Centrelink established comprehensive planning processes drawn from the private sector to develop and maintain its strategic framework. It pursued an aggressive mix of strategies to ensure its survival in a hostile and contestable environment. The introduction of more detailed business planning acknowledged the need for a stronger approach to align corporate and functional-level strategies. Its business model and processes remain subject to close scrutiny in performance-laden, purchaser–provider relationships with an increasing number of clients. Managing these relationships required clear lines of communication and accountability throughout the organisation and its structures needed to match its strategies to produce the promised performance of its BPAs. The BSC, after initial problems, became a useful performance-monitoring tool for the organisation.

Centrelink experienced some lag in adjusting to the revised set of organisational designs instituted earlier in its life. The National Support Office in particular underwent substantial structural adjustment in adapting to the realities of liaison and alliance with the agency’s clients, as discussed in Chapter 6. The parade of ANAO reports and internal reviews generated strategic and shorter-term adjustments in organisational direction and goal setting. Notwithstanding other changes in governance discussed later, Centrelink evolved under the tenets of new public management into a trusted body with improved service delivery performance and a more businesslike management in keeping with the Prime Minister’s statement at the organisation’s 1997 launch foreshadowing efficiency with sympathetic and responsible service.