Quality services

Through building quality relationships, the Department of Finance leads interagency collaboration to champion the efficient operation of government.

Economic Reform’s Regulatory Gatekeeping Unit significantly streamlined and revitalised its cross government services to provide a greater focus on regulatory outcomes, initiating a culture of regulatory best practice.

These changes were developed in consultation with agencies, providing a foundation for partnership and collaboration on regulatory development and review. Economic Reform developed tailored training programs and a revised preliminary impact assessment template to aid this process. As a result of these initiatives, early engagement with agencies on reform and policy matters increased.

In its commitment to deliver quality services in the most effective and efficient manner, State Revenue collaborated with the Department of Treasury to successfully design and implement amended legislation to the tax laws it administers.

Both the Taxation Legislation Amendment Act 2015 and Taxation Legislation Amendment Act (No. 2) 2015 came into force this year, introducing changes to tax exemptions for certain charitable bodies and primary producers to ensure concessions are provided to taxpayers genuinely in need of relief.

The design of the legislation minimised the administrative burden of associated changes on taxpayers, while still meeting the Government’s overarching policy objectives.

State Revenue is committed to not only designing effective taxation legislation but also meeting the needs of its customers. Providing accredited, compulsory professional development (CPD) courses for licensed real estate agents, business agents, sales representatives and settlement agents was just one of the ways the Department continued to meet the needs of its customers this year.

State Revenue developed and ran a number of courses including learning modules on transfer duty, Revenue Online, land tax and the first home owner grant.

The courses were well attended, providing participants with a two-way forum to voice concerns, ask questions and receive advice from technical experts. In return, these courses provided the Department with greater insight into the core issues facing its customers.

This year, 2,530 people participated in customer education courses, including the CPD sessions. This represents a 90 per cent increase in participation from 2013-14.

The Parkerville bushfire in early 2014 provided the impetus for the Public Utilities Office to collaborate with EnergySafety to address gaps in the regulatory framework where a privately owned power pole was identified as the fire cause by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services. The partnership saw the recommendation of several legislation changes to address ambiguities around the responsibilities and obligations of network operators and EnergySafety. The result was the development of a coordinated government response encouraging behaviour change by property owners with privately owned power poles and lines. In an ongoing climate of economic change, the Government’s decision to realise efficiencies regarding the size and borrowings of its State vehicle fleet has been managed by the Department’s Government Procurement State Fleet team. As a result of significant agency engagement the Department has been able to identify and implement strategies to realise significant savings for government, while minimising the impact on day-to-day agency operations. As a result of this initiative, a reduction in fleet size and borrowings has been achieved.

Electricity Market Review gains momentum with Phase Two endorsed

The Department completed Phase One of the Electricity Market Review in response to concerns around increasing costs in the production and supply of electricity and related services.

Phase One examined the strengths and weaknesses of the current industry structure, market institutions and regulatory arrangements, and provided reform options to government to achieve a more cost-effective and efficient electricity sector. This included more opportunities for private sector investment. In March this year, the Minister for Energy released the Options Paper prepared by the Public Utilities Office, and launched the second phase of the review process, announcing a series of reform projects endorsed by government. These projects included measures to:

  • Enable residential and small business customers to choose their electricity retailer.
  • Transition to the national regulatory system for electricity networks.
  • Streamline the ways in which generators and demand side management providers receive price signals for the energy capacity they provide, to reduce surplus capacity in the market.
  • Improve the governance of the rule-change process for the wholesale electricity market.

The Public Utilities Office is now working on a detailed design framework for these identified reforms, work which will continue into the next financial year.