PUBLIC SECTOR —
ORGANISATIONAL AND MANAGEMENT POLICIES
1103. Hon PETER COLLIER to
the minister representing the Treasurer:
I ask this question on behalf of
Hon Tjorn Sibma, who is on urgent parliamentary business.
I
refer to the financial impacts of reviewing, designing and implementing the
government's public sector organisational and management
programs and policies since March 2017, including the machinery-of-government
changes.
(1) Has Treasury calculated the
full financial cost of these policies, and what is that cost?
(2) Has Treasury calculated the
full financial benefit of these policies, and what is that benefit?
Hon STEPHEN
DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided to me by
the Treasurer.
(1) In most
cases, costs other than separation costs associated with
machinery-of-government changes were absorbed
within existing agency budgets at the time. A portion of the 2017–18
voluntary targeted separation scheme was allocated to assist with
machinery-of-government changes. As shown on page 18 of the 2017–18 Annual
Report on State Finances, total separation costs for the VTSS by 30 June
2018 were $280 million. The allocation of this cost to the
machinery-of-government changes versus other changes in agency workforces is
not available.
(2) The service priority review identified a savings
outcome from the machinery-of-government process. A total of $763 million was included as savings
from the implementation of the government's wages policy, $498 million
over the four years to 2020–21; the VTSS initiative, $171 million of
the total $526 million scheme estimate at the time; reductions in the number of
state executive service employees, $78 million; and a salary freeze for
employees who are subject to Salaries and Allowances Tribunal determinations,
$16 million. Commencing with the 2017–18 budget, the savings from these
reforms were written into agency budgets as part of the successful integration
of the machinery-of-government changes.