Page 2199 - Week 07 - Thursday, 6 June 1991
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Mr Speaker, we should have been tackling restructuring, in my view, by prudently borrowing funds from the Commonwealth - as have other States - which were sufficient to match the funds held in trust by the Commonwealth, but certainly no more, so that there was no net increase in borrowing on that notional scale. Using those funds, we should have dramatically restructured the Public Service where the largest recurrent savings are defined. Those restructuring funds could have been properly used in the redundancy areas.
Mr Speaker, key top management sections have not delivered in our Government, not only in the health area, as exemplified by Mr Enfield. I am also strongly critical of the economic development area. It has not even been able to set up a small business counselling service that I wished for when I was Acting Chief Minister. Likewise, I am equally critical of the Chief Minister's social policy unit. It has failed to deliver a concessions review which I have pressed for since I first came into government.
Mr Speaker, the overly large Senior Executive Service in the Chief Minister's Department has rankled with me and with other areas of government. I believe that it has something like 15 Senior Executive Service positions, which almost equates to the whole of the SES in the rest of the Public Service. That should have been tackled, as it offered strong recurrent savings. I doubt that there would have been a strong PSU reaction in some of those restructuring areas; but, even if there was, we should have bitten the bullet earlier. Similarly, other functions in health and education should have been reviewed. Those issues were unsuccessfully argued and put down to angst against the Public Service each time I became frustrated and mentioned them in public.
The Rally was accused of being unable to make hard decisions, but at that time I was running six difficult portfolios. That arch conservative, Hugh Morgan, has recently acknowledged that the most important ministries in the political dynamics of the electoral scene are the social justice ministries, and we have seen Mr Howe prove that recently. The Rally has received very little recognition for its administration, particularly my colleague Mr Jensen. It is easy to say from the tabloids that we are a group that cannot make hard decisions.
This image, which is perpetrated strongly at editorial level, is deeply resented by many in the administration who joined with me as Minister, with Mr Jensen, and with others in our Government, in making decisions about the care and custody of children - excruciating decisions at times; granting funds, or not, to worthwhile organisations; initiating social policies; starting new directions; and arguing strongly in the fora of government, winning and losing sometimes on issues. What recent event illustrates that better than the manner in which Mr Duby and I brought those petroleum executives to town recently? We gave them seven days to do something, and they did it on the sixth.
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