Page 3668 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 26 August 2009
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six months. That is why this motion calls for the government to table its progress on meeting the recommendations of the Ernst & Young report. The challenge is for the government to explain what improvements have been made and what changes will be occurring in the near future.
Unfortunately, yesterday in question time, we saw a glimpse of the solutions and the so-called “vision” that the Stanhope Labor government are going to offer us. Is it to make efficiencies? No. Is it to improve management structures? No. Is it to improve financial performance and discipline? No. Is it to implement best practice? No. Is it to focus on the delivery of core government services? No, it is certainly not that either. So what are they going to do? They are going to increase taxes. The vision of the Stanhope-Gallagher government extends only to taxing the people of Canberra more, for less in return. Instead of addressing key problems in the organisation and making the government work better, they are propping up an operation which Ernst & Young said is costing more and more of taxpayers’ revenue for less and less.
Canberrans are already paying some of the highest taxes in the country and, as I have mentioned many times in this place before, what Canberrans want is a government that concentrates on core business. They want a government that is effective and efficient and that delivers the services that they pay for, the services they expect.
Yesterday in question time, the minister all but announced another tax on Canberrans, for garbage collection. This is nothing but a cash grab in an attempt to claw back the budget blow-outs and poor financial management we have seen in TAMS in recent years, and in all the other departments.
Canberra’s households already pay for their garbage collection through their rates, yet Mr Stanhope wants to impose another tax. Mr Stanhope has failed to rule out secret plans to slug ratepayers twice, and he now must abandon any notion of what would be an unfair tax on Canberra’s households. All of this is in addition to the taxes and charges that the government has already increased this year, including parking fees, parking fines, bus fares and rates.
The government’s position on the possibility of introducing other fees and taxes in TAMS simply remains unclear. The government has been quick to embrace the possibility of increasing taxes and charges but has not taken much notice of the rest of the report. The rest of the report reveals that efficiencies have not been achieved from the merger, there is a lack of financial transparency, there is a lack of control by managers, there are too many administrators, and even that there is too much political influence that is preventing the department from getting done the things that it needs to get done. A key extract from page 25 of the report reads as follows:
Recent performance suggests that TAMS’ existing structure and resourcing allocations are not ideally suited to delivering its service delivery priorities for the Government within its existing budget.
On page 29 it says:
This lack of clarity and alignment regarding accountability for performance from the Ministerial level down to the service delivery level makes it difficult for the
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