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The Premier’s latest announcement of a new phone number to access government services shows the Iemma Government has run out of ideas, Shadow Minister for Commerce Mike Baird said today.
“The Premier announcing a new phone number and website as a ‘major initiative’ is a sad reflection of the standard of government we currently have in NSW,” Mr Baird.
“Thanks for the phone number, Morris, but what about delivering free wireless in the CBD as promised?
“You have to start questioning the whole Department of Commerce if their greatest announcement is a phone number.
“All we’ve seen from the Department of Commerce recently is failed wireless in the CBD, the debacle of the Bathurst hospital upgrade and an amalgamation that is delivering no benefits*.
“The Minister for Commerce said the new website will be continually updated to provide the latest information**, which is something businesses do every day as a matter of course.
“The Department of Commerce is supposedly cutting the state’s annual telecommunications bill by more than $50 million a year through its PeopleFirst plan.
“However, the Department admitted through FOI that it does not know how much the government is currently spending on telecommunications***.
“It seems difficult to make claims about cost savings when there is no record of the current spend?
“It is obvious the Premier needs a good news story but the public deserve more than this. Updating websites and centralising phone numbers is something a government should do without fanfare.”
MEDIA: Lisa Harrington - 0406 726 880
* Auditor General report ‘Managing Departmental Amalgamations’ (5 March 08), “We found that Commerce has a diversity of customers and services basically unchanged since pre-amalgamation” (pg 2)
** Premier’s News Release ‘One stop shop connecting NSW’ (19 August 2008)
*** Department of Commerce response to FOI request (14-12-07): “the Department of Commerce does not hold whole of government cost of NSW telecommunications services”
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