal feedback for its achievements. The results of the 2005 members’ survey indicated a high level of satisfaction with our work, supporting the informal feedback. The detailed results of the survey as they relate to our specific services will be referred to later in the chapter.
Information servicesTwo editions of the members’ bulletin, House Update, were published during the year (two less than the usual four, because of the federal election). The bulletin helps keep members and their staff informed about developments in the House. The output group conducted a seminar for newly elected members and for new staff of members to help familiarise them with the work and procedures of the House and the services available to assist them. We supplemented this with a series of briefings, mainly on procedure. Anecdotal feedback indicated that members and their staff valued the regular updates they received from the department. Accommodation servicesAs a result of the general election and a later by-election, the offices of ten retiring members and 13 defeated members were packed and readied for reoccupation by newly elected members. Changes in membership of the House, the ministry and the shadow ministry, and the election of a new leader of the opposition, resulted in 80 office relocations. Relocation requests were responded to within agreed timeframes and to the satisfaction of party whips and individual members. The department’s capacity to meet the accommodation needs of members (particularly parliamentary secretaries and shadow ministers) has been affected by competing demands for the limited space in the House of Representatives wing of Parliament House. Through the Senior Management Coordination Group, the department has suggested a review of accommodation across the building. The Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office received 599 requests to supply and move furniture, 81 more than in 2003–04. All tasks were performed within agreed timeframes and to agreed standards. During the year, the office monitored modifications to one of the members’ suites to ensure compliance with the Australian Government’s disability regulations, amended since the building was first occupied in 1988. The modifications mean that one member’s suite in the House of Representatives wing meets the new building code. Maintenance, access and transport servicesThe Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office manages responses to requests for emergency, routine and periodic maintenance work. A total of 359 emergency requests were processed during 2004–05 (351 were processed in 2003–04). As in the previous year, all were attended to within five minutes of receipt. A total of 283 routine maintenance requests for repairs or alterations to suites or common areas were submitted to the DPS, 19 fewer than last year. Of those requests, 15 per cent resulted from pre- and post-recess checks, which allow the office to avoid a bottleneck of maintenance requests when members return for sittings. Periodic maintenance, such as painting and recarpeting suites and maintaining airconditioning equipment and building fabrics (timber, leather and brass), was organised with the agreement of affected members as part of the DPS program. Major refurbishment, including recarpeting and painting, of the Committee Office accommodation was undertaken during the year. The office received and dealt with 241 (147 in 2003–04) requests for assistance with telephone faults, relocations and allocation of telephone numbers. The increase is a consequence of the election. Of requests for telephone support, 11 (15) related to faults and were reported to the telephone support service within five minutes of receipt; all were acted on by telephone support officers within the agreed service standard of 45 minutes. The Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office processed 1,145 (759) applications for access to suites and general circulation areas. This significant increase in applications arose because of the work undertaken after the general election. The office coordinated transport services for members, including managing the members’ shuttle service during sitting weeks. Our target was to conduct the transport service without error, and for the 2,750 (4,800) bookings made we again achieved a success rate of over 99 per cent. The decrease in shuttle movements was due to the extended period during which the House did not sit. The members’ survey showed that the percentage of members either extremely or highly satisfied with services provided by the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office rose from 69 per cent in 2004 to 85 per cent in 2005 and the percentage satisfied with the services rose from 94 per cent in 2004 to 95 per cent in 2005. Members felt the services provided by staff of the office are prompt, efficient and courteous, with staff going out of their way to be helpful. Software and hardware servicesDuring 2004–05, no major information technology asset replacements were conducted. However, preliminary work was carried out to prepare for a major hardware replacement program (involving both desktop and laptop computers) planned to commence in early 2005–06. In cooperation with the chamber departments, the DPS conducted a tender process for the supply of personal computers to the parliament. Preparations were also made for a tender process for the supply of laptop computers. Both processes were conducted under the revised Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines. The general election saw a changeover of 22 members. Information technology equipment was retrieved from retiring members and any hard disks were sanitised. The equipment was then reallocated to new members. During the year, an improved version of the Members’ Information Database was developed and deployed. The database is used to manage essential information about members, which is stored in a central repository and used by many Parliament House computer systems. Output Group 1.5 gave additional software services and training to committee secretariat staff, to help them provide services to members. The software included ISYS for file searching and version 6 of Adobe Acrobat to allow modification of PDF files. Further training is planned for committee staff, members and members’ staff in the new financial year. Internet and intranet servicesDuring the election break, a project to develop an online register of all committee reports was undertaken and successfully completed. The register, which is now available on the Parliament’s internet site, contains descriptive details of all House of Representatives committee reports since 1901. Users can browse the collection by parliamentary term, subject matter or committee name. Where an electronic version of a report is available on the Parliament House website, the register provides a link to the report. For older reports that are not available on the website, the register links to the National Library’s search engine. To improve online accessibility to information published on the House of Representatives portion of the Parliament’s website, we developed an HTML template for committee reports. From the start of the Forty-first Parliament, all committee reports will be published in two formats: HTML and PDF. Substantial progress was made on a major project to develop a method of providing access to committee documents via the SMSP (the senators’ and members’ service portal). This project had its genesis in a request made by the Presiding Officers Information Technology Advisory Group in 2004. The CommDocs project began shortly after, in April 2004, with a study of the requirements of committee members and secretariat staff for electronic access to committee documents. The study identified the need to provide each committee with a centralised document repository and communications mechanism that is accessible only to committee members and authorised staff. The repository will hold governance documentation, such as meeting agendas, briefing papers, and minutes of meetings. To ensure that CommDocs meets the needs of its users, extensive consultation with committee secretariat staff and committee members was undertaken. In a series of workshops, staff commented on the system designs under development, providing valuable feedback. Testing of the first version of CommDocs began in June 2005, with more extensive testing scheduled for July 2005. A secretariat will pilot CommDocs in August 2005, when the Parliament resumes for the spring sitting. A full roll-out to the Committee Office is scheduled for January 2006. PrintingThe department’s in-house printing service prints documents that are needed quickly for the efficient running of the Chamber and committees and to meet the needs of members for printing within Parliament House. The print room output in 2004–05 was approximately 11.8 million impressions—slightly less than the output of the previous year, due to the election break. Members have an annual in-house printing allowance that can be used only for parliamentary and electorate business. During the financial year, 5.6 million impressions were printed as part of members’ in-house printing allowances, and 137 members used all or part of their allowances. Members may transfer a portion of their allowance to another member: during 2004–05, 13 members transferred portions of their allowances to other members. A website for the printing service was developed and published on the department’s intranet. The website, which is accessible by members through the SMSP, provides members with information about their allowances, an online catalogue and an online order system for school visit certificates. The site has been well received and feedback from members’ staff has been positive. Hard-copy versions of the same information were also sent to members. The feedback received through the annual members’ survey indicated that the members who use the service were generally satisfied with the efficiency and helpfulness of staff. The percentage that were extremely or highly satisfied declined from 64 per cent in 2004 to 52 per cent in 2005 and those satisfied fell from 100 per cent in 2004 to 78 per cent in 2005 (although 11 per cent appeared not to use the service). Some members considered the range of printing options and materials was limited. The changes to the printing area resulting from the print review will take account of the changing needs of members. A revised departmental set of stationery items was designed and produced during the year. Items such as business cards and compliments slips are ordered through the printing service’s intranet site and printed in-house. A standard letterhead shell is now used in all departmental offices, including committee secretariats, with office details overprinted on desktop printers. This initiative has provided significant cost savings to the department. A detailed review of the printing service began at the end of 2003–04, and analysed past, current and projected print demands for the central printing service and for local printing in the department’s various offices and the competitiveness of the department’s in-house printing. The review showed that, while there had been a shift in work from the centralised service to local printing, a centralised service was still needed. The review also showed an increase in digital imaging of hard-copy documents for the web, and indicated that the in–house service needed to contain costs. A strategic business plan to provide a cost-effective centralised print service and additional services in electronic publishing is being developed, with implementation due to commence during the 2005–06 financial year. Messenger servicesDuring 2004–05, the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office continued to provide messenger services to the standards specified in the service charter of the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office. We received no complaints, either formally or through the feedback process identified in the charter. The installation of pigeonholes in the distribution centre reduced significant double handling of members’ mail during non-sitting periods, and minor changes to routine mail rounds streamlined mail distribution. Parliamentary assistants programThe department continued its program of recruiting university students to work as parliamentary assistants alongside messengerial attendants. This was the fifth year of the parliamentary assistants program, which has elements of employment, educational and outreach programs, and is managed through the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office. As in previous years, parliamentary assistants performed the duties of messengerial attendants for an average of 12 hours per week. Duty rosters are planned around individual study commitments, with many students working in the chamber during the evening on sitting days, when they are not scheduled to attend lectures and tutorials. At the end of 2004, all parliamentary assistants appointed in 2003 were invited to apply to become senior parliamentary assistants and assist with the incoming team. Four of them accepted and are providing valuable help in training four new parliamentary assistants appointed for 2005. This year, the program attracted more than 200 applicants. The four appointed students are from the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Victoria. Management and administrationMembers’ salariesAll processing of members’ salaries and entitlements by the People Strategies Office was in accordance with the legislative and administrative framework. In the 2005 members’ survey, 63 per cent of respondents (63 percent in the 2004 survey) were extremely or highly satisfied and 100 per cent (100 per cent in the 2004 survey) were satisfied with our services in relation to members’ base salary, electorate allowance and deductions. Annual expenditure on members’ salaries and other entitlements was $21.15 million during 2004–05, a slight increase from the $20.79 million spent the previous year. All performance targets for members’ salary services were met, with all salary variations completed when required and with 99 per cent accuracy. The cost per transaction rose slightly, from $5.41 to $5.49. We processed one pay rise during the year, with effect from 1 July 2004. The pay rise increased the members’ base rate of pay to $106,770 per year. Officeholders’ salaries were also adjusted according to the formula outlined in the parent determination. Staff of holders of public officeThe department administers the salary payments and some other conditions of service for the staff of holders of public office: namely, the Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s staff. The average staffing level in 2004–05 was 5.33, at an average cost of $87,880 per staff member. Total salary expenses were $468,404 for the year ($431,000 in 2003–04). An additional $250,633 was paid out in termination payments to staff who discontinued their service following the federal election. The People Strategies Office processed all variations initiated by officeholders’ staff, and maintained the 99 per cent accuracy rate achieved in 2003–04. Improving performanceAs detailed above, Output Group 1.5 improved its performance in the provision of accommodation services; the development of new or improved information technology tools, such as CommDocs and the Members’ Information Database; and the delivery of mail. OutlookIn 2005–06, demand for the services of Output Group 1.5 will return to the level of the peak non-election years of the parliamentary cycle. It is expected that there will be no work pressure arising from the retirement, defeat or introduction of members. The Chamber, committees and members will place demands on our services, and particularly on the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office and the Information Systems and Publishing Office. The roll-out of new laptop computers to members will be a significant task in the new financial year. We expect that involving members closely—the approach we took in previous roll-outs—will smooth the process. As a result of our review of the department’s printing service, we expect to make significant changes, including by replacing equipment, introducing new services, and better controlling costs. We will also implement the CommDocs project during the year. In the longer term, we expect CommDocs to improve the delivery of key committee documents to members, increase the use of electronic rather than printed documents, and improve the efficiency with which committee staff are able to service committees.
The Serjeant-at-Arms escorts the Speaker into the
Chamber of the House of Representatives. You are currently viewing: Annual
report
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