The NSW Opposition has moved to stop the Berejiklian Government from sneakily attempting to privatise Service NSW and prevent the flow of sensitive customer data into the hands of private organisations.
Labor moved a disallowance motion in the NSW Parliament to stay the regulations that enable seven companies to become “private providers” of Service NSW, which will be debated today.
Service NSW is the “one stop shop” for people to renew licences, apply for gun permits and certificates, sit tests or make complaints about government services. It is the shopfront for about 40 government agencies.
Finance Minister Victor Dominello slyly gazetted the information last week, without any consultation or notice.
Among the seven companies that can now take on the Service NSW work is the British-headquartered global services giant Serco, a California-based company, Concentrix Services, which specialises in identifying and maximising “revenue generation” opportunities, and two companies that have Philippines-based call centres, Stellar Asia Pacific and Telco Services Australia, and even the company that collects debt on behalf of Centrelink, Probe Group.
The disallowance motion by Labor in the Upper House – put forward by Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Adam Searle – seeks to have the regulations overturned.
What about all the people who work for Service NSW???
where will they work now?? because I’m pretty sure these private companies will want to employ their own cheap labour….
What a rort NSW Government, what a SCAM!!! selling our information to who knows who!!!
Tina S – Newcastle Australia
Should any government be able to sell public services/assets without consultation with voters for example a one page notice of intention to privatise in newspapers/facebook/tweeter etc. Should we have the right to oppose such action? Having been exposed to 3 councils amalgamation (Leichhardt Marrickville, Ashfield) and now that, I am more and more wondering about the real meaning of democracy
Quite simply NSW is #NotForSale. Part of the role of Governments, Local, State and Federal, is to PROVIDE SERVICES which in this case is the issuing of Licences, Disability Parking Permits, Firearm and Fishing Permits, to take relivent tests for these Legal Documents and to complain about the lack of, down-grading of government services.
We must stop all levels of governments from privatising services, which has and will continue to prove inadequate and expensive for governments (as they loose revenue) and citizens (as cost will increase) alike!