The Strong Independents argue that the government must mandate the publishing of key government performance figures in the monthly newsletters that every ACT household receives.
The figures would be on the front page, easy to see and understand, and published twice a year.
The KPIs would include hospital emergency department waiting times; budget updates including current and projected debt levels and interest repayments; KPIs from urban services – streets repaired, parks maintained, paths built and repaired, garbage recycled, complaints dealt with, and so forth; literacy levels achieved in our primary schools; public housing waiting times and the number that are in good condition, in disrepair or vacant; services provided to people with disabilities and the needy; and other information. This would also have year comparisons so people could see whether performance has improved.
Treasury would be responsible for the publishing of KPIs, and the independent Auditor-General would oversee it.
“The Strong Independents know that transparency consists of communications that are informative, fit-for-purpose, professional and engaging,” Peter Strong AM and Ann Bray said. “Governments must be transparent, and do their utmost to be so. The Barr government fails in communications.
“We do know that a lot of people use government websites to access services. Few access other information or find it difficult to do so.
“We see on the Chief Minister’s web page [Cost of Living Budget Statement] there is a spelling mistake that is perhaps amusing, perhaps not, yet one that shows people do not read these pages. We all make mistakes; this mistake has been there for months.
“The page concerns the last Budget which was trumpeted as the “Cost of Living Budget’. In the second paragraph, it highlights the ‘cost of loving’. That this mistake has been on that page for so long shows that few access this information, not even the Chief Minister has noticed. This is a problem for a democracy.”
“The Barr government has become so entrenched and lazy that communications are unprofessional, often useless, and key performance information is difficult to access,” Mr Strong said. “That’s what happens after so long in power – disinterest and entropy.”
“Transparency is about letting people know – the good, the bad, the ugly, the wonderful,” Ms Bray said. “Currently, the government newsletters are basically propaganda, bragging about things the government either has done or might do sometime in the future. Tiny projects get mentioned but performance is ignored. Let’s give people the other facts – the real facts that they care about.”
“Just in case this wasn’t a mistake– we firmly believe the ‘cost of loving’ should not be a government concern,” Mr Strong added.
