Deputy Premier and Commerce Minister Carmel Tebbutt is unsure how many millions the NSW Labor Government has spent creating one website and phone number and doesn’t know whether the service is working, Shadow Minister for Commerce Mike Baird said today.

“This is Labor Government waste at its worst. Treasury costings estimate the NSW Labor Government has spent around $11 million building one website and call centre and the Deputy Premier has no idea how many people have used the service and doesn’t believe it’s delivering any efficiency savings,” Mr Baird said.

“Ms Tebbutt said in Budget Estimates Hearings the central website and phone number launched by the former Premier in August as a ‘One Stop Shop’ was ‘not an efficiency measure’.

“Neither the Minister nor the Director General could say what measures are in place to ensure the service is delivering any benefits to the people of NSW.”

Connecting NSW is a single phone number (133 679) and website (nsw.gov.au) launched by the NSW Government two months ago as a central point for accessing services.

“According to the Minister, the website and phone number is about ‘improving services for the community of NSW’.

“However, she wants us to take her word for it that it’s working – that isn’t good enough.

“Every time we called the so-called One Stop Shop asking pretty basic questions, we were given other phone numbers to call – that’s not exactly a one-stop shop.

“Treasury’s costings for the new service included redundancy pay-outs of almost $2 million for the first year of operation, with 52 weeks of redundancy offered to each employee. This is an outrageous offering and even the Minister agreed it ‘sounds high to me’.

“While the private sector spends $1.6 million running a call centre of the same capacity, the NSW Government has managed to inflate its bill to $11 million.

“So either the NSW Labor Government is wasting millions on a call centre or millions on a website. Meanwhile the State’s frontline workers have to fight to get a fair wage,” Mr Baird said.

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