Ipart Fact Sheet - GRN (May 2012)

[matthewn1983]

For those who are interested,

(Extract from the Ipart document linked below)

Under our recommendations, all except 3 of the non-impactors will face lower bills. The lower bills result because $50 is a lower monthly price per terminal than the current interim prices which are $118.33 (state-wide users) and $59.17 (local users). The 3 non-impactors that would face higher bills only do so because they currently pay subsidized prices of $41.67 (2 local councils) and $37.51 (a non-government organisation). We recommend that the Minister continue to subsidize these 3 users.
Our recommendations result in an annual bill increase for all core agencies of 19% in 2011/12, with a significant redistribution away from the RFS towards the ASNSW and FRNSW.

http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/files/b40cc ... y_2012.pdf

[centralcoastscanman]

so moral of the story is if you have a store of Disaster Radios your still paying for them monthly even though you may never use them.. BRAVO NSW Government, bravo..

Now agencies who don't want to be on the grn will only buy what they need operationally and when a disaster hits they will be screwed because they will have no Disaster radios available... agency that comes to mind is nsw health public hospitals and their penny pinching

[ivahri]

Well hang on... read the important bit:

the 4 core agencies should each pay an annual flat fee of $7.669m (excluding GST). That is a massive increase but it has saved a fortune in administration.

It is certain agencies and selfish management behavior that have spent bucket loads of money on non-compatible, poorly engineered & maintained networks that have brought this about. They can't hide behind cruddy old PMR networks within the GRN footprint to save on GRN access fees. Good networks cost money to build, maintain & operate. People like me have been arguing for years that those who hide the real cost of radio from Treasury only hurt all of us- and the community. I'm not saying we suddenly live in Utopia, just that maybe they are getting a few things right for once.

Cheers,

Richard

[centralcoastscanman]

I agree with proper funding and what the nsw government is doing with regards to making it harder for agencies to hide behind their pmr networks making all sorts of silly claims.

What I may not have read correctly or mis understood was the bit about being charged the monthly access fee regardless of whether the radio is turned on or not. I thought that if the radio was not part of the general agency pool, eg regularly used and the radio id's were designated as Disaster radios then the GCIO or whatever its called would only charge you the monthly fee for each month the radio is in use..

I believe if they can get rid of all the poorly maintained and setup pmr networks that exist within government departments that $$ would go a long way to improving the grn.

[ivahri]

I've got to be careful what I write because I don't want to say something I may regret... Responsible agencies are accepting this change in the spirit it was intended- to stop agencies from "wasting" money on radios they don't really need. I know one agency which has offered radios to other agencies that they now realise they don't need. That sounds like tax money being saved already... On the other hand some just will not admit to having x number of radios- in effect "cook the books". You can't legislate responsible management.