There is a lot of work going on inside the public service in New Zealand around the idea of shared services. On the surface this looks like a good idea. There are sure to be efficiencies to be found in bringing together systems and some purchasing practices. But we need to go into this with our eyes open. For instance some of the government’s purchasing contracts are shutting out smaller New Zealand companies.
And now a second Australian state has run into trouble with trying to merge payroll, HR and finance systems. This time it is Western Australia where the government has been forced to pull the plug on the new state wide payroll and finance system. It was meant to cost $82 million to set up and save $50 million a year, instead it has cost $440 million since 2003, and “saved” $42 million over the whole eight years. Premier Colin Barnett has called it “one of the great bungles of public administration.” In Queensland there was another massive cost blowout when their new payroll system collapsed.
DIA is leading the work for some massive shared services projects here. The Health sector is alive with them. Treasury, SSC and DPMC are about to launch into a shared services arrangement. Other big arrangements are in the wind. There might well be good value in some of these but there should be a good dose of caution as well.
Posted in Shared Services, Australia and Public Services. |
So Bill English has given up when it comes to the New Zealand economy? That is how it sounded yesterday on Q and A. The wage gap with Australia is here to stay, and we should see it as a strategic advantage. As others have noted this is a far cry from the election campaign when the gap with Australia was the number one issue for National.
David Parker exposed all of this last year when pursuing Gerry Brownlee as to whether the wage gap had widened, which it has.
But this morning John Key has joined in with Bill English in flagging away an pretense of ambition for New Zealand. He is proudly stating that he opened a call centre on the North Shore as the way of the future. Is that as good as it gets? Is this ambitious for New Zealand?
You have heard Labour say a lot that the government does not have a plan for the economy. This is why. We need to invest in skills, training, innovation and clean technology to lift our economic performance. Through its tax cuts targeting the wealthy National’s vision is limited to their tired old faith in trickle down economics. It won’t work, we need an active government supporting the people and businesses who will grow our economy.
Posted in Wage gap, Economic Plan and Australia. |
Interesting to read Duncan Garner’s take on John Key’s answering on the wage gap between Australia and New Zealand
Yesterday’s performance in Parliament was too selective and too slippery for him to get away with. All the statistics show the gap between Australian wages and Kiwi wages is growing – but Key refused to accept it. He refused to admit it. In fact he went the other way – he said the gap is closing. It’s not, no matter which figures you focus on.
It was an interesting insight into the sensitivity of the government on this issue that Key would try to argue that black was white, when the numbers, even under his chosen construction pointed to the gap widening. It was a bit more than slippery too- it was a very deliberate attempt to mislead.
All of this began as a result of questioning on the absence of an economic plan from National to achieve their stated objective of catching up with Australia. This is a vitally important issue for the country. Concern about this is not only coming from our side of the political spectrum but also from those more closely aligned with the Nats.
Trans-Tasman, the political newsletter today devotes a significant amount of space to concern about the lack of courage in the Government’s programme noting that the obesession with a safety first approach is raising questions about the willingness to take the hard calls and saying poll driven leadership is raising questions about policy intentions.
Many months ago on this blog I described Mr Key as being ” all map and no compass”. As they say in the House, I stand by that statement.
Posted in Australia, Wages, Economy and National. |
