Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 8:48:10 to 8:53:36
The Office of Northern Australia discusses its role in coordinating projects across jurisdictions and the challenges of tracking delayed or abandoned initiatives managed by other agencies.
Topics: Infrastructure, Procurement
Speakers: Senator Susan McDonald, Lisa Rauter, Kynan Gowland, Hon Bridget McKenzie, Unknown Speaker
>> I have questions for Northern Australia.
Then we
>> I've also got questions, too. So,
>> well, yes, we can.
>> How long's your
officials a bit of a break because they've been go speaking non-stop for an >> As long as you're not in Northern Australia's portfolio area.
>> miss a change of gears. That's always >> keeps it fresh. Hey, >> thank you very much. >> I have questions on program 3.4 Growing a Stronger Northern Australia Economy.
Senator Con and Gallon, Assistant Secretary Office of Northern Australia.
>> Terrific. No doubt you have all read the absolutely wonderful Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia report that was published just recently. in it it identified poor coordination between the Commonwealth, states, territories and local councils as a barrier to project delivery. What specific work has the department undertaken over the four last past four years to address this?
Um Senator, we do have the Northern Australian Ministerial Forum uh which works across jurisdictions uh and we meet regularly with a working group under that uh ministerial forum to address coordination and collaboration across the jurisdictions. Uh and in terms of work with our local governments um that is generally through our local government area um another part of outcome three and we work with them through our regional development um Australia committees as well.
>> Do you think that's working?
>> There's always more that can be done or we have doing the most we can with the resources we have.
>> What resources does the growing a stronger northern Australia economy program have?
So what I can tell you is the staff that we have committed to the Office of Northern Australia. Um that the program that you mentioned is not a sort of standalone funded program. Um we obviously have the action plan for Northern Australia. Um and we do progress reports against that, but right now in terms of the Office of Northern Australia, we have 20 um 26 staff.
>> Right. So we'll hear more from them
Office of Northern Australia is here right now.
>> Oh, right. I thought, don't worry. Can the department identify projects in Northern Australia that have been delayed, stalled, or abandoned?
>> Uh, sorry, Senator.
>> So, often I come and ask questions about the lack of progress in Northern Australia. So, I'm specifically asking whether the Office of Northern Australia tracks projects that have been delayed. uh uh abandoned or
>> so so senator that we do not uh um track individual projects through delays um that you're referring I'm shi you're referring to obviously we have the um annual progress report that goes um reports against the action plan but that doesn't necessarily goes to the level of detail which I think you're after because we don't office of northern Australia don't own a lot of these programs. They they're by other government agencies or um also, you know, could be other parts of this department.
>> But isn't that the purpose of the Office of Northern Australia to work across agencies and to coordinate government effort?
>> Uh yes. Yes, Senator. Senator, we do,
but we don't have the resources to track each individual project because that would, to be honest, be a duplication of the effort that's already put in by the departments that are responsible for those projects. So, they are responsible for the delivery and the reporting to their respective ministers. The Office of Northern Australia does certainly uh enable the sharing of information across them. It coordinates the um action plan progress report, which is a a whole of government report. Um and we also support forums like the indigenous reference group, the Northern Australian ministerial forum and um and conferences and things like that that are head and and obviously supporting the relative min um the respective ministers. So we we don't track individual projects because they are tracked by their respective departments.
So the report's point was there is no coordination from the federal government and I appreciate that you flagged the ministerial council work with the local government area which is a separate part of the department but the point that I'm trying to get to is that northern Australia is languishing in a whole lot of government projects and money and whatnot but nobody actually driving a sort of coordinated what's going on and why has this not happened and how is the government not delivering on the action plan and so that that is the thrust of if the office of Northern Australia is not doing this work then I assume nobody is doing this work