HE IS WIDELY REGARDED as one of the most powerful people in South Australia - yet Robert Champion de Crespigny rejects claims that as chair of the State Government's Economic Development Board he is the most influential person outside of State Cabinet.
"I am a fierce believer in the Westminster System," he responds, arguing that he and the EDB play an advisory role only. "There have been a lot of people here who have tried to change it ... but we've resisted it. If we think something ought to be done ... it goes through the proper process, so there is no discretion.
"Some people would say we've had influence on some government policies and others would say not. We are the servants of the Premier and Deputy Premier."
While the EDB is limited to providing advice to the Premier, that advice is rarely rejected. One of the few EDB recommendations to have been initially rejected by the State Government was the abolition of tenure for senior executives in the Public Service. Tenure has long been regarded as one of the pillars of the Westminster System. Champion de Crespigny has been an outspoken advocate of its abolition and his view appears to have had some influence, as tenure was recently abolished by the State Government.
With this, all of the 72 recommendations that the EDB put to the State Government have now been adopted and incorporated into the South Australian Strategic Plan.
The appointment of Champion de Crespigny to chair the Economic Development Board appears to be bringing key players in the business community inside the Rann Government's political tent. While some business leaders might feel uncomfortable with this, Champion de Crespigny appears to be relishing the opportunity. He devotes two days a week to his role as chair of the board, refusing payment for his work, and is clearly proud of the board's work - though he avoids singling out any achievements, suggesting "that is for other people to look at".
He highlights the establishment of the Defence Industry Advisory Board and the Export Council as examples of the Government acting on the advice of the EDB - but its reach extends to the very core of forming government policy. It is clear that in influencing the State Government, the EDB has been spectacularly successful.
CHAMPION de CRESPIGNY is full of praise for the State Strategic Plan prepared by the State Government. He is quick to remind that it has now been renamed the South Australian Strategic Plan, in an attempt to engage greater community ownership of the plan. The plan is "courageous" he says, though he does not mean it as Sir Humphrey Appelby of Yes Prime Minister normally implied. He thinks the plan is an "unbelievably gutsy initiative". He sees it as "pretty unique across the world" and a model for other governments to follow.
Despite this, he is concerned that the plan does not yet have sufficient community backing. It remains a "... government document with people such as the EDB Board members behind it". There are, he says, "... a lot of people (who) are now totally focused on what the scorecard is going to look like rather than how we get there". The key to this, he believes, is industry and community engagement in the implementation of the plan. The reality is that few South Australians are aware of the plan, let alone involved in its implementation. And this problem is not likely to be remedied in the short term without the EDB and the State Government putting in place appropriate community consultation and engagement strategies.
With this in mind, Champion de Crespigny is critical that strategies outlined in the plan need to be better reflected in the State Budget. While State Government agencies have become very good at writing budget bids that relate to the plan, the real challenge of a "whole of government" approach to refining and implementing the plan remains elusive. This will require a more robust cross-agency policy development processes and much greater investment in policy and evaluation capacity in the public service.
A major report on progress of the plan is due in June, 2006. Inevitably the focus of commentators will be on the extent to which the targets have been met, though Champion de Crespigny warns against being pre-occupied with measuring progress. What is needed, he says, is to "get things done". He agrees it will be difficult to achieve some targets in the plan, particularly trebling export income to $25 billion by 2013. The problem, he points out, is the high value of the Australian dollar which is making SA exports more expensive in global markets and hurting local manufacturers. He is more optimistic about making progress on the population target of two million people by 2050, pointing to an increased number of inquiries for migration to SA.
One primary challenge that he sees is the need to manage looming skill shortages created by the ageing of the workforce. He states that the EDB "... has said for a long time that the three universities, and TAFE, especially ... need to be terribly relevant to the community. There is a lot more work to be done".
While he may have some doubt about how realistic some of the targets are, he congratulates the State Government for adopting them. If we get them "... 79 per cent right, that's a really good start," he says. The importance of targets is that they generate debate about how we can move forward. "We should be debating them all the time," he says, adding that we must have the maturity to learn from failure rather than see it as a defeat.
THE USE OF GOVERNMENT financial assistance to lure individual firms to South Australia is rejected by Champion de Crespigny. He argues that the focus should be on government efficiency, population, education, export capability, finance and infrastructure - the building blocks outlined in the South Australian Strategic Plan. "They are the bits we just have to get right," he says.
He says the recent Bank SA Trends report warning of trouble ahead for SA is "pretty right". The report warned of slower employment growth hampering retail growth and a growing gap between state output and state final demand. It argued that there are about 28 per cent more new houses than underlying demand warrants, which is likely to lead to a decline in property values. Of most concern was SA's declining share of population and output, which are at historic lows. Despite this, he remains optimistic about the future, pointing to historically low unemployment rates and skill shortages as signs of a robust economy.
Champion de Cresipgny welcomes the emergence of China and India as economic powerhouses, saying that while "... China is a threat, every morning we should all say a quick prayer for China".
"We are ideally placed as a nation and as a state" to benefit from the industrialistion of these countries he argues. Rightly he sees these new industrial giants as a source of enormous demand for South Australian resources and services.
He alludes to a threat to labour-intensive manufacturing, suggesting that "the smart manufacturers are still going to be able to find their niches" - firms such as Codan which he describes as an "unbelievable success story".
More broadly he sees SA's competitive advantages lying in areas like defence, dry-land farming, minerals and education. There is little doubting the enthusiasm that Champion de Crespigny brings to his role. He believes that South Australia's quality of life, safety and natural environment are an asset that will ensure that the state attracts new investment and people. Migration and strategies to retain mature age workers will be needed to tackle an ageing workforce and looming skill shortages he agues.
REGARDING PUBLIC INVESTMENT, Champion de Crespigny advocates a minimal role for government in economic development. Government should "... get the fundamentals right and then get of people's way". He argues that government should focus on "reducing the costs of doing business".
Despite such conservative economic views, Champion de Crespigny believes it is essential to upgrade the state's ageing infrastructure. While he applauds the Rann Government's efforts to secure a AAA credit rating, he also argues for the State Government to review its zero net borrowing policy, which currently prevents it from borrowing to fund infrastructure projects such as roads, rail, ports and communications to underpin productivity and economic growth.
"We desperately need infrastructure projects here," he says. "What we need is good infrastructure projects that will make us a more efficient state. We think the community would be very, very supportive of having to borrow to do that."
CHAMPION de CRESPIGNY played a key role in discussions aimed at establishing a fourth university in SA involving the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University. He has been accused of a conflict of interest by some observers who allege that he did this while he was Chancellor of the University of Adelaide.
Whatever his role in discussions, it is clear that at least one assumption underpinning the argument for a fourth university in SA is flawed. The case for involving Carnegie Mellon was built in part on a perceived gap in the provision of post-graduate offerings in public policy and administration.
The problem is that Champion de Crespigny and other architects of the Carnegie Mellon strategy appear ignorant of Flinders University having long been a major provider of public administration courses, including a Masters of Public Administration. "That surprises me," he admitted during the interview. "It's certainly not one that I'm aware of." Reasons for this seem obvious; there were no consultations with SA universities prior to the Carnegie Mellon announcement by the State Government.
The university community is yet to be convinced of the merits of the case for a fourth university based around Carnegie Mellon. They are awaiting the promised business case with great anticipation.
