Page 1424 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 5 June 2007
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The Shared Services Centre became operational earlier this year.
Improvements in internal practices and processes have already flowed. Efficiencies have been delivered by common systems and transactional processes. New approaches to doing the business of government have been developed.
By consolidating common corporate service functions into the Shared Services Centre, the government will save around $20 million in 2007-08 in back-office costs.
But other dividends flow from these structural reforms too. Career paths have significantly improved and training and advancement opportunities have blossomed for individual public servants, as small corporate units have come together.
Change is often daunting and I thank all ACT public servants for the professionalism and enthusiasm with which they participated in the changes wrought over the past year.
Labor is proud to have, working to deliver its priorities, a public service that is responsive and dedicated. This budget will provide $400,000 each year to build further on our public sector capacity. Strategies will focus on workplace culture, investing in staff, providing training and leadership development opportunities in line with best practice, and recruitment and attraction strategies.
Commonwealth-state financial relations
Mr Speaker, our federal system of government has a significant influence on the fiscal capacities of the states and territories and on the decisions they make around budget time. The ACT is no exception.
Some of the principles upon which the system is based are well-founded and fair. The system of equalisation, for example, ensures that states and territories that have higher needs, perhaps for reasons of remoteness or size or lack of raw materials, are compensated so they can provide services broadly equal to the services provided elsewhere.
The GST revenue is distributed on this principle.
Unfortunately, inherent in such a system is the potential for blame shifting and cost transferring.
Thus, in recent months, we have heard much about the supposedly high taxation regimes of the states and territories, not to mention the alleged “rivers of GST gold” we have supposedly squandered.
Mr Speaker, in truth the fiscal imbalance between the commonwealth and the states and territories has increased significantly over the past six years—the period in which Labor has been in power in the ACT. The commonwealth now has a larger share of taxation revenue than it had in 2000-01.
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