Mr ANDREW: Page 2 of the SDS refers to the department achieving beneficial outcomes for
Queensland through engagement with the National Cabinet First Secretaries’ Group and the First
Deputies Group. Premier, what are the first secretaries and first deputies groups and what role do these
entities play within Queensland government policy and decision-making processes?
Mr MILES: Given the director-general is more directly involved in those bodies, I might ask him
to answer your question, if that is okay?
CHAIR: Just really quickly, member for Mirani, you have had a pretty good go. It could be that
there is another crossbencher who turns up late, so we just might have to play that by ear if that is all
right.
Mr ANDREW: Yes, that is fine.
Mr Kaiser: The First Secretaries’ Group is a group of all of the secretaries or directors-general
of state premiers and cabinet departments or their equivalent around each of the states and territories
along with the Commonwealth secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. We meet
periodically. It is usually to discuss issues that are going to be on the National Cabinet agenda and/or
matters which are the subject of sometimes quite complex negotiations around Commonwealth-state
funding agreements. The First Deputies Group is the group of people who do most of the work, who
are our respective deputies in each of the states and the Commonwealth, who meet I think more
frequently than we do in order to nut out a lot of the detail of those agreements and the National Cabinet
agenda

Mr ANDREW: That was what I thought. In terms of the use of the tied grant payments, how do
they impact policies, projects and new legislation rolled out here in our state?
Mr Kaiser: National Cabinet will often agree to policy reform which requires complementary
legislation in each of the states, or it may be funding which is tied in a particular way. The
Commonwealth makes funds available to states which are tied in particular ways, so they are some of
the things that I think the member might be seeing and referring to in the statement.
CHAIR: Is that what you were after, because we do not have much time?