What it does
The Government Owned Corporations Act 1993 (the Act) establishes a comprehensive statutory regime for the corporatisation of Queensland government entities. Corporatisation is defined in s.13 as a structural reform process that changes the operating conditions and, where necessary, the legal structure of nominated government entities so that they function, as far as practicable, on a commercial basis in a competitive environment, while preserving continued public ownership. The State, as owner on behalf of the people of Queensland, retains the ability to set strategic direction through financial and non-financial performance targets and community service obligations (CSOs).
Chapter 1 sets out the basic concepts. A “government entity” is broadly defined in s.4 to include government companies, State instrumentalities, departments, GOC Act entities declared by regulation, or any other prescribed entity. A “GOC” itself is a government entity that is established as a body corporate under an Act or the Corporations Act and declared by regulation to be a GOC (s.5). The GOC Minister is the Minister for the time being administering the Act (s.6(1)); the portfolio Minister is ordinarily the Minister administering the legislation that originally established the entity, or a Minister nominated by the Premier by gazette notice (s.6(2)–(5)). The statement of corporate intent is the accountability document created under ch.3 pt.8 (s.7).
The Act binds the State (s.8) and is intended to have extraterritorial operation (s.9). It prevails over any earlier Act to the extent of inconsistency, but yields to any later Act that expressly states that the later Act prevails (s.10). Chapter 1 pt.5 articulates the objectives of corporatisation: to improve Queensland’s economic performance and the Government’s ability to achieve social objectives by increasing the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of GOCs (s.14). These objectives are pursued through the four key principles of corporatisation set out in s.16: clarity of objectives (including separation of policy/regulatory functions and explicit identification, costing and compensation of CSOs); management autonomy and authority (board control, replacement of detailed controls with strategic monitoring); strict accountability for performance (board accountability to shareholding Ministers via the statement of corporate intent, supplemented by government monitoring to compensate for the absence of stock-market disciplines); and competitive neutrality (removal or disclosure of public-ownership advantages or disadvantages, possible structural reform where market power is excessive).