Grievance Debate

SHARED SERVICES

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:22): I would like to talk about shared services, a system that the government implemented over three years ago, a system into which it hoped to put a certain amount of money and save a certain amount. It has come nowhere near that whatsoever. The plan was to share back office services across government departments across the state. It was going to share services such as payroll, finance, human resources, information technology and many others. It was also going to shift decision-making from place to place, which has caused enormous difficulty.

I am speaking about this because it has done terrible damage to the people of Stuart and to regional South Australia more broadly and, what is worse, it is not achieving the cost savings that were intended. The merging of offices and the laying off of people from all around the state has not achieved a thing. They have tried to shift people within the city, and that is quite okay for city people. If you are in the city and you lose your job that is a terrible situation, but you have a much better opportunity to pick up your job or find another one. If you live in regional South Australia, that opportunity is very scant indeed, compared with the opportunities in the city, where there are more people and jobs. The laying off of people is dreadful, but the fact that it happens in regional areas makes it much harder to deal with.

The biggest problem with all of this is that it is just not achieving the intended financial benefits to the state. I understand that saving money is a very important part of being in government and that saving money is a day-to-day issue that has to be dealt with by families, businesses and people all over the world. Sometimes, tough decisions have to be made but, when these tough decisions have to be made, such as in Shared Services, and the results are not there and the negative impact is much worse than was ever expected, it really has to be drawn to people's attention. It is a dreadful situation everywhere, but particularly in regional South Australia.

The plan was to spend $60 million to save $137 million over five years. Neither target has been achieved. The latest figures I have are from late last year; I do not have any more recent figures, and that is because of the election.

Mr Griffiths: Nobody does.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I don't think anybody does; thank you very much. As I said, the intention was to spend $60 million to save $137 million over five years. What has actually happened, up to late last year, is that $71 million has been spent for savings of $13 million. Over three years through the five-year period there has been a $124 million shortfall in the expected savings at the cost of jobs and regional communities. That $124 million is across the whole state. Not only that, we have overspent the budget on the money that was intended to achieve the savings, which were not achieved.

I can give an example of local decision-making gone wrong because of this project. I quote from a letter from an Adelaide-based electrical contractor that refers to the Port Augusta Police Station. It states:

[This particular]...air conditioning is called Geothermal Air Conditioning which is the most efficient and green in the world, but Shared Services SA want to remove it and install a different, not as efficient or green system.

...Shared Services SA have spent millions of dollars to have this unique system installed and are now submitting for tender[s] to remove it. How can this government afford to waste taxpayers' money when the existing air conditioning system works well...

This is a very recent example. The letter is dated 14 April this year, and it is from an Adelaide-based air conditioning contractor, who is referring to work done in the Port Augusta area.

I specifically challenge the Treasurer, when he delivers his very next budget speech, to outline for all to hear exactly what is happening with regards to Shared Services, the cost of implementation and the savings that have been achieved so far in the program.