Another black hole has emerged in the Rann Government’s claimed $130m in savings from its shared services centre proposal after evidence to a Parliamentary Committee from a senior public servant. The CEO of the Department of Families and Communities, Sue Vardon, this week gave evidence to the Legislative Council’s Budget and Finance Committee and stated…
DetailsLiberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas said today that Treasurer Kevin Foley had been left red-faced after an embarrassing blunder as he attempted to defend his beleaguered Shared Services Centre proposal. “In a statement issued to the media Mr Foley claimed that I had falsely stated that the State Government was trying to…
DetailsLiberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas today called on Premier Rann to clarify important details of a massive pay increase given to one of his key staff members. Yesterday’s Government Gazette revealed that Peter Chataway was given a $26,000 pay increase (16.8%) to a new pay level of $180,090. The Gazette notes that…
DetailsSome Rann Government ‘Spin Doctors’ and staff have just received massive pay increases of up to $26,000 per year and up to 16.8 per cent for one year. Liberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas said today that at a time when Premier Rann is fighting pay increases for nurses, dentists, psychiatrists and other…
DetailsLiberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas said today that Premier Rann and Treasurer Foley had refused for almost five months to answer questions in Parliament about frequent flyer points collected from travel by Rann Government Ministers. Last week in Federal Parliament all Federal Members were required to provide details of all frequent flyer…
DetailsA damning report by the West Australian Auditor General on the WA model of Shared Services centres had cast further doubt on the Rann Government’s claimed savings for a similar plan. Liberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas said today that a centrepiece of the Rann Government’s budget forward estimates are claimed savings of…
DetailsLiberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas said today that Treasurer Foley had chickened out by refusing to do the traditional post budget interview on ABC morning radio. Mr Foley this morning refused to be interviewed at the usual 8:30am-9:00am time slot by David Bevan and Matt Abraham on ABC Radio. “As a former…
DetailsThe striking feature of Mr Foley’s budget this year is that they are drowning in a sea of cash, yet there is no tax relief provided to long suffering families and first home purchasers, Mr Lucas said. “This year they have almost $4 billion a year more to spend than the former Liberal Government had…
DetailsLiberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas claimed today Mr Rann received legal advice that public statements he had made about a referendum on his promise to abolish the Legislative Council were wrong. Since November 2005, Mr Rann has been promising to conduct a ‘pick-a-box’ type referendum on the future of the Legislative Council…
DetailsLiberal Member of the Legislative Council Rob Lucas has today criticised Premier Rann’s priorities because he is cutting public service jobs everywhere, but not in Ministers’ personal offices. Mr Rann is wasting about $25 million over four years on an explosion in the number of ‘Spin Doctors’ and other Ministerial staff employed in Ministerial offices.…
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