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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (28 February) . . Page.. 422 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

whole-of-government systems such as e-mail, Perspect and Oracle Financials systems work properly, and to maximise the potential to stimulate the local IT industry. In line with what Mr Moore said, it is certainly the view of this Government that this has to help local IT, not detract from it in any way.

In this context the Government will require bidders to specify how they will contribute to local industry development and will be requiring in the tender documents that preference be given to local firms by potential suppliers. The Government has invited the CPSU to sit down and consult on how this can best be done. As I said earlier, that was done this afternoon and good progress has been achieved. We would expect, for example, that the new supplier will offer job transfers to many of our current IT staff. The Government is flexible on whether or not redundancies will be paid to staff moving to a new provider. Jindalee Nursing Home is a good example of the Government's willingness in this area.

To assist in ensuring that all stakeholders are able to participate in the process and that the issues are considered at the right level, the Government has established a steering committee of agency heads. This steering committee will be supported by a working group with an independent chair appointed by the steering committee. The working group, of course, will not include any members of the in-house bid team. A joint union-management consultative group will also be established. To assist in full consideration of all of the issues, those parts of the PSI report which are not commercial-in-confidence will be made available to all interested parties. Since some aspects of the report refer to current contracts and levels of potential savings, it would not be appropriate to make the information available to potential competitors.

The tendering process will be open and competitive, with the choice of provider being made on the basis of best and final offers from a short list of bidders. In brief, the process which we will follow is as follows: Initial expressions of interest will be sought from potential providers; qualified bidders will lodge proposals based on full information on services required and contract conditions; a short list of potential providers will go through a due diligence process, to ensure that the base data is correct, and lodge their final bids; the successful provider will then be chosen. As I said, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, hopefully that will be done by the end of this year.

I am confident that this process brings all parties together. Certainly, it provides for input from staff, the CPSU and management, but keeps clearly in mind the whole way through this process that this is not, as it was in South Australia, about attracting a new company to the State. This is about getting better value for our IT dollar for the people of Canberra and to ensure that, when we put information technology projects together in the ACT, we put them together with a clear eye on what it is we are trying to achieve, not just go down the track, as has happened occasionally in the past, that new technology, by its very nature, must be good technology and we all end up going off in different directions. I think the approach we have taken has shown that we are willing to take the time that is required to have an appropriate approach to this important area. We have, as I said this afternoon, had a meeting with the unions, and the CPSU has been involved with this process the whole way along. Hopefully, we can bring our staff with us on this. I think the advent of an in-house bid is a very big step in the right direction for the ACT Government.

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