A Friday note - 16 January 2015

Cooler weather after rain, quite pleasant and relief after the fires.  Not quite the same for those up north with information from our road crews and the Outback Communities Authority about the impact of the floods.

SAFETY

A debrief was held this week with those involved in our response and recovery efforts around the Tantanoola and Sampson Flat bushfires.  Our overall response and the coordination between different areas has been great.  There have been some areas identified where improvements can be made. Our department is continuing works – not only to make our roads safe, but also things such as making processes easier to obtain replacements documents – licences, registration etc – and to minimise impacts.

REJUVENATION

You will recall that late last year the General Manager roles were advertised.  I am pleased to announce that the executive has made the following decisions to appoint:

SAFETY AND SERVICES DIVISION

• General Manager, Safety and Policy Programs – Julie Holmes

DEVELOPMENT DIVISION

• General Manager, Planning and Transport Policy – Don Hogben
• General Manager, Investment Management – Sally Smith
• General Manager, Architecture and Built Environment – Kirsteen Mackay

PEOPLE AND BUSINESS DIVISION

• General Manager, Customer Experience – Meghan Oldfield
• General Manager, Investment Services – Wayne Buckerfield
• General Manager, People and Performance – Gabby O’Neill

In addition to the above appointments:

• The role of Chief Operating Officer has been advertised in this week’s Notice of Vacancies and external press.  Until an appointment has been finalised Jodieann Dawe will continue to act in this role.
• I have asked Paul Gelston to continue to act in the role of General Manager, Operational Services, John Domino will continue to act in the role of General Manager, Asset Management and Luigi Rossi to act in the role of General Manager, Project Delivery and Asset Maintenance while the COO recruitment process is underway.
• Peter Auhl and Tom Sanderson have tendered their resignations. I would like to thank them both for their contribution.
• Vicki Seaman will undertake the role of Acting General Manager Information Services to review the operations and future directions including longer term arrangements for leadership of this function.
• I have asked Bill Cagialis to undertake the role of Manager Finance.
• With Wayne Buckerfield’s successful appointment to a General Manager role, backfilling arrangements are being made for the role of acting Manager North South Corridor.

Thank you to all the staff who acted in these roles on an interim basis.

One of the areas providing an integration opportunity is the Risk and Assurance area within the People and Business Division.   Risk and Assurance will bring together like activities across the department and aims to set and model a high standard of personal and professional behaviour to provide assurance on departmental risk and community compliance. A draft structure for this new unit has been developed for broader consultation and I have asked Emma Kokar to make this happen as soon as possible.

PROJECT GOVERNANCE

Of course most of you know that the Department runs lots of projects – road, rail, building, IT etc.  Some of you may be interested in this paper. Judith Carr is doing some work about applying these principles to our work in a consistent fashion.

SAVINGS

As one bloke told me last week – “if you are serious about savings, look at cars”.  I am.  Bill Cagialis is leading this work.

For the next two weeks Julienne TePohe will provide these notes as I will be away.

Have a good weekend.

Michael Deegan