Overview

The Directorate provided advice and direction across the ACT Public Service on complex policy matters, incorporating a central agency coordination role in strategic planning, regulation reform, social and economic policy, spatial planning, regional policy and strategy and across government information.

CMTD supported the Chief Minister and Cabinet through the provision of policy and support.  The Director-General was Secretary of Cabinet, and CMTD provided Cabinet secretariat functions and advice.  CMTD also provided secretariat and policy support to the ACT Public Service Strategic Board chaired by the Director-General as Head of Service.

CMTD supported the Chief Minister representing the ACT at intergovernmental forums, notably the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the Council for the Australian Federation (CAF).  The Directorate managed and coordinated the ACT's relationships with other jurisdictions, most significantly with the Commonwealth and NSW Governments, and surrounding local councils which are members of the South East Regional Organisation of Councils (SEROC).

Highlights

Against this Output in 2013-14 the Directorate:

• provided secretariat services to Cabinet and the ACT Public Service Strategic Board, including supporting the Chief Minister and Head of Service in their roles of Chair;
• supported the ACT's participation in COAG and CAF through provision of strategic and tactical advice to the Chief Minister and Cabinet, participation in COAG Senior Officials' meetings, ongoing coordination and policy development for national reform initiatives, policy support for across government working groups and participation in national working groups;
• supported the ACT's involvement in the activities of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, through:
  • preparation of submissions to Royal Commission issues papers on Working with Children Checks, Towards Healing, Preventing Sexual Abuse of Children in Out of Home Care, and Statutory Victims of Crime Compensation Schemes,
  • coordination of the response to a Notice to Produce relating to the statutory victims of crime scheme and established a cross governmental working party to support public hearings held during June 2014, and
  • provision of support for a public forum in advance of the hearings;
• delivered projects relating to the ACT's regulatory environment, including:
  • the Red Tape Reduction Legislation Amendment Bill 2014, introduced in the Legislative Assembly on 5 June 2014, which aims  to reduce red tape to businesses and the community through better regulatory processes,
  • the ACT Government's economic stimulus package for the building and construction industry, which includes the release of civil contracts for estate works, changes to lease variation charges, significant reduction in extension of time charges relating to commencement and completion development fees, and the drafting of legislation to facilitate major projects across the ACT, and
  • chairing the Regulatory Reform Panel, which is the Government's key forum for working with the ACT business community to identify regulatory reform priorities and opportunities;
• commissioned a series of research projects including:
  • mapping the regulatory burden faced by firms within the hospitality, building and construction and higher education sectors, including surveying individual businesses concerning their experience of regulation,
  • developing an econometric model to estimate the costs associated with potential new regulatory interventions, and
  • surveying general public awareness of the Government's regulatory activities, perceptions of 'over-regulation' and experiences of regulation in respondents' employment or personal lives;
• coordinated the free public wi-fi project, launched by the Chief Minister on 29 May 2014;
• supported the development of the Government's Digital Canberra Action Plan, available from digitalcanberra.com.au, which sets out initiatives for Canberra to accelerate the development of a high growth digital economy;
• facilitated ICT capacity-building workshops, in partnership with the Canberra Business Council, on 'Trends in Digital and Web Design';
• supported the development of the Mobile Canberra app detailing amenities around Canberra;
• supported the establishment of the ACT Vice-Chancellors' Forum and coordinated two delegations to China to promote Canberra as a higher education study destination;
• supported the establishment of a Chair of Cancer Research at the Australian National University, to be located at the John Curtin School of Medical Research and The Canberra Regional Cancer Centre, enhancing collaborative projects between Cancer Centre clinicians and cancer researchers at the John Curtin School;
• continued implementation of the ACT-NSW MoU for Regional Collaboration, including commissioning the final project - Industry Investment and Attraction Framework - under the Greater Capital Regional Initiative; which profiled the attributes of people considering investing in the economic development of the Greater Capital Region, identified future regional employment opportunities and detailed how the framework can interact with existing regional tourism and marketing strategies;
• led ACT Government's participation in the SEROC projects, including a cross jurisdictional data project with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, regional marketing opportunities leveraging the Brand Canberra initiative and regional advocacy with federal government representatives of the region;
• updated population trend data for the ACT, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data releases; and
• coordinated development of directorates' transformational service advice which sets out key medium to long term reform proposals to better use technology and transform services.

The Directorate met all of the Output 1.1 accountability indicators, exceeding the target of supporting four COAG and CAF meetings by one due to an additional CAF meeting being held on 18 May 2014.

Future Directions

In 2014-15, the Directorate will:

• continue to provide high quality, objective strategic and tactical advice to the Chief Minister and Cabinet on decisions before government;
• advise Cabinet on the implementation of decisions across the public service, including options for delivery where required;
• continue to drive the government's reform agenda, including in the areas of regulation, digital and service redesign;
• provide policy support as required to directorates on complex matters; and
• provide ongoing support to facilitate regional and intergovernmental relationships.

Further Information can be obtained from:

Dave Peffer
Deputy Director-General
Policy and Cabinet Division
+61 2 6207 6136