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Question and Answer Tracking Details

2985 - COMPETITIVE NEUTRALITY POLICY

Donato, Philip to the Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education representing the Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Regional New South Wales, and Minister for Western New South Wales

(1) What policies or measures does Department of Regional NSW and its agencies have established to manage their obligations to comply with the New South Wales Competitive Neutrality Policy?

(2) If a policy exists, can you share how you actively implement measures to ensure the conduct of your agencies and staff do not adversely find themselves competing with private sector service providers?

(3) Since biosecurity is underpinned by local and regional capacity, what policies or practices does your department have in place at present to ensure the participation and maintaining viability of private sector service providers?
Answer -

(1) The Department of Regional NSW (DRNSW) and associated agencies are required to comply with the NSW Government Procurement Policy Framework. This includes compliance with TPP 02-1 Policy Statement on the Application of Competitive Neutrality.

DRNSW has also appeared at the current NSW Legislative Council inquiry into Procurement practices of government agencies in New South Wales and its impact on the social development of the people of New South Wales, which includes the application of the New South Wales Procurement Policy Framework in its Terms of Reference.

(2) Commercial divisions within DRNSW apply similar operating measures to comply with TPP 02-1, including reviewing the price of activities carried out on a fee-for­service or cost-recovery basis, while adjusting for inflation.

All divisions within DRNSW are subject to periodic internal audit reviews including the application of Competitive Neutrality Policy measures. DRNSW continues to review the price of services relative to the market and where the market is active, those services are removed where possible. This ensures the Department does not adversely compete with private sector providers.

(3) The NSW Government's Biosecurity capability is underpinned by the DRNSW teams located across NSW. Biosecurity laboratories are mainly located at Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute (EMAI) in Camden with smaller facilities at Wagga Wagga, Orange and Wollongbar.

All biosecurity activities are underpinned by local and regional capacity and where biosecurity services are not available within the NSW Government laboratory network these services are tendered out to private sector service providers. These opportunities are competitively tendered on the State Government eTender site managed by Buy.nsw and can be viewed by the private sector for companies who are registered on Supplier Hub.

Question asked on 16 May 2024 (session 58-1) and printed in Questions & Answers Paper No. 55
Answer received on 20 June 2024 and printed in Questions & Answers Paper No. 61

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