It seems if Labor had their way, they’d have State Growth bureaucrats building roads.
The Hodgman Liberal Government understands it has a responsibility to ensure that we are delivering services to the community in the most effective and efficient way, delivering best value for money.
Previous governments outsourced road works, including upgrades and routine maintenance, to the civil construction industry years ago, with the Department predominantly only providing infrastructure planning and project management.
Last year, the Government received an unsolicited proposal from the Downer Group, a major provider of infrastructure maintenance services across Australasia, seeking to contract to deliver traffic signal maintenance services in Tasmania.
The Department of State Growth has considered an alternative model of external contracting for delivery of these services, which has included consultation with its counterparts across the country.
Traffic signals maintenance is successfully delivered under contract in New South Wales, Victoria (Labor Government), Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory (Labor Government).
Following its assessment, the Department recommended that an external contract model of service delivery be pursued through a tender process.
I accepted that recommendation in-principle, subject to consultation with employees and endorsement by Government.
At this time a final decision on that recommendation has not been made.
The Department will be providing me with further advice on this matter, including the results of employee consultation, by the end of June 2015.
Currently, a maximum of 13 employees could potentially be affected.
If a final decision is made to move to a new model of delivery, the affected employees will be given the opportunity to submit a proposal to deliver the services before the broader market is tested.