HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-08 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

STATE STRATEGIC PLAN

Ms SIMMONS (Morialta) (14:29): Will the Premier inform the house about progress of the South Australian Strategic Plan?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:29): In relation to the honesty system that is being introduced, I think it is a terrific measure. It worries me, however, that it is almost like the cash for comment system. I saw some members depositing money in advance. It was like a down payment on interjections.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: I have put in a cheque for $100.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: He has put in a cheque for $100. I think we have to avoid any semblance of cash for comment in this parliament, as has happened in the British House of Lords.

South Australia's Strategic Plan was launched in March 2004 and updated in January 2007 after a comprehensive statewide community engagement process to include the views of South Australia's many communities. The plan articulates six key strategic, interrelated objectives:

growing prosperity;

improved wellbeing;

attaining sustainability;

fostering creativity and innovation;

building communities; and

expanding opportunity.

Under these six objectives sit 98 specific targets for the state. The targets in the plan were designed to set clear objectives for the state and to guide decision making and action, particularly by the government. The targets were designed to be challenging. As I have said many times, it was always going to be difficult to achieve all the targets in the plan, but there would be nothing more cynical than setting the bar too low so that we could pat ourselves on the back. Of course, there will always be people who say, 'It's too hard; it can't be done', but we make no apology for setting ambitious targets for our state. Ambitious targets are required to drive outcomes from government.

As such, we have made departments and chief executives accountable for their performance in target areas. Importantly, we have also encouraged people outside government to focus their efforts on these common goals because achieving targets will happen only if we work together. We have established the Community Engagement Board to promote the involvement of individuals and organisations outside the state government in South Australia's Strategic Plan. The Community Engagement Board has initiated an alliance program where organisations and businesses can align themselves to specific targets in the plan.

When the plan was launched, the government committed to a two-yearly public report on South Australia's overall progress towards the 10-year targets. With this in mind, the government established the South Australian Strategic Plan Audit Committee to provide advice on the analysis of the targets and the appropriate indicators and data sources to use in measuring progress against the targets. The audit committee operates as an independent body. From the audit committee's work, we know that significant progress has been made on many targets. There has been some recent deliberate misinformation about progress against the plan and the update of targets in 2007—in fact, not only misinformation but, I think, outright dishonesty.

So, let me clarify: within the first two years of the plan, 19 of the original targets had been achieved—that is 10-year targets achieved in the first two years, 19 of them. A further 24 are on track to be achieved within the set time frame. The targets achieved by 2006, included:

maintaining Adelaide's competitive business climate, rated by KPMG as the lowest cost business environment of Australian capital cities surveyed;

achieving a AAA credit rating for the state;

reducing regional unemployment rates;

increasing literacy and numeracy for year 5 students to match the national average;

achieving 81 per cent participation of government and non-government schools in the Premier's Reading Challenge; and

increasing minerals processing revenue to $1 billion.

At that point, outcomes for 19 of the original targets were judged to be unclear by the audit committee due to a lack of reliable data. So, that is at the first two-year phase. This prompted the need for a rigorous review of the measures and data sources. In some cases single targets were replaced by multiple targets in order to ensure that progress can be accurately judged. In addition, targets which had already been met were updated and new areas of priority were assigned specific targets.

In addition, the process to update the plan in late 2006 included extensive consultation with industry and community groups across every corner of the state. That process was overseen by a team of community leaders who recommended changing some targets and inserting new ones. We listened to what South Australians told us they wanted to measure, and we also took expert advice from the audit committee on what was the best way to measure it. We can now say that the updated plan, released in January 2007, is not just a government document but is truly owned by all South Australians. In fact, we increased the number of targets from 84 to 98.

The iteration of the plan was assessed by the audit committee in 2008. The 2008 progress report illustrates that we are tracking well against the 98 targets. Almost 70 per cent of the targets were judged as within reach, on track, or already achieved. I did not read that in the story about it. Remember, this is not the government grading its own scorecard: this is the report of a completely independent audit committee.

Some of the things we have achieved that you did not read about have been way beyond anyone's expectations. But let me go through just some of them:

Minerals exploration—our target was $100 million. We got $331 million—smashed the target, way ahead of it.

Population growth—instead of the decline that was originally forecast—and then we had the 2050 target of two million—we are now due to reach that target way ahead of 2050.

The proportion of electricity from renewable sources has more than doubled in the past four years, and South Australia now has 58 per cent of Australia's wind generation capacity—more wind power (for those who cannot count) than all the other states and territories put together.

The 2008 progress report also shows that we have achieved our target on statewide crime rates; that is, to reduce victim reported crimes by 12 per cent by 2014.

We set ourselves a target to increase the number of attendances at selected art activities by 40 per cent by 2014. Our support of iconic South Australian arts events such as WOMAD, the Adelaide Film Festival, the Adelaide Festival and The Fringe have made that target a reality. Some people were sceptical when we made the Adelaide Fringe an annual event, but we have seen a huge increase in attendances at art events and performances, with more than 6.8 million attendances in the two years to June 2008. This has seen our target achieved ahead of schedule.

We are also on track to achieve our target of reducing the percentage of young cigarette smokers by 10 percentage points between 2004 and 2014.

And the list goes on. Having a plan has made a great difference to the lives of South Australians, and the results are reported independently and transparently for all to see. We are not resting on our laurels, but we would like to see the plan being reported honestly.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT