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Liberals turn to Turnbull
Brendan Nelson’s attempt to silence his detractors has back-fired, with Shadow Treasurer Malcolm Turnbull emerging as the new Federal Opposition leader this morning.
Nelson last night put the Liberal leadership up for grabs, calling a surprise ballot in an attempt to catch Turnbull - who only returned from an Italian holiday on the weekend - off guard in the wake of growing unrest within party ranks over who would be best to lead the party.
"I am asking our Party to draw a line in the sand and mark a transition - from the difficult aftermath of an election defeat to the building and presentation of a credible, attractive and inspiring alternative government," Nelson said last night on announcement of his decision.
"In doing so, we will make a renewed commitment to unity and discipline, to focus less on internal preoccupations and more on the Rudd Government, policy and the important issues concerning everyday Australians."
It was a big risk for Nelson, who only beat Turnbull to the leadership by three votes after John Howard’s exit from politics in November last year.
But it seems he failed to present as a "credible, attractive and inspiring" leader to his own party, with the votes this time swinging 45 to 41 in Turnbull's favour.
Some experts suggest part of the swing could have resulted from Nelson’s threats of a front-bench "clean out" of those undermining him if he was to be re-elected as Opposition Leader.
But there is still an element of risk for the Coalition in electing Turnbull, with the former barrister-turned-merchant banker at times perceived by the public to be out of touch with working Australians and only interested in looking after the interests of his ‘wealthy’ electorate.
This is a line the Labour Government has pursued his promotion to the Howard front bench in 2006.
Turnbull this morning tried to dismiss this perception, saying he was "humbled" by the experience, and that despite his successes, he was not born into wealth, rather raised by a single parent, renting flats and struggling to earn money.
Julie Bishop will remain as Deputy Opposition Leader.
Nelson says he is committed to defeating the Rudd Government at the next election, and will not be leaving politics.
He has confirmed will not be mounting another leadership challenge before the next election.
Tuesday 16 September 2008
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BREAKING NEWS: NSW A-G calls for shake-up of bus contracts
The NSW Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat today called for improvements in the management of Sydney metropolitan bus services after identifying significant performance issues.
The NSW Audit Office’s Improving the Performance of Metropolitan Bus Services report found significant advances have been made as a result of the Unsworth review in 2004, with new bus contracts, a network improvement program, strategic corridors, and uniform bus fares and concessions.
But there remain major performance issues. Wide variations in service levels exist, with privately operated services less frequent and less accessible than publicly run services, he says.
"A survey last year showed that one in four bus users said they were left standing at the bus stop at least once a week, and one in three wanted to catch a bus at times when the services had stopped operating," says Achterstraat. "This performance is not good enough."
Achterstraat also found a wide disparity in the costs of operating metropolitan bus services, with some regions costing just over $4 per kilometre compared with almost $10 per kilometre in other regions.
"With bus contracts worth $5.6 billion over seven years, the public is entitled to value for money," he says.
"Contracts were directly negotiated with existing operators and not through an open competitive tender process. This may prove more costly to the public."
The report found that while new contracts provided for a performance management regime to hold operators accountable, this system is still being developed four years after the bus contracts came into effect and remains unproven as a basis for ensuring value for money from the contracts - each of which guarantees monopoly rights to the operators.
No penalties for operator performance failure have been applied, although the contract does allow for penalties, the office states.
It says this is particularly significant as: services are not always reliable; there are wide variations in service levels, with services in privately operated areas likely to be less frequent and less accessible; the new bus contracts were negotiated with existing operators, using a cost and profit benchmarking process, in the absence of a competitive tender.
"For the bus user this means that poor performance and poor service may go unnoticed. For the tax payer it means that bus services may be more costly than they need to be," the report states.
Achterstraat levels much of the blame with the NSW Department of Transport and Infrastructure (NSWTI).
The report points out NSWTI has no overarching business plan and has set few clear performance objectives in relation to bus services, making it difficult to establish a performance linkage with operator business plans and to gauge its success in driving performance improvements.
The proposed new performance assessment regime will be limited to using data already available and will not cover many areas of performance important to bus users, it adds.
"NSWTI relies on the bus operators self-reporting using their own existing systems to collect and report on operational and performance data. It has control measures in place, but this information carries a risk that need to be addressed," the report states.
To improve performance, the Audit Office recommends that, ahead of the next round of contracts, NSWTI further increases pressure to improve performance and drive costs down by:
- Specifying a range of performance objectives for each contract region (eg cost per passenger kilometre, service quality and accessibility) with a clear focus on the needs of bus users
- Comprehensively benchmarking performance to hold bus operators accountable, with penalties for poor performance
- Strengthening controls on operator self-reporting to ensure that performance information is accurate
- Conducting more frequent bus customer satisfaction and usage surveys, including the use of ‘mystery shoppers’.
In response to the report, NSWTI says it is working to develop a model for the renewal of bus contracts that are due to start expiring from December 2011. These contracts will specify levels of performance required of bus operators.
To assist in managing current bus operator performance as well as preparing for the contract renewal process, NSWTI is undertaking a bus contract benchmark exercise. Benchmarks include a mixture of cost and service quality KPIs, including total cost per service kilometre; boardings per service kilometre; early and late trips from departure; early and late trips at mid-point; complaints per 100,000 boardings; customer satisfaction; and average number of Heavy vehicle Inspection Scheme (HVIS) failures per bus per annum.
NSWTI has also convened a National Bus Performance Benchmarking Group to establish a system of measures for cross-jurisdictional comparison and to understand why differences might occur.
Additionally, it has engaged an independent auditor to audit the metropolitan bus service contracts. This audit will be expanded to include the auditing of bus operator self-reported performance data.
To read the report in full click here.
Wednesday 10 March 2010
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