Speech to Tasmanian SES

Speech to Tasmanian SES
Friday 27 February 2009

Thank you very much for having made the time to attend this morning – when I want to take the opportunity to have a frank conversation with the leaders of the Public Service in this State.

No doubt you have all come here with a different set of concerns and expectations. The media has been ramping up anxieties – and I think that is unfortunate.

There has been all sorts of scaremongering, hypothesising and doom and gloom from my political opponents, and a barrage of messages in the news on everything from the economy to jobs, to wages, to early elections – and everything in between. Media reports that I am here to outline the cuts are wrong.

Equally, my political opponents who claim there will be 2000 job losses are engaging in political scaremongering at its worst.

I have called you together today to cut through all the noise and set out some clear messages about what you can expect from the Government in the year ahead.

So firstly, can I begin by re-assuring you about my view of the Public Service. The Public Service is a cornerstone of representative democracy in this State, and a driver of great and positive change.

As long as there have been parliaments, there have been people that implement their decisions, administer their laws and advise their representatives. In Tasmania – that is you and your staff. I am a proud public servant, and you should be too. I’m proud that together we have produced ten consecutive budget surpluses, paid off Government debt and put ourselves in a very strong financial position to work our way through this set of circumstances.

I have called together today in the one room the entire senior management level of the Tasmanian State Service because I want to address you as a group.

So often in the service, you may only hear intermittently from your Minister or Premier as decisions are passed through to you through the Head of Agency.

Today, I want to cut through to talk to each of you about what it is that I expect of the Public Service, and what the Public Service should expect of me as Premier.

We have a collective job to do in 2009 – collective challenges to face and opportunities to harness. These are challenging times, and I make no bones about that. I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone in this room that the Global Financial Crisis has changed the economic and financial parameters in which we are operating.

Every economy on the planet has felt its effects – and those impacts are beginning ever more clearly to wash up on Tasmania’s shores. But Tasmania remains in a better position than many other economies to face what’s coming and emerge from the other side with sound economic fundamentals on which to rebuild.

My priority as Premier in 2009 is to do whatever I can to keep this economy moving forwards, and to keep as many Tasmanians as possible in jobs – including public sector jobs.

All of you are aware of the impact the global situation is having on State Budget revenues.

We brought the mid-year financial accounts forward so we could see just how major that impact would be – and the impacts are severe.

As those of you who follow these things would know only too well, our revenues have taken a hit, both in terms of our own State revenues and in the levels of GST revenues coming from the Commonwealth.

That poses some challenges for Government, and it poses some challenges for individual agencies that have been asked to look for significant savings in a relatively short time. I am under no illusions that this will be an easy process. There is not a lot of fat to be easily trimmed off.

I know that the popular catchphrases about the public service have been given legitimacy by their constant repetition in the media. That the Public Service is bloated. That the Public Service is inefficient. I have been a public servant, and I know for a fact that those things aren’t true.

It is my overwhelming experience that the Tasmanian Public Service is full of people that work hard and are some of the best minds we have in the State. People that are doing their level best every day to meet the needs of the people of Tasmania through the provision of a professional service.

I know that many of you spend time in your offices late at night and on weekends. If there is a tough job to do, right throughout history, it is the public sector that has done it. I am aware of the frustrations and limitations.

Today is my chance to communicate with you directly to try and cut through those frustrations and confusions.

Let me start with your job security. It is the responsibility of every government to lead and set priorities – and my number one priority for 2009 is keeping Tasmanians in jobs – including public servants. I have made a commitment – and it’s one I re-iterate today – that there will not be wholesale redundancies in the public service.

I know that my political opponents have been going around making claims about massive job cuts. That is irresponsible, scaremongering nonsense.  It is not true. The jobs of Tasmanians are simply too important to me and to the economy of our State for the Government to be going around instituting wholesale sackings.

In 2009 more than ever, we are expecting a great deal from all of you and the staff you manage in delivering government programs and services. There is an immense reservoir of expertise, experience and creativity that resides right now in our public service, and I’m not about to let that go.

Yes we need to tighten our belts, but not by losing the very assets that will enable us to pull Tasmania through an economic downturn. So if some of you have been having restless nights about your career futures – and those of your staff – please be reassured that we need you and we cannot afford to lose you. Which is why we are looking for other ways to make essential savings.

I have called a meeting of all Public Sector Unions for Monday to discuss with them what measures we can put in place across the Public Service to help make savings while delivering the level of service that the Tasmanian public have come to expect.

I want that to be a genuinely creative meeting and I have no preconceived ideas about what may flow from it. There are a wide range of options we can consider, including things like phased in retirement, vacancy control, leave without pay requests, and flexible work practices.

In recent weeks, the Expenditure Review Committee has looked right across the range of government spending to assess what options do exist to make savings. None of those options will be easy, and many are simply not achievable. And I want to have a genuine discussion and debate with the unions and with public servants about how we can work together to better target resources.

The Expenditure Review Committee process is now winding up, and in coming weeks we will sit down and make the calls on spending. And I want you to know that Ministerial Offices are facing the same budget challenges you are. We have already identified savings of half a million dollars in the budget for ministerial offices, and will find more.

In the last 5 months, 7 employees have left ministerial offices and those vacancies are not being filled. We are trimming budgets for ministerial travel and catering – amongst other things. We all need to make sacrifices together to lead Tasmania forwards. 

I would not ask of you anything that I would not ask of my own office and of our parliamentarians as a whole.

I can announce today that the Government has made the decision - following an independent review by John Ramsay and Associates - to close its Canberra Office.

Given the substantial links the State Government now enjoys with the Commonwealth through the work of many of your agencies, the money spent on that Canberra Office can be better spent.

I am willing to make savings wherever I can to allow the Government to re-direct funds into projects and infrastructure that will keep the Tasmanian economy moving forwards through this period.

Today is also a good chance for me to put to bed some other furphies and rumours that seem to fly around in the media and in the Public Service from time to time.

Firstly, let me tell you there will be no early election. This State will go to the polls on March 20, 2010 – full stop, period.

Your focus and mine in the coming year will not be on electioneering, but on how we can work together to implement what is a very broad and full policy agenda.

Together – we have got things to do – and I can’t get them done without you. That is why my commitment to you is that we will make considered decisions on spending - but we will not drag that process out. I do not want the energy of the people in this room for the rest of this year to be spent worrying about where cuts might happen – and I’m sure that you don’t want that either.

This Government has a massive forward policy agenda, and I want your energy and mine spent on working to implement that agenda.

Next week, I will stand up in the Parliament and deliver the State of the State address. I will articulate a vision for the next decade and a series of actions to be delivered in 2009.

Today I want to talk to you broadly about what those directions will be – because I will be asking every one of you to play your part in implementing these policies.

This will be an historically important year for Tasmania.

With the global financial situation, what we need to do as a public sector is to step up and be an even more active driver for Tasmania’s economy as the private sector recovers from international shocks.

Across the full range of government spending and investment, we need to orient ourselves and our resources towards supporting the local economy. Within your agencies, this may mean re-arranging your priorities towards different timeframes. It may mean delaying administrative changes and reviews in favour of spending programs on infrastructure and construction.

The Government has asked all agencies to implement an efficiency dividend, and I know that some agencies will find it a real challenge. Nevertheless, I have a responsibility to make it clear to you, and to the Tasmanian people in the State of the State address on Tuesday – where our priorities lie.

I can announce today that we will move to quarantine frontline services from budget cuts by protecting schools, hospitals, police services and infrastructure spending. These are our priorities. We must protect the gains we have made in these areas. Tasmanians expect that of us.

We are able to do this because we have strong State finances that have produced ten consecutive surpluses.

In quarantining schools, we are protecting the quality of our future workforce and building on all the gains being made in literacy and numeracy.

By quarantining hospitals, we will make sure that advances we’ve made – through the hard work of many of you – in things like elective surgery times and the number of treatments we provide to Tasmanians, are not eroded.

In protecting frontline policing we are investing in the safety of our communities. If we don’t set and state our priorities, we are just blancmange. These are our priorities.

The State of the State address will make key policy announcements across the full reach of government, and outline the investments we can make to drive our economy through the global financial crisis.

I will be announcing next Tuesday ways in which we can make better use of our transport options in this State. Cycleways, park and ride facilities and community transport initiatives.

I will be outlining how we will implement a more connected-up program of Government services in 2009.

I want to break down any barriers that exist in the Tasmanian community about Government being a remote entity – something that you only come into contact with if you’ve done something wrong or have to pay some bills. Government is and must be a part of the community.

Tasmania’s 20,000 plus public servants are all members of the community – mums and dads who face the same worries and issues as everybody else and need to access our services in health, education and transport.

I want to build that sense of connection through what I call “joined up service delivery” – the establishment of LINCS and Child and Family Centres and Health Centres where families can have one stop for their government services, embedded in their local communities.

It’s an agenda that is very much central to my philosophy as Premier, and it is something that we will move forward with strongly in 2009.

These are the things you can expect of me as Premier. To pursue a wide-ranging positive policy agenda, while making the tough financial decisions that need to be made.

So what is your role in this – what do I ask of you as Premier? I expect a 21st Century public service to be responsive, flexible, professional and innovative in a way very different from how it used to be. A workplace characterised by creativity, and by integrated ICT systems that underpin a connected and cohesive public service. It’s a dynamic workplace where your skills could be needed in any number of areas over the course of a day, a month or a career.

We have recently completed some pretty exhaustive research on Tasmania’s public service and where it’s going, and the findings are pretty interesting.

There is no doubt at all that the Public Service – in line with the rest of Tasmania demographically – is ageing. Look around you this morning and the chances are that the average age of the people you are looking at is 52.

Projections show that in the next decade, 75% of the SES of the State Public Service will reach retirement age. We will be cumulatively losing thousands of years worth of experience in the administration of this State and how it works. That will create some major issues and we need to be planning and preparing for those issues right now.

We need to keep attracting and retaining a skilled labour force – hence my determination not to shed jobs – not to shed the very people we will need to move this State forwards.  We need to make sure that people realise that a public service career is in fact a noble calling and a very real way in itself of making a contribution to the community.

Whatever the short-term financial pressures, there can be no doubt that longer term we will need to recruit to maintain the service delivery that will be required across the board. Part of that is making sure that the Tasmanian Public Service provides a workplace of choice. That it has the flexibility and demonstrates the care that attracts people to work here.

The Public Sector Management Office has done a great deal of work recently on creating an overarching strategy that captures all that.

Something that sets out why public service is a worthy pursuit, and what the principles are that underpin it. It’s called the People-Directions Action Framework – and I know that some of you will already be aware of parts of it. It’s centred around five key themes that capture what the public service is about and what it’s here to do.

The themes broadly – and I’m summarising here – are ones around identity; retention and recruitment; celebrating and developing skills; building leadership; and creating a supportive environment.

It’s a very human philosophy which has at its heart the goal of “delivering quality services for Tasmanians”.

If there is a single goal that unites the Public Service – then that is it – the idea that all of us are here to deliver for our fellow Tasmanians.

That’s what our nurses do, our teachers, our managers, our policy and research officers, and our MPs.

It’s about answering the question of what it is we’re all doing here? What is it that gets you and I out of bed each morning?

The People’s Directions Framework says it’s to deliver quality services for Tasmanians – and I think that’s about right.

Our challenge for 2009 is to do that with energy and creativity in a financial environment that is less than ideal – and that is a challenge I am sure we can meet by working together.

Tasmania has come a very long way in the last decade.

We have gone from being an economic laughing stock to having one of the most resilient economies in Australia in the face of international financial shocks.

We have embarked on a cultural renaissance – led by initiatives like Ten Days on the Island, sports teams like our successful Tasmanian Tigers, and research icons like the Menzies Centre.

We have seen a tourism industry emerge that will soon be bringing in one million visitors a year – double what it was a decade ago.

Our Spirit of Tasmania ships bring people into the State, and our quality exports of food, wine, and expertise in everything from hydro power to life-raft systems keep us in the international spotlight.

All of those things – and many many more – could not have happened without the passion and the energy and the dedication of the public servants of this State. Because of you.

Political office is very much about vision setting and direction – and vision only becomes action because of the efforts of all the people in this room, and your staff, who make those things happen.

Today is a good chance for me to acknowledge that contribution – and to thank you for it. I know that work isn’t easy – and that it can sometimes seem thankless. Which is why we need to be guided by values. One of the strongest ongoing traditions of the public service is the giving of frank and fearless advice. The idea that you are free to speak up – and indeed have a responsibility to do so.

My commitment to you is that I welcome frank and fearless advice.   And my encouragement to you is to do the same. Utilise the skills of your staff to discuss ideas, encourage creativity and a sense of partnership. Every single public servant in this State has skills to utilise and a point of view worth listening to.

Government is nothing if not a battle of ideas. Your skills, your experience and your views are important and need to be heard. That does not mean that I will always agree with you, or that I want us to have that debate through the media.

As professional public servants, you have a responsibility to give me frank and fearless advice, I have a responsibility to consider it – and then we have a joint responsibility to publicly own the decision that is made.

It is in the best interests of Tasmania for us to be frank and fearless with each other. Let’s be constructive about how we do that. I have seen the business of government from pretty much every possible angle.

I’ve been a public servant in this State – in three different Agencies.  I’ve been a ministerial adviser, a backbencher, a Minister and now Premier.

And I’ve got to tell you that the world looks different from each of those positions – but what remains constant is the desire to be a part of the discussion – to be respected and listened to.

That is something I think all of us can get better at across Government.

Ministerial offices should not be there as roadblocks between you and your Ministers – they are conduits for information, sounding boards for ideas and your link to the political arm of government.

I said earlier that Government is a battle of ideas, but it is also then about working together to implement those ideas.  To test their worth and make good policy together.

In 2009 – in the face of economic and financial challenges – I look forward, and the whole Government looks forward – to continuing to work with you to deliver quality services for Tasmanians.

We can achieve a lot separately,…but working together,…utilising our skills,…in an atmosphere characterised by common respect and frank discussion… – we can achieve so much more.

Thank you for coming and I look forward to seeing you and working with you in the year ahead.