TELECOMMUNICATIONS TASKFORCE

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide) (14:50): Can the Minister for Finance inform the house of the steps undertaken to date by the Telecommunications Taskforce to reduce government spending on telecommunications?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Finance, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:51): I thank the member for Port Adelaide for this particular question. The house may recall that I spoke before Christmas last year on the government's intention to reduce costs associated with the government's use of telecommunications services. In response to comments by the Auditor-General, I established the Telecommunications Taskforce, which is chaired by the Chief Information Officer, comprising executive members of other agencies and reporting directly to me.

After rigorous assessment of the government's ability to make changes to its use of fixed telephone lines, mobile phone devices and data plans, I can advise the house that a savings target of $1 million per year for correcting data plan usage practices has already been identified. Work is currently underway to quantify further potential savings with fixed telephone lines and mobile phone devices.

The savings of $1 million will be reached by making the following changes: replacing outdated plans with new, low-cost plans; moving services which incurred large excess usage charges to plans with more appropriate data allocation—and I would suggest that members in the chamber, if they are on data plans, also look at their own plans to establish whether they are adequate; and moving plans which have consistent low usage of data allocation to a lower-cost plan.

An internal communications plan has also been developed to encourage public sector employees to monitor their costs as they conduct their government business. The plan was launched by email in March to all public sector employees, and it is our intention to do more of this. A webpage promoting the initiative received more than 7,400 hits, along with 70 suggestions and feedback comments. This is engaging public sector employees in doing things better more economically, and lifting productivity.

The feedback of experienced public servants is being not only encouraged but welcomed, and this approach is already showing early signs of making a difference. Telecommunications is proving to be an area of government operations where new and better initiatives can make the cost of conducting government business cheaper and easier.

We have had such success with finding savings that the initiative will be incorporated into the government's Public Sector Renewal Program as a project. These savings complement our earlier savings initiatives, including a 12 per cent reduction in travel expenditure, which has already seen savings in the region of $2.4 million. I will continue to oversee the work of this taskforce and will advise the house of further achievable savings in this area later in the year.