Compared to the mental health workforce in most other Australian states and territories, the NSW workforce is more concentrated in acute hospitals for adult patients and is marginally smaller for its population. NSW Health increased its mental health workforce between 2006 and 2009. It has improved the geographical distribution of clinicians across the state to more closely match need. It has also increased the number of staff working with younger and older mental health patients. These are positive achievements in a time of financial stringency.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #210 - released 16 December 2010

NSW public sector sick leave is higher than other States. The NSW public sector has the highest reported public sector sick leave in Australia. Public sector efforts to reduce sick leave over the last five years has seen a fall of a quarter of a day since 2004-05, less than its target of one day. On average, public sector workers take just over eight days sick leave annually. Recent surveys of public and private sector organisations show that sick leave in the public sector is higher than the private sector.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #209 - released 8 December 2010

The report includes comments on his financial audits of NSW Government transport, planning and industry agencies for 2009-10. A key recommendation from the report is that the New South Wales Government identify lessons learnt from the metro experience and ensure that future decision processes are developed to ensure the State never again expends such a large amount of scarce transport funding dollars and valuable time on a project that does not proceed.

The report includes comments on his financial audits of NSW Government environment, climate change and water agencies. The audits of these agencies’ financial reports for the year ended 30 June 2010 resulted in one qualified Independent Auditor’s Report. Sydney Water has not recognised assets and liabilities of the Build-Own-Operate schemes in their statement of financial position. The combined profit after tax of the four largest water utilities increased substantially from $300 million in 2008-09 to $584 million in 2009-10. Distributions to the Government were $379 million up 17 per cent or $55 million from last year.

The report includes comments on NSW Treasury and agencies in the finance and superannuation sectors. The New South Wales public sector superannuation funds’ investments were $42.2 billion at 30 June 2010, up from $38.5 billion in 2009. Investment returns reached 14.5 per cent in 2009-10. This is a significant improvement on the investment returns of up to negative 18.4 per cent at the peak of the global financial crisis in 2008.
 

The final Budget result for 2009-10 was a surplus of $994 million, originally budgeted to be a $990 million deficit. If the Commonwealth Government’s capital stimulus funding had been excluded, the result would have been a deficit of $861 million. Employee costs (excluding superannuation costs) increased by approximately 3.5 per cent compared to 7.5 per cent in the prior year.
 
“I have issued a qualified Independent Auditor’s Report as the State has not recognised the value of Crown Reserves and the infrastructure on those reserves that should be recorded as an asset,” Mr Achterstraat said. 

The Government is not able to provide assurance that it is safeguarding its holdings of sensitive personal information because its policy has not been properly implemented. This is likely to remain the case until there are clear, mandatory, minimum standards that agencies sign up to, and scrutiny of performance against these standards is strengthened.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #207 - released 20 October 2010

We found that the contract process was satisfactory. Ambulance data show that the performance of CHC is meeting contract requirements with the exception of the availability of the Wollongong helicopter. Ambulance’s ability to transport patients to the right hospital at the right time has improved. However the cost of the new Greater Sydney helicopter contract is three times higher than before.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #206 - released 22 September 2010

The department has a systematic approach to receiving, investigating and responding to reports of pollution incidents. However, the department does not analyse and report on the extent of environmental harm caused by pollution incidents reported to it, whether its response has minimised harm to the environment, whether its regulatory approach has improved compliance, particularly by Environment Protection Licence (EPL) holders (licensees).

Parliamentary reference - Report number #205 - released 15 September 2010

The Museum is doing much to improve access to its collections. However, as with other natural history museums, only a small proportion is on public display. Its efforts range from placing information on the internet for use by the public and scientific users, to helping indigenous Australian and Pacific Islander communities reconnect with their respective cultures.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #203 - released 1 September 2010