1.2 Government Plan 1998-2001

Vision and outcomes

The Government identified its priorities for their current term in the 1998-99 Budget. The Government Plan covers a vision for the Government, the outcomes for the term and the key areas the Government will target. The measures of success used to assess the achievement of outcomes have been clearly identified. These may be varied over the period as the measures are refined. The vision for the Government is:

A clever, caring capital

The vision is relevant to our time and the ACT community as we enter the 21st century. ‘Clever’ recognises the ACT as an intelligent hub and ‘Clever’ is how the Government, agencies and the private sector will do business and seek solutions. This also recognises ‘Clever’ leaders in information technology in Australia. ‘Caring’ recognises being part of a community, and fairness and opportunity. ‘Capital’ recognises the unique characteristics of Canberra as the national capital of Australia.

The Government has also identified three outcomes for this term. The outcomes describe where improvement will be made and value added to the community as a result of Government strategies:

a clever caring capital diagram

Measures of success

It is important that the Government reports to the community on the performance of the strategies in achieving these outcomes. The ACT Budget Papers have set out measures of success on which the Government will report at the end of its term. The measures will allow the community to assess how Government activities are influencing the achievement of the outcomes identified by Government. The measures of success use community surveys, customer feedback, focus groups, ABS data, etc. to develop reports on the Government’s performance against outcomes. The measures of success are:

Table 1.2.1

Measures of success

Outcomes	Impact	Measures of success
A healthy, safe, diverse and contributing community	Personal and social fulfilment Environment	Population growth, interstate migration Unemployment rate Education levels and participation rates Participation in sport and recreation Personal income Participation in cultural groups and associations Life expectancy Satisfaction and perception of community safety Community voluntarism
	Environment	Achievement of greenhouse gas targets State of Environment indicators
A dynamic, sustainable economy	Business and investment	New jobs created New business established
	Tourism	Visitor nights Private capital and consumption expenditure Government capital and consumption expenditure Pride in Canberra
Accessible, cost effective services	Accessibility, benefit, choice	Satisfaction with service performance and provision Opportunity and fairness Internet users

Key result areas

An integral part of the Government Plan is the development of Key Result Areas (KRAs). For the first time the Government has explicitly set out its targets and will report on their achievement.

The vision and the outcomes with their measures of success provide the long term focus for the ACT and guide the Government’s activities each year. The KRAs set out below provide the more immediate objectives of the Government, and they describe the specific initiatives and strategies that the Government will achieve in this term.

Eliminate the operating loss by the 2004-05 Budget.
Provide for the superannuation liability by the 2001-02 Budget.
Provision of most government transactions online by 2001.
Achieve for 95% of Year 10 students in Government Schools certified to gain IT competencies by 2001.
Develop an integrated health care system supported by a unique customer identifier by 2001.
Improve community safety and increase police visibility by reducing police time lost on administrative activity by 10%.
Build civic pride and strengthen the ACT economy by developing and conducting a major strategy to attract business and tourism.
Reduce greenhouse gas emission levels in line with 1990 levels by 2008.
Continue the redevelopment of the city centre and increase public participation in the city heart.
Introduce a more contestable public sector.
Make Canberra a leader in IT for both the public and private sectors by 2001