Honourable Members
Ladies and GentlemenIn my acceptance speech as Premier of the Western Cape on the 26th of April 2004, I said the following:
"Unity, cooperation and non-racialism among the people of the province are the keys to any success we may want to achieve. The next five years will see an unprecedented partnership … to ensure an economy capable of caring for all our people. Our vision [of a Home for All] will find expression in our strategy to grow and share the Cape called iKapa Elihlumayo, and our partnership will cohere around the outcomes of the Provincial Growth and Development Summit".
I said this four years ago, cognizant that the African National Congress inherited a government in the Western Cape that was institutionally weak, demographically unrepresentative, aligned only to business, oriented to the well-off, and without a coherent vision and strategy around which to galvanise all people in the Western Cape.
It was four years ago that we understood that a unifying vision should be underpinned by a real strategy for shared growth where the inequality between rich and poor, black and white, men and women, urban and rural is progressively diminished.
Mr Speaker, four years ago you were witness to the discourse we introduced in this House around the transformation of the Western Cape Government into a developmental state in order to realize our vision and strategy. You would recall that we defined such a developmental state as a Modern African State with a centre that exudes policy coherence and an ability to implement these policies through programmes, partnerships and budgets.
Today, we gather to assess whether the Department of the Premier has succeeded in creating such a policy coherence through the iKapa Growth and Development Strategy, whether our partnerships are working and whether our budgets reflect our policy priorities.
This portfolio Budget Speech will show that the state we inherited in 2004 is the proverbial aeroplane that is still being fixed while we are flying it through unduly turbulent times.
PROGRESS TOWARDS A DEVELOPMENTAL STATE
The Presidency has identified the key tasks of a developmental state as being to achieve higher rates of growth and development to address the challenges of poverty eradication, underdevelopment and inequality. It must have the strategic capacity to mobilize society around the development agenda.
From the vantage point of the Western Cape, we sought to mould the architecture of the developmental state around four key objectives we regard as the cornerstones of development. In 2004, I set them out as follows:
• A State that is first and foremost interventionist to ensure that public goods are provided to all citizens, market failures are addressed and people have their dignity restored.
• A State that is directive by providing a clear road-map for how we will address the many interrelated challenges that confront our economy and our communities.
• A State that is enabling so that citizens and organized groups can realize their ambitions, hopes and aspirations in a democratic society.
• A State that is supportive of the weak and vulnerable in our midst. It is obvious to us that whilst we work towards reconstructing our economy to generate meaningful employment, we need to provide safety nets for the vulnerable and destitute.
These objectives now need to be measured four years later to assess our success.
An Interventionist State
The Western Cape Growth and Development Summit of 2003 crafted a consensus between government, labour, business and community about our interventions to create work and fight poverty. Our tools for intervention were government’s ability to regulate, budget, facilitate, and develop the basis for human resources.
A successful area of intervention has been in providing the soft and hard infrastructure to support economic growth in identified and prioritized sectors of the economy. As pointed out in the State of the Province Address, we reached a high point of 5.8% growth in GDP, the creation of 135 000 formal new jobs and 118 000 Expanded Public Works Programme jobs, and we have attracted 270 investment projects valued at R6.4 billion.
Our contributions, by way of intervention, included:
- the careful and strategic release of R252m worth of state property assets;
- The investment of R2.8bn to improve and extend the Province’s road infrastructure;
- The construction of 42 new schools in the Province and declaring 654 “no fee” schools;
- Transforming 55 schools into Maths and Science focus schools and equipping every high school with a computer laboratory;
- Investing R227m on recapitalizing FET colleges, thus ensuring that currently 60 000 students are learning vocational skills;
- Ensuring currently that historically disadvantaged individuals and companies now enjoy, through preferential procurement, a share of R1.6 billion of the total procurement budget of R2.7 billion;
- Assisting 38 121 SMME’s to become successful businesses; and
- Developing economic sector-specific interventions through MEDS in strategic industries in the Western Cape.
A Directive State
A directive state guides its social partners and society by developing, through consultative processes, a framework for development. In this regard, following the Growth and Development Summit of 2003, the Provincial Government launched a painstaking process towards the iKapa GDS which is now a Provincial White Paper.
This White Paper builds on the collection of Local Government Growth and Development Strategies, and is underpinned by the sub-strategies like the Strategic Infrastructure, Spatial Development, Human Capital, Micro-Economic Development and Human Settlement strategies and the lead interventions like World Cup 2010, climate change, second economy, and governance.
Similarly, the Social Transformation Programme is finding its realization in the 27 most vulnerable areas in the Province - areas struggling against poverty, unemployment, crime and drugs. In these areas communities are being brought in as full partners of government.
There is no doubt that both the iKapa-GDS and the Social Transformation Programme are critical ways in which the directive role of the developmental state is being realized.
A Citizen-enabling State
The developmental state enables citizens to interact robustly with government towards the implementation of shared goals and objectives.
The most visible form of the citizen-enabling role of the state is through the iZimbizo programme where citizens, in their thousands, communicate with government. This government has, over the four years, learnt how to incorporate the outcomes of iZimbizo in the process of prioritizing policy and budgeting for programmes.
Outside of iZimbizo, citizens are enabled to utilize the state through the Cape Gateway Portal (with about 1 million hits a month), the walk-in centre at 142 Long Street, and the call-in centre at 0860 142 142 (with over 7 000 enquiries about government).
In addition, eight e-Community Forums were established in the Province and at least six new e-Centres are being rolled out in rural areas this year as a source of government information.
Across 21 of our 27 Social Transformation Programme areas, government at National, Provincial and Local Government levels have combined their resources in rolling out service delivery jamborees where people can sort out documentation through Home Affairs, relief through the indigent policy and have various health checks, sign up for pensions and grants, and even get married.
All of these, have demystified government and brought information and officials from all three spheres of government right to the ground.
A Government Supportive of the Poor
A developmental state does not regard the market as the panacea for all socio-economic challenges. It certainly pursues economic growth, but seeks a variety of methods to ensure that the benefits of growth are shared. Primarily it seeks shared growth through participation in the economy, but it recognizes that in a context of structural inequality and economic exclusion, the developmental state would have to put in place safety nets for the economically vulnerable and excluded.
Already, the advances on establishing this safety net in our Province are substantial, as seen in our access to no-fee schools, social security, public primary health, basic services and subsidized housing.
Last year we advanced even on the provision of a safety net for the poor when we announced as Flagship Interventions in the 21 most vulnerable communities in the Western Cape.
Weighing up the reports following this year’s round of iZimbizo, Provincial Cabinet decided to add six new areas including Mossel Bay, Worcester, George, Atlantis, Greater Athlone and Bonteheuwel/Langa.
The focused action in all of these areas was outlined in the State of the Province Address and will be further supplemented by each Minister’s Budget Speech in the following days.
To date, 14 community intermediary structures are functional and the remaining ones are being organized urgently so that we can work systematically with those communities.
Our dedicated support to the most vulnerable in our communities can also be seen in our gradual shift towards building economic foundations in the 27 areas, through:
- Prioritizing them for skills development;
- Ensuring that the 27 areas will be allocated 1000 EPWP jobs each; and
- Ensuring that each area is supported with an economic development project to create decent work.
Our work towards these four objectives of the developmental state show increasing signs of integration, where government departments work off the common templates of the iKapa GDS White Paper and responsiveness where government allows the outcomes of, for example, iZimbizo, to shape critical programmes like the 27 social transformation areas.
This responsiveness is also seen in the fact that since the April 2007 iZimbizo where crime and drugs topped the list of iZimbizo issues and where government intervened, crime has now been superceded by dissatisfaction with municipal services and housing delivery. In housing, provincial government is responding through increased budgets, but housing evictions and water cuts is in another sphere of government.
Cooperative Governance is another feature of the developmental state and is institutionalized in law through, amongst others, the Inter-governmental Relations Framework Act. Since 2004, the relations between provincial and national government have improved and various points of synergy have emerged, despite robust debate with national government on the developmental role of Provinces and disappointment with the Equitable Share of the Western Cape budget. But on the whole the relationship has been constructive and co-operative and we are now seeking closer relations with State-Owned Enterprises that have significant footprints in our Province.
Since 2006, however, the stability of local Government in the Western Cape has been such that this sphere has been subjected to many changes in the Coalitions governing municipalities, many changes in Mayors and Mayco’s, the hiring and firing of Municipal Officials, and the regular occurrences of by-elections.
This political instability tends to negate some of the imperatives of co-operative governance, of alignment of IDP’s with the iKapa GDS, and synergy on critical delivery programmes like Public Transport.
Such constant instability and insecurity have manifested a paranoia and actions often inconsistent with the needs of good governance.
I have no doubt that as I speak now there is a critical relationship breakdown between Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town. This started many months ago when the City, despite not spending all of their capital budget, insisted on their constitutional right to implement the Public Transport Infrastructure programme, despite an IGR Forum agreement to do so under a Provincial Public Transport Authority.
More petty versions of such a breakdown can be seen in the City Mayor refusing to share platforms with the Premier. I have no doubt that this has to do with the Proclamation of the Erasmus Commission and the implacable opposition of the City Mayor to the Commission. I am absolutely prepared to accept any outcome of either the legal processes against the Commission, or the outcome of the Commission itself. I appeal to the Mayor to do the same.
But while we wait for these outcomes, we must remember that the public pay our salaries, and that the space for personal petulance is limited by the need to continue doing our work, much of which requires good co-operation between the Province and the City in the interest of citizens who need houses, services, a successful World Cup 2010, and good public transport. Our egos cannot be bigger than these duties we have to the citizens.
A Modern African Government must also be globally-connected. In pursuing this objective we have sought to remain within the ambit of national foreign policy - by under-pinning provincially what the national government has entered into nationally. At the same time we have sought to also pursue agreements and missions to countries which could be of benefit to the Western Cape in terms of trade, investment and tourism.
This has resulted in the Western Cape being a member of the Regional Leaders Forum, while at the same time, to underpin the IBSA Agreement, we are pursuing a relationship with Sao Paulo and Maharashtra. We are also, in the spirit of NEPAD, pursuing relations and missions in Africa as Africa experiences growing peace and democracy.
The Western Cape played a direct and successful role in SAA’s code-share agreement with Malaysia Airlines and in getting Emirates and Turkish Airlines to fly directly into Cape Town, resulting over the last few years in 442 475 visitors to our Province from Africa and the Middle East. In addition, 4 406 new hotel beds have been made available.
In recognition of the Western Cape Government’s strides towards a Developmental State, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has included the Western Cape in its comparative territorial reviews of 80 of the world’s largest metropolitan regions. The resulting report, will present policy recommendations that will guide Regions to position themselves for greater economic success and improved socio-economic inclusion and equity in a globalised world.
The report on the Western Cape will be ready for presentation to 30 OECD member countries on 10 and 11 June 2008 in Paris and I will lead a delegation of the Western Cape to participate in this presentation. The result will be a systematic evaluation and global comparison of our regional competitiveness, and will undoubtedly poise us to deepen the Province’s iKapa-GDS work.
IMPACT OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH
A variety of surveys supplement the OECD affirmation that the early impact of the developmental state is being felt. The most notable recent one by the South African Institute of Race Relations, puts the Western Cape in the top bracket for most aspects of what constitutes a better life.
The Western Cape now has the country’s second biggest economy, the best standards of health, education and housing, and the best living conditions with the highest proportion of people in formal housing with lights and water. At the same time it has the lowest unemployment rate, the highest skills rates, and is desirable as a location as both rich and poor migrate to the Province resulting in a 16% population increase.
Yet, crime is the greatest cause of pessimism in the Province as we score the highest murder rate. Gail Eddy of the SAIRR’s Provincial Information Service confirms the trends which made Provincial Government shift policing resources to the 27 poorest communities of the Western Cape. She says: “ …it does seem that in the Western Cape the very high levels of crimes like murder may be mainly within the poorer communities…” She points out further that these crime levels are fuelled by the massive use of the drug Tik and by gangsterism in poorer areas.
Again, this confirms the correctness of our strategy to focus on drugs and gangs. Already the results are positive. From April 07 to March 08 the focus in 15 of the most-affected areas has resulted in:
- 166 Narcotic high-flyers arrested
- 465 Drug outlets closed
- 4 797 drug-related arrests.
The analysis of data on crime encourages an even faster redistribution of police resources in the Western Cape from historically advantaged areas to the poorer areas which drive the high crime stats. Gail Eddy says: “The Western Cape has a very high ratio of police to population and yet they are not doing as well as other areas, so there is something else at play.”
LAUNCHING A FOOD SECURITY CAMPAIGN
The satisfactory report card received by the Western Cape on living conditions in the Province also stands to be undermined by global economic conditions leading to rising food prices. Government and society cannot close our eyes to the increasing hardship and the struggle of many families to put food on the table.
Cosatu in the Western Cape has drawn our attention to the potential discontent from the poorest of the poor, and this government, two weeks ago already, tasked a Cabinet Committee of the relevant ministers to formulate the basis of a government response.
We are responding to a set of factors which include food price increases of 13,8% for 2008, a consumer price index of 10% and petrol at almost R10 per litre.
According to the March 2008 Consumer Price Index, the regulated price products, paraffin and petrol, experienced the sharpest increase, - both of whose prices are internationally determined. But it has led to price increases on the following vital food items in a period of only one year:
- Fats and Oils have increased by 46,5%;
- Milk, Cheese and Eggs by 29,7%;
- Grain Products by 25,5%
- Vegetables by 21,8%; and
- Meat by 4,7%
Finally our Provincial response to this situation will be determined by national government. But we feel that it is important at a provincial level to do immediately whatever we can, in such a way that it prepares the Province for a national campaign.
This is a time for all of us to pull together, and for those who are better off to assist those who are vulnerable. We need a mighty partnership against hunger and the Western Cape Government is prepared to commit resources for a ‘Food Security Campaign’ with Business, Labour, Communities, Religious Leaders, NGO’s, and other spheres of government. We must unite to form a ‘Food Security Coalition’ and convene a Summit to plan together and launch this ‘Food Security Campaign’.
The Western Cape Government will bring the following concrete initiatives to the table for urgent implementation:
- Availing state land at schools and hospitals for Community Food Garden Schemes;
- Establishing Food Co-operatives through the Departments of Agriculture and Economic Development;
- Distributing seed packs to vulnerable households so that available garden space can become vegetable gardens;
- Increasing the School Nutrition budget by R5 million and the subsidies for ECD to R9 per child immediately; and
- Widening and intensifying the Community Nutrition Centres (Soup Kitchens) of the Department of Social Development across the 27 vulnerable areas.
However, given the preponderance of calls at the iZimbizo about municipal services, we will convene a Premier’s Co-ordinating Forum so that we can consider whether we should not lighten the burden of the poor by placing a moratorium on evictions from houses and water cuts for those who have a proven inability to pay for services, let alone food!
DEPARTMENT OF THE PREMIER: BUDGET OVERVIEW
All of the matters I have outlined are driven by a budget to the Department of the Premier that has only increased by 9,2% or R34,2m. Our total budget for this financial year is R407m, with approximately 50% of it committed to the branch e-Innovation. The rest of our budget is divided between personnel expenditure, our main task of co-ordination of government and our main deliverables.
WORLD CUP 2010:
One of our key deliverables is co-ordination around World Cup 2010. While the Host City focuses on compliance with FIFA’s requirements to host a world class event, we drive the developmental agenda, as part of our overall iKapa-GDS Plan. This, therefore, involves leveraging investment and ensuring legacy.
Major infrastructure projects include:
- The Green Point Stadium, for which we have fought hard, and to which we contribute R212m, in addition to our role to secure funds from national government;
- The Philippi Stadium is being upgraded with R20m from our coffers and we hope this will leverage further development of the surrounding infrastructure and housing. We are proposing that both the upgraded Philippi Stadium and the completed Athlone Stadium be used as practice venues for FIFA during the 2010 tournament, and both will be the key legacy soccer venues in the Western Cape;
- The Koeberg Interchange is being upgraded, the N2 is being widened, and Hospital Bend will be far more manageable by 2010; and
- Cape Town International Airport is being upgraded with a R1,6 billion investment by ACSA and the SARCC is investing a further R850m to link the airport by rail to the Cape Town Central Station.
I have already spoken about the new hotels which will increase our bed numbers by 10%.
This province has a modest budget of R11m to contribute to the organizing of an excellent World Cup 2010 event in Cape Town with lasting benefits for the Western Cape.
Centre for e-Innovation:
As stated, the Centre for e-Innovation absorbs about 50% of our budget and constitutes the key critical IT nerve centre of government. We have therefore upgraded the leadership post for CeI to that of a Deputy-Director General, in response to overcoming risk factors in this Centre:
- We must fill 54 vacant posts this year to improve our capacity to deliver on our mandate; and
- We are upgrading, replacing and renewing our aging ICT infrastructure and systems following a massive increase of 207% on this line item, of which R20m will be used to fulfil our legal obligation to renew software licences.
This Centre is also ensuring e-enabled government which provides for:
- The Khanya Computer Access Project with IT labs at 1000 schools;
- The linking of all Primary Healthcare centres, allowing for the monitoring of about 1 million patient activities;
- The Learner Tracking System allows for the information management of about 900 000 learners in schools;
- Wireless Connectivity Systems enable farmers to access information regarding weather patterns, diseases, and government services; and
- A Weighbridge Information System allows operators to access registration and roadworthy information on trucks.
We will now acquire a mobile service delivery unit to be utilized as part of our service delivery jamborees to provide a one-stop service delivery hub to rural areas.
Other expenditures:
After spending R179m on salaries, we budget a further R25,6m for transfers to entities including the Provincial Development Council, the Western Cape Youth Commission and to the Intermediary Structures of the 27 areas.
Under the leadership of Institutional Improvement and Development, the Provincial Training Academy has been repositioned, and training is emerging as a key competence of the Provincial Government.
The Provincial Development Council:
The PDC has gone through the process of public nominations and I have considered all the nominations. Mr Speaker, it now gives me great pleasure to announce the names of the new Provincial Development Council, which will be gazetted shortly.
To represent Organised Business:
1. Colin Boyes - Cape Engineers and Founders Association;
2. Liwa Gunguluza - Nafcoc;
3. Patricia Jansen - Wecbof;
4. Edmund Jeneker - Cape Regional Chamber;
5. Chris Krone - Agri Weskaap;
6. Gromick Thulani Ndlovu - CHAMSA;
7. Janine Myburgh - CHAMSA; and
8. Alta Pretorius - West Coast Chamber.
To represent Organised Labour:
1. Tony Ehrenreich - COSATU;
2. Antonio Franks - NACTU;
3. Derek Fredericks - SA Typographical Union;
4. Gretchen Humphries - FEDUSA;
5. Mcedisi Mbolekwa - POPCRU;
6. Monroe Mkalipi - COSATU;
7. Fred Petersen - NUMSA; and
8. Sheila van Rensburg - SACTWU.
To represent Civil Society:
1. Maya Aberman - WC Coalition for Environmental Justice;
2. Mlandeli Lennox Bonile - Disabled People of South Africa;
3. Marc-Andre Daniels - Adult Learning Forum;
4. Clarence Bathini Malobola - George Youth Forum;
5. Revd Keith Muller - South Cape Rural Development Forum;
6. Andy Petersen - Civics;
7. Fatima Shabodien - Women on Farms; and
8. Prof Sakkie van der Merwe - academic sector.
The Government delegation will comprise of Minister Tasneem Essop, Dr Laurine Platzky, and Ms Sindi Shayi, and SALGA will nominate three representatives - from the City, from a District, and from a rural municipality. They will be joined by the CEO’s of both Wesgro and Cape Town Routes Unlimited.
DEPARTMENT OF THE PREMIER: CAPACITY AND REPRESENTIVITY
The reengineering of the Department of the Premier has been the subject of much discussion in this House. Our report today on the advances we have made in pursuit of making the Western Cape a developmental state would not have been possible without simultaneously transforming and reengineering the Department of the Premier itself.
Having understood conceptually what the reengineering meant, we have, in the last financial year, conducted an operational realignment process to address design and service-delivery shortcomings. This resulted in:
- The Office of the Director-General being directly responsible for strategic planning, provincial co-ordination, communication, and forensic audits; and
- The rest of the functions contained within the branches of Governance and Integration, Institutional Improvement and Development, and the Centre for e-Innovation.
Cascading off the reengineering of the Department of the Premier all other departments, in pursuit of the key objectives of the developmental state, have engaged in their own processes of reengineering, restructuring or realignment.
One of the most significant outcomes from such initiatives in transforming the state is not only that the state is more efficient or that the service delivery outcomes have improved significantly, but, that the state has achieved these by becoming more representative of the population of the Western Cape. We have always held that in the Western Cape employment equity should reflect the provincial demographics, ie about 50% Coloureds, 30% Africans, and 20% Whites at every level.
The following comparisons between 2004 and 2008 would suggest that we are on our way to reaching this broad objective.
Table 1: Departmental Representivity
RACE 2004 2008
African 13% 22.5%
Coloured 51.1% 53.1%
Indian 1.3% 1.4%
White 34.6% 23%
Table 2: Representivity in the DotP SMS
RACE 2004 2008
African 2.8% 26.1%
Coloured 50% 47.8%
Indian 0% 2.2%
White 47.2% 23.9%
Table 3: Provincial Government Representivity
RACE 2004 2008
African 16.3% 19.8%
Coloured 62.4% 60.9%
Indian 0.75% 0.86%
White 20.4% 18.3%
This transformation is also seen in the increasing representation of women at senior management level, including the new Director-General, five women Heads of Departments, right down to the fact that women today constitute 64% of our staff in the Province. While there have been gains in the employment of people with disabilities, these have not been enough to reach our employment equity targets, and much more needs to be done.
Mr Speaker, I would like to suggest that, like the Stormers rugby team, the more representative provincial government becomes of the population, the more our creativity and performance improve.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE NEXT YEAR
1. On the 27 Social Transformation Areas:
- Each area will in this phase receive R175 000 per annum to assist in processes of community engagements, intermediary structure launches, strategic planning, logistical support, and research. In Phase 2 this will be increased to R180 000 per annum while Phase 3 will see an increase to R200 000.
- Such institutional funding will enable each of the 27 areas to participate in the initiatives mentioned in the State of the Province Address and those that each Minister will announce over the next few days.
2. On the Celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the UDF:
- The UDF represents a critical memory of unity across racial, religious, gender, language, and geographic divides in the Western Cape.
- As we move to August, 20th, 2008, we will convene a broad committee to plan the most appropriate celebration of the UDF, its heroes, and its key instruments like Grassroots and Saamstaan.
- We have already shown our intention in this regard by conferring semi-official status on the funeral of a UDF Stalwart, Mr Zollie Malindi.
3. On 90 Years of Nelson Mandela:
- Madiba embodies the finest ideals of selfless service, unity, reconciliation and development, and, was a citizen of the Western Cape against his will for 27 years.
- Cabinet has put together a Cabinet Committee that will lead the celebration of his life in the Western Cape so that we pay tribute to Nelson Mandela appropriately.
- Cabinet is also considering a further lasting way to capture his legacy of social cohesion and reconciliation and we may return to this House for your participation.
4. On Developmental Communications:
- Despite a significant decrease in our Communication budget, we have an obligation to communicate with our 68 000 employees and 5.2 million citizens.
- We communicate government information through Izimbizo, e-government, service delivery jamborees, Thusong Service Centres, and through the media.
- We also celebrate and commemorate national days (like we did with Human Rights and Freedom Days) and we also participate in a range of festivals and other events.
- This year will also see an intensification of our campaign to make the Western Cape a Home for All especially in the light of unfortunate manifestations of pathologies like Swartgevaar in Delft, Xenophobia in Worcester and Valhalla Park, the Abuse of Women and Children, the Evictions of Farmworkers, etc.
CONCLUSION
I want to conclude by acknowledging that every achievement opens up new challenges. These include:
- Becoming a more effective developmental state raises local expectations and attracts more people to the Province. This is a challenge that cannot be wished away, but must be met.
- Building a more representative state often illustrates the cultural unfriendliness of institutions to new entrants and the need for more active diversity management. These are not aberrations, but the next phase of a sequence of interventions.
- Trying to create self-reliant communities in the 27 areas opens divergent responses including some seeing this as an opportunity for the state simply to transfer resources in unaccountable ways. These call for firmness in compliance with the Public Finance Management Act.
- Transforming the state creates instabilities that can often lead to that state being inwardly-focused rather than understanding that we exist for the people. We must guard against a sense of permanent transition.
I assert these to illustrate that we are aware of potential pitfalls, but we are confident that we are managing them rather than denying them or allowing them to remain excuses for not delivering to our citizens.
I am grateful that I could give a mostly positive report on our progress and my gratitude goes to the entire Department of the Premier.
I am grateful to Dr Gilbert Lawrence for taking us forward with his unique skills in process and people management, and I am grateful to Virginia Petersen for being the next runner in the great relay race of governance. I am sure that her unique skills will manifest itself as this Department of the Premier makes its impact felt across government and through delivery in communities.
