Page 1452 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 26 September 1989
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Corporate Plan 1989-93; and
Ministerial statement, 24 August 1989.
MR STEFANIAK (8.32): Mr Speaker, I am pleased about a number of statements made in the corporate plan for 1989-93. It is not a terribly lengthy document and it does provide some useful information, especially graphs, which I will come to later. It is pleasing to see that the authority has indicated that it does have a corporate philosophy and that it is now to be run on commercial lines. Indeed, it is pleasing to see the authority becoming a body corporate.
As the Minister said in her speech introducing the plan, "the needs of the community are as much a part of the corporate philosophy of the authority as is its commercial viability", and I certainly have no qualms with that. There are some positive signs in the body corporate's objectives and performance measures. Indeed, when going through the plan I noticed a number of positive signs in some of the graphs, and indeed some disturbing signs as well. It is pleasing to see that the long-term debts to equity ratio is going down. It is very pleasing to see that employee safety has improved since the 1982-83 year. It is also pleasing to see that, apart from an absolutely shocking year in 1985-86, the industrial relations side has been relatively positive, although I do note that there was a disturbing rise again in 1987-88. However, the indications are hopefully that that will go down.
There are a number of problems which have been expressed in relation to the corporate plan, and the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Select Committee hearings have indeed exposed some problems which bug the authority, which will cause problems in the future, and which certainly concern us. People who have given evidence have indicated that there are a number of inefficiencies in the authority's operation, that a number of services should be contracted out, and indeed that the authority should be looking to contract out far more services than at present.
There are some areas especially where this could be done - firstly, in the maintenance area in government buildings, and also in the initial construction of the electricity infrastructure in new developments. This would lead to a significant reduction in expenditure. Those issues certainly have to be addressed. The actual plan is welcome. It is fairly brief, so it does not go into a great deal of detail. There are a number of problems, and certainly the Liberal Party would like to see a contracting out of services where available and where that can be done properly and efficiently. My colleague Dr Kinloch will go into further detail in relation to some specific problems in those areas, and I will say no more on this matter.
DR KINLOCH (8.36): I endorse the remarks of my colleague Mr Stefaniak. I note the corporate plan and also note the report tabled by the Minister, Ellnor Grassby, in
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