SHARED SERVICES

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:49): My question is to the Premier. How many of the 4,000 positions identified by the Public Service Association as in scope, or the 2,300 positions identified in scope by the minister moment ago, across 56 government agencies does the government plan to declare surplus to requirements? The PSA media release dated 19 October has revealed that:

Services to be transitioned in the first quarter of 2008 include payroll, accounts receivable and accounts payable. Positions will be transferred to Adelaide including those in regional areas. People not electing to transfer will be surplus to requirements.

The Hon. M.J. WRIGHT (Lee—Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Finance, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:51): This is a very important initiative and I do not know why the leader would carry on about it. I referred to 2,300 full-time equivalents that are in scope. This equates to roughly 4,000 positions. We will work through this very carefully because, as I have already said, it is an important government initiative, and we will make sure we get it right. Most other jurisdictions around Australia have already embarked upon shared services, as have other countries around the world. What we will be about is making sure we deliver these services more efficiently, and we will work carefully with people in the regions and also with people in metropolitan Adelaide as we move forward. With regard to the first phase of our shared services (which the member refers to in his question), we are looking at human resources, payroll, accounts payable and accounts receivable, and we are looking at about late February next year.