Opposition questions the Premier on the abandonment of election commitment targets, linking it to a union deal. Premier denies the deal, citing inherited debt as the reason for current wages policy and highlighting ongoing performance indicator development for public servants.

AnsweredQoN 1059Legislative Assembly
Asked
14 November 2019
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

OUR PRIORITIES —
TARGETS
1059. Mrs L.M. HARVEY to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. Can
the Premier confirm that after two and a half years in office, his key public
accountability election commitment has been abandoned because of his deal with
the unions to stay quiet on the wages deal?

AnswerView source ↗

Obviously, the Leader of the
Opposition did not listen to me. I find it a common problem in question time
that members opposite do not listen to what was said. The Public Sector
Commissioner is working on key performance indicators for DGs, who are very
senior public servants. The Leader of the Opposition referred to a ''deal
with the unions''. I do not
understand how she can reach that conclusion. Obviously, we have a wages policy
that is relatively tight. As I have said, the only reason we have that
policy is that we inherited over $40 billion of Liberal–National debt.
That is the reason we have that wages policy, otherwise we would not have it.
Unfortunately, that is what the former government left us.
In
terms of key performance indicators for senior public servants, the Public
Sector Commissioner is clearly working on that, as I indicated six
months ago and was very public about. That process is ongoing. Obviously, each
year there are performance reports and
statements of objectives and the like that each minister has to sign with their
DGs . That process of accountability is ongoing and we are implementing
Our Priorities, which is designed to put in place targets for government to
solve the long-term intractable problems that the Western Australian public
sector has faced and ensure that directors
general and public servants across agencies work collaboratively and
cooperatively to resolve those issues.

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