Former NSW secretary to the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation Martin Hoffman has been tapped by the Commonwealth to develop a new plan for the way that government delivers services.
Mr Hoffman will lead a taskforce within the newly-created Services Australia that will develop “a comprehensive strategic plan” over the next six weeks for reforming service delivery.
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert said the appointment was a first step in delivering a reform program that would change the way Australians engage with government.
Services Australia was created following the re-election of the Morrison Government largely as a renaming of the former Department of Human Services. Mr Hoffman’s taskforce will help define a possible restructuring of the way the organisation delivers services.
The highly-regarded Mr Hoffman was most recently Finance secretary in NSW but was left without a department to lead after Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s consolidated the number of departments in the state from 10 to eight following the March election.
Much of the former DFSI was subsumed into a newly-created Department of Customer Service under Minister Victor Dominello and secretary Glenn King, who had previously run a behavioural analytics unit within the Premier’s department.
As Finance secretary Mr Hoffman oversaw the implementation from mid-2015 of NSW’s digital strategy, including the roll-out of the highly-successful delivery agency Service NSW. The NSW government is regularly touted as a leader globally in digital service delivery.
Government Services minister Stuart Robert said that establishing Services Australia to put people at the centre of government “is one of the Morrison Government’s highest priorities”.
“The Prime Minister has made it a priority to ensure dealing with government is faster and easier for all Australians by putting them at the very centre of service delivery,” Minister Robert said.
“In those important moments when Australians reach out for government services they rightly expect a simple and seamless interaction. Services Australia will be outcomes focused and will put in place the right structure needed to deliver that experience,” he said.
“Over the next six weeks, Mr Hoffman and his team will develop a comprehensive strategic plan to deliver on our commitment to service delivery reform for the benefit of all Australians.
“He brings a wealth of experience to the role, including an extensive understanding of Service NSW’s customer-centric design, as well as a strong background in successful delivery of customer-focused services.”
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