Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Finance and Deregulation has supplied the following answer to the honourable member's question:

(1) The whole-of-government air travel arrangements commenced on 1 July 2010 and delivered $160 million savings to the Budget over the period 2010-2014.

(2) For the period February 2009 to 21 July 2011, 28 sales have occurred under the Commonwealth Property Disposals Policy. Details are provided below.

Open Market Sales:

Priority Sales (including Concessional Priority Sales):

Priority sales are those made direct to a State, Territory or Local Government without the property having first been offered for sale on the open market. Priority sales usually occur where a sale to a State, Territory or Local Government would optimise housing and/or community outcomes. Concessional sales are those priority sales concluded at a purchase price below market value in cases where the sale facilitates a Commonwealth policy objective.

(3) The savings measure is applied to agencies that exceeded the occupational density target where the lease/building contains more than 500 m² of usable office area. The savings are realised progressively as existing leases expire.

Over the period 2010-11 to 2014-15 inclusive, the Commonwealth anticipates realising efficiencies delivering $145.6 million in savings from improved property management practices with $48.5 million retained by agencies and $97.1 million returned to the Budget.

A breakdown of these figures per financial year is below:

(4) (a)

Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997Public Service Act 1999

(b) This question should be referred to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.

(5) Australian Government departments and agencies spent a total of $112.8 million on advertising campaigns in 2010, compared with $115.3 million in 2009, $86.6 million in 2008 and $254 million in 2007.

(6) Savings were incorporated within a one-off additional 2 per cent efficiency dividend, implemented by Government with effect from 1 March 2008. A specific target for consultancy expenditure was not set.

(7) All 29 sites are now operational, with 5 additional sites installed to support initiatives such as the Queensland Floods Recovery and CHOGM Taskforce.

(8) Yes.

(9) Pre-2008 Review of Subordinate Regulation

The Minister Assisting on Deregulation and Public Sector Superannuation, Senator the Hon Nick Sherry, announced the completion of the systematic review of all Commonwealth subordination legislation made before 2008 (Pre-2008 Review) on 31 March 2011.

Across portfolios as a whole, the Pre-2008 Review identified 4,204 legislative instruments, or around 14 per cent of the stock, that were redundant or potentially redundant. In the process of identifying the redundant regulations, 10 Acts were also identified that appear to be redundant.

All portfolio ministers have received and acknowledged the final report of the review in respect of their portfolio. Responsibility to action the findings of each report now lies with individual ministers.

Regulatory Offsets

In 2009 a Department of Finance and Deregulation circular provided guidance on the 'one in, one out' principle and a range of other regulatory matters.

Ministerial Partnerships

Five Better Regulation Ministerial Partnerships have now been completed. Three Partnerships are currently in progress.

(10) The Commonwealth Grants Guidelines, introduced on 1 July 2009, require agencies to report information on all individual grants on their department websites no later than seven working days after the funding agreement for the grant takes effect.

In the 2009-10 Certificate of Compliance process, about 14 per cent of agencies reported non-compliance with the seven day website reporting requirement. The majority of these were reported within 20 days of the funding agreement taking effect.

(11) A register of agencies using social media initiatives is available at http://agimo.govspace.gov.au/page/gov2register/, and case studies on Gov 2.0 are available at http://showcase.govspace.gov.au/showcase_types/gov-2-0/. The Government's use of Gov 2.0 has also been reported in the State of the Service Report 2009-10.

(12) The balances of funds remaining in the Building Australia Fund, the Education Investment Fund and the Health and Hospitals Fund, including the uncommitted balances and the cash balances, can be found on the Department of Finance and Deregulation website—http://www.finance.gov.au/investment-funds/NBF/NBF_transfers.html.

(13) Legislation to establish the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation as the single trustee for the main Commonwealth civilian and military superannuation schemes was introduced into Parliament on 4 February 2010, but lapsed when the 42nd Parliament ended prior to the 2010 election. The legislation was re-introduced into Parliament on 24 March 2011, and received Royal Assent on 28 June 2011. The legislation, known as the Governance of Australian Government Superannuation Schemes Act 2011, commenced on 1 July 2011.

(14) This question should be directed to the Minister for Human Services.

(15) (a) Courier services—A preliminary investigation was undertaken in 2010. It identified that further investigation is required in order to determine whether courier services is a viable candidate for a coordinated arrangement. An agency survey will be undertaken to more accurately estimate expenditure and identify scope. The timing of the action is not yet finalised.

(b) Office removals and staff relocations—A preliminary investigation was completed in 2010. It identified that office removals and staff relocations is not a suitable candidate for a whole of government arrangement as a large number of agencies would not benefit. As such, this area did not meet the coordinated procurement contracting arrangements criteria.

(c) Travel services—Phase 1 of the travel services coordinated procurement processes took effect from 1 July 2010. Under those arrangements, a panel of travel management companies was established through which all FMA Act agencies and relevant participating Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 bodies must book air travel. A range of competitive discounted airfares was negotiated with airlines on domestic and international routes. These arrangements have delivered $160 million savings to the Budget over the period 2010-14.

Phase 2 has now commenced, involving the conduct of separate open tenders for travel and related card services, accommodation and short-term car hire services. The tenders for Phase 2 are expected to be released later in 2011, with contracts to be in place by mid 2012.

The Department of Finance and Deregulation has recently undertaken a Request for Information process for travel and related card services to provide industry the opportunity to contribute to considerations about the most appropriate strategy and business model. A similar Request for Information process is being undertaken in relation to accommodation.

(d) Security guarding services—A preliminary investigation was completed in 2010. It identified that security guarding services is not a suitable candidate for coordinated procurement as a minority of agencies had specific contracts and some agencies had these services tied in with other property management arrangements. As such, this area did not meet the coordinated procurement contracting arrangements criteria.

(e) Transactional banking services—A preliminary investigation was undertaken in 2010, which identified that transactional banking is not a suitable candidate for coordinated procurement as there is minimal potential for savings. As such, this area did not meet the coordinated procurement contracting arrangements criteria.

(f) Subscription services—A preliminary investigation was completed in the last quarter of 2010. It identified a wide diversity in subscription services and that many subscriptions were specific to one or a few agencies. Therefore it is not a suitable candidate for coordinated procurement when assessed against the criteria.

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