SHARED SERVICES

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (14:43): My question is to the Premier. What will be the impact upon regional South Australia flowing from plans to cut 1,000 people from the Public Service through the shared services reform process, revealed by the Public Service Association yesterday? Did the government conduct a regional impact assessment before making its decision? On 19 October, the Public Service Association stated that the PSA still has concerns about the impact in regional communities and that there will be an adverse impact on regional employment, with flow-on effects felt in the community.

The Hon. M.J. WRIGHT (Lee—Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Finance, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:44): In regard to the latter part of the member's question, we did conduct a regional impact assessment statement.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. WRIGHT: With respect to the first part of the question, we should put it in context. We are talking about approximately 2,300 full-time equivalents who will be in scope, of which, as I said earlier, approximately 250 are in regional areas. As I said earlier, this is an important government initiative about back office savings. We do not expect it to have an impact on front line services in regional areas.