Committee for Adelaide productivity report urges major public service review

Pinpointing better public service standards and efficiency is recommended in a key productivity report, which also aims to improve SA’s national share of high-wage jobs.

A full-scale public service review to cut red tape and accelerate decision making is urged in a Committee for Adelaide state productivity plan.

Exhorting industry to embrace innovation, technology and modern workplaces, the five-point plan aims to arrest Adelaide having a smaller share of high-wage jobs and lagging almost 20 per cent behind comparable cities in labour productivity.

Business leaders, including SA Productivity Commission chairman Adrian Tembel and Mitsubishi Motors Australia chief executive officer Shaun Westcott, are urging industry not to rely solely on government to address the slump.

Mitsubishi Motors Australia president and chief executive officer Shaun Westcott. Picture: Russell Millard

The Committee for Adelaide, an independent, nonpartisan think tank, recommends the root-and-branch public sector review to pinpoint and implement “resource efficiencies across government departments”.

This would include improving service standards, accelerating regulatory approvals and embedding “a greater culture of innovation, accountability and productivity”.

The Five-Point Plan to Boost Productivity’s recommendations also include boosting investment in technology and positioning Adelaide as an AI world leader.

Committee for Adelaide chief executive officer Sam Dighton. Picture: James Elsby

Mr Westcott said both business and government needed to “look in the mirror and say: ‘How do we improve our productivity, efficiency and effectiveness?”.

“A good example of that is the current housing crisis. There is such a shortage of houses … and yet the red tape and the bureaucracy means that approvals are as slow as ever,” he said.

“That’s just one example of many aspects of approvals that are so slow, so tedious and take so long there is opportunity for government to improve the effectiveness, the efficiency and the productivity.”

South Australian Productivity Commission chairman Adrian Tembel. Picture: Matt Loxton

Committee for Adelaide chief executive officer Sam Dighton said Adelaide had to be vigilant in the global race for talent, ensuring that long-held advantages in lifestyle and affordability did not erode as other cities were clearly catching up.

“It’s clear that South Australia’s productivity challenge cannot be solved by government alone. Industry also have a role to play in embracing and investing in technology, modernising workplaces and embedding a greater culture of innovation, continuous improvement and renewal,” he said.

Mr Tembel, also Thomson Geer Lawyers chief executive partner, challenged fellow business leaders to “look at the productivity challenges as a joint responsibility with government”.

“Too often, the productivity agenda is always through the prism of what government needs to do,” he said

“To an extent that’s true, but it also is an important responsibility of all business and public sector decision makers.”