There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit to make savings in the ACT public service – especially at the top. Image: erhui1979.
I recently wrote about the need to do a root and branch review of the ACT public service.
Many people have commented on this and agree that not only is it well overdue, but it would create savings just when the Territory’s debt is becoming unmanageable. The debt is heading towards $14 billion in 2028 when the repayment of interest alone will be $830 million a year – these are the government’s figures, so we can assume it is much worse.
The recent election shows that most people are comfortable with the debt.
But the day will come when we have to pay the piper, and that will mean extreme increases in rates and taxes, as well as in the cost of public transport within the ACT and definitely with parking fees.
There is plenty of low-hanging fruit, places where savings can be made without impacting people. The ACT public service is certainly top-heavy, so some savings could be made with the long overdue clean-out of excess senior executives. Most will likely get jobs elsewhere.
There is the ACT Human Rights Commission (HRC) that I have mentioned before.
Some basic research shows that they have 109 staff, which seems a lot.
The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), which covers all of Australia, has around 122 employees. The KPIs and statistics are interesting.
In 2022-23, the AHRC had almost 15,000 enquiries and 2562 complaints to deal with. The ACT HRC had 8425 calls and 1147 complaints.
That shows an average of 122 enquiries and 21 complaints per staff member in the AHRC, while it was 21 calls and nine complaints per staff member in the ACT HRC. Some difference.
Then it gets worse.
Some quick research shows that in 2010 just over 15 per cent of prisoners in the ACT were Indigenous; in 2021, that had risen to 27 per cent. Not a great report card.
So, the question needs to be asked: since the creation of the ACT HRC, has the plight of disadvantaged groups gotten worse? Also, as the ACT is the most progressive jurisdiction in the country, why do we need to be policed like this?
This will be explained away with weasel words and big, long reports referring to meaningless things as proof that they worked hard – the reality is it shows a big problem. The ACT can simply return to using the AHRC, the same as all the other jurisdictions.
The ACT HRC had five employees when it started, and that is probably all it needs, especially given that we have a national body that is much more efficient.
So, perhaps also, this shows there is an approach to the delivery of services that could save the ACT some serious money and save the taxpayers from the rate increases (rate-a-geddon), which will probably hit around 2026 if not beforehand.
The ACT can contract out to the federal government and the NSW State Government for various services. We already do this with our policing, where the Australian Federal Police provide our community policing services.
First, we need an approach that aligns the ACT much more with NSW.
When it comes to building codes and business and skills certificates, it would be much easier and certainly more efficient to have the same rules and regulations as the state that surrounds us.
We could outsource the provision of vocational education and training to NSW TAFE. They would have access to our CIT facilities and provide training where the certificates and the skills and subjects taught are applicable in NSW and the ACT.
So instead of increasing business costs, such as creating portable long-service leave for all workers in the ACT and increasing payroll tax, which are onerous and unnecessary costs that add productivity burdens on business, we could cut costs and complexity instead.
We could also align our building regulations with NSW, and there would then be efficiencies from similar rules, creating less complexity for builders and workers in construction. This would also apply to road maintenance and construction.
This could also, perhaps at a long stretch, apply to education. Where once we had the best education system in the nation, our government schools now lag behind the rest of the states – except for about 12 notable schools in the ACT. We should adopt the NSW curriculum and create savings, transparency, and ease of transfer between jurisdictions if needed.
Maybe we could do the same with health?
Perhaps some of this is not at all feasible. Yet the ACT Human Rights Commission’s apparent lack of efficiency is a good example of savings that can be made with common sense and a little imagination. Or a lot.
Peter Strong was a Canberra business owner and CEO of the Council of Small Business Australia (COSBOA) for 11 years. He now consults on community economics.
Original Article published by Peter Strong on Riotact.
