11-10-2019, 02:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-10-2019, 02:12 PM by thorn bird.)
The past few weeks there has been an extraordinary amount of media attention being paid to freedoms, both personal and business. Much criticism of the vast volumes of red tape that not only impinges on our personal freedoms but places a very heavy burden on business to the point where the most vulnerable are in serious peril of becoming unviable.
I wonder if those that signed our Federation document back in 1901 ever envisioned what our federation would grow into, an ever-evolving tangle of intermingled bureaucracies competing against each other for power and influence.
Simplistically we once paid taxes. In return, the various governments supplied us with services, the states had their specific responsibilities, and the Federal Government had theirs.
In today’s world, we still pay our taxes but also for almost every service governments provide as well, at almost obscene amounts of money when the actual work required providing that service is infinitesimal.
Particularly since the end of the Second World War those separate responsibilities have been blurred and merged. Increasingly the Federal government has intruded into state affairs, perhaps because the States shirked their responsibilities or acquiesced, but only to a point, never entirely giving up on “State rights”. This has resulted in a hog podge of duplicated bureaucracies, each a perfect foil against criticism or ineptitude, each blaming the other when things go wrong. I imagine the costs of this duplication would be eye watering, but of course the public would never become aware of it.
Australia has become the most secretive democracy in the world, no doubt heavily promoted by the Mandarins to conceal their own errors or ineptitude.
The Public Service, as it was known, was exactly that, it served the public interest, without fear or favour, administering the governments business and the will of the parliament. To be a public servant was generally not a highly paid job compared with the private sector, but it was a job for life, if security was what you wanted, with a few “perks” thrown in to sweeten the pot.
In todays world it’s called the Public Sector and as it has grown, its influence and power has grown exponentially, its union becoming perhaps the most powerful in the nation resulting in remuneration expanding to rival and surpass the private sector, the “perks” still remain however. The Public Sector’s power and influence has grown to the extent where they can and do defy the will of the parliament. Increasingly the public are being governed by unelected mandarins, weak, incompetent ministers abrogating their responsibilities to these mandarins who, hidden behind a veil of secrecy, wield their power regardless of the consequences or the intent of the parliament.
To the Mandarins it would seem, the public who they are supposed to serve have become the enemy. Considering many of these Mandarins are paid not only huge salaries, but also Bonuses, not for competent administration, rather on how much money they can save. It becomes their self-interest that usurps the will of the parliament.
No better example of that observation is the terrible way our bureaucrats have treated our service personnel. Also the extraordinary way the NDIS has been mal-administered against our most vulnerable.
The bureaucratic failures of poor management display some remarkable examples of ineptitude that would never be tolerated within the private sector.
In our own industry we see a prime example of what can happen when accountability is ignored and free rein given to inept self-interested bureaucrats.
The slow death of an entire industry.
I wonder if those that signed our Federation document back in 1901 ever envisioned what our federation would grow into, an ever-evolving tangle of intermingled bureaucracies competing against each other for power and influence.
Simplistically we once paid taxes. In return, the various governments supplied us with services, the states had their specific responsibilities, and the Federal Government had theirs.
In today’s world, we still pay our taxes but also for almost every service governments provide as well, at almost obscene amounts of money when the actual work required providing that service is infinitesimal.
Particularly since the end of the Second World War those separate responsibilities have been blurred and merged. Increasingly the Federal government has intruded into state affairs, perhaps because the States shirked their responsibilities or acquiesced, but only to a point, never entirely giving up on “State rights”. This has resulted in a hog podge of duplicated bureaucracies, each a perfect foil against criticism or ineptitude, each blaming the other when things go wrong. I imagine the costs of this duplication would be eye watering, but of course the public would never become aware of it.
Australia has become the most secretive democracy in the world, no doubt heavily promoted by the Mandarins to conceal their own errors or ineptitude.
The Public Service, as it was known, was exactly that, it served the public interest, without fear or favour, administering the governments business and the will of the parliament. To be a public servant was generally not a highly paid job compared with the private sector, but it was a job for life, if security was what you wanted, with a few “perks” thrown in to sweeten the pot.
In todays world it’s called the Public Sector and as it has grown, its influence and power has grown exponentially, its union becoming perhaps the most powerful in the nation resulting in remuneration expanding to rival and surpass the private sector, the “perks” still remain however. The Public Sector’s power and influence has grown to the extent where they can and do defy the will of the parliament. Increasingly the public are being governed by unelected mandarins, weak, incompetent ministers abrogating their responsibilities to these mandarins who, hidden behind a veil of secrecy, wield their power regardless of the consequences or the intent of the parliament.
To the Mandarins it would seem, the public who they are supposed to serve have become the enemy. Considering many of these Mandarins are paid not only huge salaries, but also Bonuses, not for competent administration, rather on how much money they can save. It becomes their self-interest that usurps the will of the parliament.
No better example of that observation is the terrible way our bureaucrats have treated our service personnel. Also the extraordinary way the NDIS has been mal-administered against our most vulnerable.
The bureaucratic failures of poor management display some remarkable examples of ineptitude that would never be tolerated within the private sector.
In our own industry we see a prime example of what can happen when accountability is ignored and free rein given to inept self-interested bureaucrats.
The slow death of an entire industry.