Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), Saturday 28 December 1991, page 4


THE FIRST KEATING MINISTRY

New, tiny

tourism

department

By JACK WATERFORD

A new mini-department of Tourism, with fewer than 40 public servants, to be administered for the time being by the head of one of the major departments, Geoff Miller, is the only organisational rearrangement of the Keating Cabinet re

shuffle.

Mr Keating's announcement of the reshuffle confirms also that the new head of (lie department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, (appointed on Christmas Eve to take up his appointment on Christmas Day) is Dr Mike Keating, formerly Secretary of the Department of Finance. The former head, Mr Mike Codd, had his appointment terminated by an Executive Council meeting yesterday.

The Prime Minister, Paul Keating, announcing the changes yesterday, said Mike Codd had given outstanding service to government. Mr Codd would be appointed to the board of the Overseas Telecommunications Commission and Qantas "which will enable him to continue his distinguished contribution to the public sector of this country".

Dr Keating, who had been nearly six years at Finance, was previously Secretary of Employment and Industrial Relations. His earlier career included two periods of work for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, and service in the Bureau of Statistics, Urban and Regional Development and Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Mr Keating said that the Department of Tourism was being carved out of the

Department of Arts, Sport, Tourism, the Environment and Territories "in recognition of the important and special needs of that industry to the economy and rural

Australia".

Mr Miller is Secretary of Primary Industries and Energy.

While increased attention to tourism

may be welcomed by the tourist industry, the creation of the department is likely to be criticised strongly by observers of public administration, as defying the "sense" of the creation of megadepartments five

years ago.

Done primarily to find a seat at the Cabinet table for Alan Griffiths, it was not necessary even in those terms, there being scope for two ministers from the one department to be in Cabinet (as in Transport and Communications, both Senator Graham Richardson and Senator Bob Collins now seated, or previously, in the double representation in Cabinet of Foreign Affairs and Trade).

Although yesterday's administrativearrangements orders are confined to the creation of Tourism and the recreation of what will now be Arts, Sport, the environment and Territories, the new ministerial list accentuates the divided responsibilities of some junior ministers, Alan Griffiths has responsibilities now in two departments, and so does David Simmons, Minister for Local Government (under the Minister for immigration, Gerry Hand) and Minister for Family Support (under the Minister for Social Security, Neal Blewett).

Mike Codd's departure the end of

an era - Page 8