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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-29 Daily Xml
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PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:32): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister, representing the Premier, a question about public sector reform.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: In 2004 in a major statement, which was reported on the front page of The Advertiser of 5 April, the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Warren McCann, said that there would be a 'major shakeup of the state public sector that was being planned to improve its efficiency and reduce the level of bureaucracy in projects'. Mr McCann went on to state:

...the days of 66 bureaucrats involved in a project which could be handled by three or four were 'over'.

Mr McCann...pledged to reform the public sector to make [it] more efficient as it implements the state economic plan.

'It is fair to say there were those in the public sector who felt they had seen it all before and that, if they just ignored it, it would go away this time too,' he said.

He said that typically three or four public servants would be working on a medium-sized capital project but there were up to 66 people involved in giving approvals or supervising work in some capacity.

The Premier went on to support Mr McCann by saying:

'I need a small unit to crack the whip to make the public sector perform,' Mr Rann said. 'The Public Service Association should thank their lucky stars I vetoed a recommendation from the Economic Development Board to end permanency in the public sector'.

...'Deep-seated reform is inevitable,' he said. 'The Public Sector Reform Unit will, for the first time, give us the firepower to go after it and go after it we will.

The public sector reform unit was established in 2004 with about 10 people at a cost of about $1 million a year. After about two years, it was replaced by the government reform commission headed by former Labor premier Wayne Goss. Its actual cost per year is unknown, and it worked for about 18 months to two years. Then, at the start of this year in 2008, it morphed into the Public Sector Performance Commission, I understand, which will cost about $3 million per year. The government has just announced that that staff, originally of about 10, has increased to about 20 full-time equivalents, with the chief executive being paid upwards of $250,000 per year in terms of public sector performance outlook.

In the 2006 budget, in and about the time of the Government Reform Commission, which was the second body in the four-year period that we are talking about, the Treasurer and the Premier announced full-time equivalent Public Service reductions of 1,571 public servants, which came on top of a reduction of some 200 to 300 just prior to the 2006 budget—so, a total reduction of about 2,000 full-time equivalent public servants. Some commentators have noted the irony of that, given the statements the Premier and the Treasurer made about Public Service numbers at the time of the last state election. My two questions to the Premier are as follows:

1. Given Mr McCann's statement of 2004 that I quoted, can the government and Mr McCann report that the days of 66 bureaucrats handling a project which could be handled by three to four are now over; that is, that in that particular case those projects are now being handled by three or four persons and not 66 bureaucrats, as Mr McCann was alleging?

2. Can the Premier and/or the Treasurer report progress against the announced target in the 2006 budget of a 1,571 full-time equivalent job reduction within the public sector in South Australia; that is, how many of those 1,571 full-time equivalent jobs have been reduced in the period since the 2006 budget?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (15:37): I will refer that question to the Premier, or the minister assisting the Premier in Public Service matters, and bring back a response.

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