Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable s enator ' s question is as follows:

The Industry and Small Business Policy Division (I&SBP) provides advice to develop an internationally competitive, innovative and sustainable business environment in Australia. It provides advice on a wide range of policy issues affecting the competitiveness and growth of Australian businesses, and while it has specific responsibilities for policies relating to small business and independent contractors, the following numbers provided in response to parts (1) (2) (3) and (4) are for the entire division which is much broader than "small business".

(1) (a) Forward estimates at a divisional level are only budgeted for two years beyond the current financial year (2011-12) and as such the 2014-15 financial year is unavailable.

     (i) The anticipated departmental expenditure budgets for the I&SBP division are below. These are indicative only for planning purposes, as Divisional allocations are received on a biannual basis, to reflect departmental priorities.

      (ii) Administered expenditure budgets for I&SBP division are:

(Reference: Portfolio Budget Statement 2011-12, Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, pg 30)

  (b) (a) Departmental expenditure budget for I&SBP division is:

  (b) (b) Administered expenditure budgets for I&SBP division are:

(Reference: Portfolio Budget Statement 2011-12, Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, pg 30)

(2)   (a)   As of 17 October, 105 staff (includes staff taking leave) in the I&SBP division.

  (b) As of 17 October, the full-time staff equivalent is 101.43 in I&SBP division.

  (c)   As of 17 October, there were 104 staff located in Canberra and 1 staff member in Brisbane.

  (d) Refer to Attachment A.

  (e) As of 17 October, I&SBP had no staff working on contract.

  (f) There have been three contract staff engaged during the 2010-11 financial year in I&SBP.

  (g) The value of the three contracts totalled $65,970.53.

  (h) (i) Refer to Attachment A.

     (ii)There are 39 department-provided mobile phones. Mobile telephone budgets are included in an overall IT and telecommunications budget and as such can not be individually reported.

   (iii)Travel allowance is included in an overall travel budget and as such can not be individually reported.

     (i) Nil. Recruitment is undertaken on a needs basis and a budget is not allocated.

  (j) The total budgeted cost for staff development for 2011-12 is $216,673.

(3)   (a)   The only departmental office location used by I&SBP is 10 Binara Street, Canberra ACT 2601.

  (b) (i) No offices are solely used by I&SBP.

     (ii) Offices are used for other departmental divisions.

  (c) (i) 10 Binara Street, Canberra ACT 2601.

     (ii) Rented.

     (iii) Total rental cost for 10 Binara Street, Canberra ACT 2601, including the portion that relates to I&SBP, is $11,297,049 for 2010-11 financial year.

     (iv) Approximately 1100sq m.

     (v) Not applicable.

     (vi) 10 Binara Street, Canberra ACT 2601 – approximately 100 staff.

  (d)   No.

  (e)   Not applicable.

  (f)   Not applicable.

  (g)   Approximately 1100sq m.

  (h)   I&SBP have no expenditure for implementing new project facilities.

(4) (a) The department can confirm that this amount is correct. Noting that this is the total consulting cost for the department for the 2009-10 financial year.

  (b) and (c) There were a total of six consulting contracts I&SBP division entered into in 2010-11, totalling $647,234.06. The actual expenditure in 2010-11 relating to these contracts was $316,175 and the remainder will be expensed in future years.

The total budget for 2011-12 is $595,474 for five consultancy contracts entered into. At this stage there is no budget for consultancy contracts for 2012-13.

(5)   (a) and (b)The 2011-12 and 2012-13 departmental appropriation for Enterprise Connect is:

This appropriation funds the operational costs of the Enterprise Connect program including expenses such as staffing, travel, ICT, property and administration costs for the delivery of the program elements.

  (c)   The Enterprise Connect program has a single appropriation and all centres are managed within the appropriation. There are no specific allocations for each centre:

  (d) No

  (e) Please find outlined below, the office space for each Enterprise Connect Centre:

  (f) Enterprise Connect – Staff as at 12 October 2011:

* Business Advisers may be located at a site other than the Centre in which they report.

  (g)   No. Not all Enterprise Connect staff are members of the APS. Contractors are also included in the table above.

Business Enterprise Centres (BEC) are funded under the Small Business Advisory Services grant program. Thirty-six BEC receive grants over four years from 2008 to 30 June 2012. A further BEC is funded until March 2013. All BEC organisations have entered into a Funding Agreement with the Commonwealth. BEC organisations and their staff are not part of the department.

(6) (a) and (b) The Departmental budget to deliver the Small Business Advisory Services program for the financial years 2011-12 and 2012-13 is as follows:

(c) See table below. Funding is provided to each BEC to expand and strengthen their capacity to provide low cost advisory service to small businesses. Compliance during the funding period is monitored through performance reports and audit reports:

(d) Yes. BEC offices are not part of the department.

(e) No. This is not required to be provided to the department as part of the funding agreement.

(f) Nil.

(g) Not applicable.

(7) (a) and (b) The departmental administrative allocation for the Small Business Support Line for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years are as follows (a breakdown of the expenditure is not available):

  (c)   The number of departmental staff allocated to the Small Business Support Line in 2011-12 is 3.0 ASL. In addition, a third party service provider has been engaged to provide the Small Business Support Line service. The provider is responsible for ensuring the support line is appropriately staffed to meet demand and service quality standards. On average, the SBSL has around 10 agents, one team leader and one team manager to deliver the service working for the provider.

  (d)   All departmental staff are located in Canberra. All third party service provider staff are located in Sydney.

  (e)   The number of calls received in each year since the program was launched in September 2009 are as follows:

(8) (a)   The departmental administrative allocation for Business.gov.au are as follows:

  (b)   

  (c)   10 Binara Street, Canberra ACT 2601.

  (d)   7.15 FTE. No contract staff work on this program.

(9) (a) and (b) As part of the COAG reform agenda and National Partnership to deliver a seamless national economy, a national business names registration system will be established. COAG signed an intergovernmental agreement for this project in July 2009.

A referral of powers from the States to the Commonwealth is required. Pending passage of legislation, the national business names registration system is expected to be operational by mid next year. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will be responsible for administering the system.

The funding allocation for the department as lead policy agency for the Project and with responsibility for delivering the business online services component, was outlined in two disclosures in the department's Portfolio Budget Statement (PBS) 2010-11, as follows:

Australian Business Number/Business Names Registration Project—Expansion

  (c) 10 Binara Street, Canberra ACT 2601.

(10) (a) and (b) The departmental administrative allocation for Commercialisation Australia for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years are as follows (a breakdown of the expenditure is not available):

  (c) The program is managed from the department's Canberra office and delivered through AusIndustry State Offices in partnership with Commercialisation Australia Case Managers. AusIndustry State Offices are located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart and Canberra.

  (d)   The number of staff allocated to Commercialisation Australia in 2011-12 is 54.6 ASL. In addition, there are 23 Case Managers, private sector contractors selected on the basis of their experience in commercialising innovation and growing start-up businesses, who deliver assistance and advice to participants. The Case Managers are funded from the administered allocation for the program.

(11) (a) AGP is not managed by the department. AGP is managed by CSIRO's Intellectual Property and Licensing (IPL) team. The associated costs are absorbed by the IPL team and as CSIRO does not classify expenses for this program as a discrete item, any calculation of costs incurred would need to be undertaken manually and it would not be cost effective to do this.

  (b) See 11(a).

  (c) The program is managed from the CSIRO Parkville office in Melbourne, however, CSIRO Commercialisation Managers are located in Sydney at North Ryde and Melbourne at Parkville, and CSIRO Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) Managers are located in every state. All of these managers are involved in promoting and working with the SMEs.

  (d) Approximately 12 people, however they spend a small fraction of time specifically on the management of AGP. It is estimated that the actual amount of time spent on the AGP is approximately equivalent to 1.5 FTE.

(12) (a) and (b) The departmental administrative allocation for Venture Capital Limited Partnerships for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years are as follows (a breakdown of the expenditure is not available):

  (c)   10 Binara Street, Canberra ACT 2601.

  (d)   The number of staff allocated to Venture Capital Limited Partnerships in 2011-12 is 0.6 ASL.

(13) (a) The administrative cost for the Trade Measurement program for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years are as follows:

(b)   The expense is for general administrative staff and consists of:

(c)   The Trade Measurement program is run from 29 sites across Australia, including Regional Offices in each capital city other than Canberra. The program's central administration is undertaken in Lindfield, NSW. All of NMI's locations are listed in the 2010-11 Department of Innovation Industry, Science and Research Annual Report.

(d)   Currently there are 106 staff (full time equivalents) for the Trade Measurement program.

(14) (a)   The Supplier Access to Major Projects (SAMP) program is administered by Industry Capability Network Limited (ICNL). The department manages funding agreements with ICNL in relation to the SAMP program. The department's administrative costs in administering SAMP is estimated as $101,367 for 2011–12. Budget allocations have not yet been made for 2012–13.

  (b)   

  (c)   10 Binara Street, Canberra ACT 2601.

  (d)   0.9 ASL

(15) (a) The budget funded activities for the division of the National Measurement Institute (less Trade Measurement and NETS programs) are.

It should be noted that NMI charges for the measurement services it provides, in accordance with the Government's Cost Recovery Guidelines and competitive neutrality requirements.

  (b)   Breakdown for administrative expense:

  (c)   The Measurement Services program is run from four locations:

Lindfield, NSW

Pymble, NSW

Port Melbourne, VIC

Kensington, WA

  (d)   Currently there are 170 staff (full time equivalents) for the budgeted funded activities in the division of National Measurement Institute (less Trade Measurement and NETS programs). In addition, contract staff (non-APS employees) are used to meet demand for measurement services. The number of contract staff will vary across the year. In August 2011, 17.8 contract staff worked on the program.

Attachment A

I&SBP Division Staffing Classification Summary

Actual Positions as of 17 October 2011