Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Attorney-General, upon notice, on 29 August 2011:

Has the department contracted the services of Incept Labs for the development of a list of research projects; if so:

(a) why were these services required;

(b) what was the brief given to Incept Labs;

(c) why was a list of projects developed; and

(d) at what level was the procurement of services authorised.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Attorney-General has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(a) The Australian Government's Critical Infrastructure Resilience Strategy (the Strategy) was released in June 2010, articulating two key policy objectives:

(i) Critical infrastructure owners and operators (including the Australian Government) are effective in managing foreseeable risks to the continuity of their operations, through an intelligence and information led, risk informed approach; and

(ii) Critical infrastructure owners and operators enhance their capacity to manage unforseen or unexpected risk to the continuity of their operations, through an organisational resilience approach.

This second objective is a new body of work and a new concept for Australian business, including owners and operators of critical infrastructure. It is important that owners and operators are provided with guidance on organisational resilience to develop a common understanding of the concept, and a shared objective – that of the overall resilience of Australia's critical infrastructure to all hazards.

Therefore, as one of the projects under the Strategy, the Attorney-General's Department procured the services of Incept Labs Pty Ltd (Incept) to investigate the breadth of research and analysis currently available on organisational resilience and, through consultation with key critical infrastructure stakeholders, develop a list of future research projects that would help to fill knowledge and information gaps in this policy area. Incept was also required to conduct a feasibility study into options for an organisational resilience mentoring program which would serve to propagate a common understanding of and practice in organisational resilience, and a business awards program to recognise business excellence in this area.

(b) Incept was required to interview up to 50 (fifty) CEOs to determine their understanding of organisational resilience and identify gaps in this understanding which would translate to possible future research projects. In addition, Incept was to undertake an environmental scan of research institutions conducting research into fields related to organisational resilience, and consult with research funding bodies to explore and identify avenues to progress organisational resilience-related research projects. Further, Incept was asked to review existing business awards and mentoring programs to assess the feasibility of developing similar stand alone programs to promote the concept and practice of organisational resilience.

(c) The interviews with CEOs could be considered baseline research to assess the level of understanding Australian CEOs have regarding the relatively new concept of organisational resilience. Through this process, gaps in CEO understanding of the concept can be identified, and projects can then be developed in a targeted way to fill these gaps. In this way, the list of projects identified by Incept contributes to Strategic Imperative 2 of the Strategy: Develop and promote an organisational resilience body of knowledge and common understanding of organisational resilience.

(d) The procurement of services was authorised at the Assistant Secretary (SES1) level.