Page 1376 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 9 May 2006
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would accrue to the ACT budget as a result of those changes. I understand that, as a direct result of the proposed restructuring that you announced two weeks ago, additional staff are being sought by the agency that will manage the centralisation of the shared services. Chief Minister, at a time when you are telling ACT public servants that their jobs are not secure, why are you considering employing more people to implement your restructuring proposals? Did the Costello report on the functional and strategic review recommend employing new staff to put these proposals in place?
MR STANHOPE: I thank the member for the question. It does give me an opportunity to correct some of the misunderstanding that I think some members have around what the government’s proposal entails. At the outset it needs to be clear, and members need to understand, that the older notion, which is often referred back to, of a centralisation of services should not in any way be compared with a shared services centre. To simply centralise services is not to be confused with the creation of a shared services centre; it is a completely different concept. Centralisation is just bunging everybody else together, allowing a central mode to continue to provide specific or personal services to an organisation outside that central agency, without any attempt or commitment to share in the delivery of services.
A shared services centre is a completely different concept and requires a completely different approach. The significant difference, of course, between the centralisation of services of, say, 15 years vintage and that today is most apparent in the enormous changes in technology that have occurred in the last 15 years. That is at the heart of our capacity to now look seriously at a new method of centralised corporate services service delivery. That is a capacity that has become so much more obvious or available as a result of the enormous changes in technology that have occurred and continue to occur. I need to say that, because much of what I have heard members opposite and others say is really quite seriously wrong-headed. You need to perhaps undertake some analysis of the difference between a simple centralisation of services and the creation of a shared services centre—a completely different concept with a completely different focus and modus operandi. You simply misunderstand; you display your ignorance. In some of the comments you have made, you have displayed a significant level of ignorance.
It is accepted, Mr Pratt—and your question goes to this—that this is an incredibly complex notion. That is why we have allowed seven or eight months of implementation. As I have also indicated, there will be some significant up-front costs in the establishment of a shared services centre—of some millions. I am not quite sure but I think something between $5 million and $7 million is the estimate of the establishment costs for a shared services centre for the ACT of the order of the model that I have outlined.
In answer directly to your question, yes, it was always anticipated that there would be significant issues to be addressed—quite technical and complex issues—in relation to the establishment of a shared services centre, that there would be up-front costs and that a particular or significant level of expertise, which would not necessarily be found within the ACT public service sector, would be required, would be necessary, in order to ensure that we bring this together and that we meet at this time our anticipated start-up date of, I believe, 1 February.
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