Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND TO THE REVIEWPublic administration reform will never be a simple, straightforward process because of thecomplexity of the environment in which we operate and because so much of the way weoperate is bound in custom and tradition. But it is also clear that doing business as usual willnot deliver the outcomes that the community rightly demands across all levels ofGovernment. 2In September 2010, the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT),Mr Jon Stanhope MLA, commissioned a comprehensive review of the effectiveness, capacityand structure of the ACT Public Sector (the Review).The Terms of Reference (see Attachment A) canvassed:• the capacity of existing public-sector structures to support the government of the day withstrategic and direction-setting advice;• effectiveness in delivering on government policies and objectives;• performance and accountability mechanisms;• how existing structures differentiate between the roles of policy and regulation;• across-government coordination of service delivery; and• structures that would improve resilience and innovation across the public sector.The aim of the Review was to ensure that the configuration of the ACT public sector remainsappropriate for meeting the Government’s needs and delivering its agenda into the future,particularly in relation to the major priority issues of sustainability, housing affordability andtransport, which cross traditional agency boundaries.The Review took place concurrently with a suite of other projects examining different aspectsof the ACT Government’s operations, including:• the review of taxation being conducted by former ACT Treasurer Mr Ted Quinlan;• Canberra 2030 – Time to Talk; and• continuation of the Expenditure Review and Evaluation Committee’s work.Government decisions following the Strategic and Functional Review of the ACT PublicSector and Services led by Mr Michael Costello AO in the lead up to the 2006–07 Budgetprovided a complementary background. Unlike that process, however, this Review was notfocused on the identification of savings. Instead, it aimed at maximising the ACT’s city stategovernment achievements including by overcoming structural and other impediments toperformance.2 Blacher, Y (2005) 'Changing the way government works'. Public Administration Today (Oct - Dec) pp:38 - 42, p.42.Background to the Review: 23