I like this:
“Let’s be very clear about what these documents reveal.”
then, next:
“On the surface they appear to reveal “

So, we’re ‘very clear’ that ‘on the surface’ they ‘appear’…..? Glad we got that sorted! Hahahaha!

Isnt an election coming is there?

“There is potentially thousands of dollars of ACT taxpayers’ money which is unaccounted for

Interesting comment.

So waste is okay?

“Let’s be very clear about what these documents reveal. It appears there are some minor anomalies on some flex sheets and as such I expect the leader of the opposition to resign because if he does not then there is no doubt that western civilisation as we know it will come to an end, Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher said.”

dpm said :

I like this:
“Let’s be very clear about what these documents reveal.”
then, next:
“On the surface they appear to reveal “

So, we’re ‘very clear’ that ‘on the surface’ they ‘appear’…..? Glad we got that sorted! Hahahaha!

Clear as mud award has it’s first nominee

What on earth is she huffing on about? You’d expect her to make her best points in the first few sentences, but no, she just goes on and on. Opportunity missed. maybe she hadn’t read the article yet.

So, from the exclusive focus on Katy’s english expression, I gather that we are all very blase about the Zed’s position? We would be happy, I gather for the sort of leadership shown by the opposition to be transferred to government? Small matters of accountability should be handled this way? Comments like “In many other similar workplaces timesheets would simply not be required” demonstrate the appropriate level of judgement and responsibility in someone aspiring to public office? Nice way to flag how you intend to run the place if you had the chance. Nice evasion about how people were on leave, but it was just that no records were made of it. If the records showed the people were not on leave, were they on leave? Of course, without records, we have no way of knowing. None of this strikes anyone as a poor qualification for running an opposition office, let alone the entire ACT? We go into howls of outrage over a stray pothole, but long-running and apparently systematic failure to account for taxpayer money is ho hum? A bit of nudge nudge, wink, wink as a way of running the budget?

Maybe it would spoil the fun to acknowledge what this really tells us about the likely quality of public administration should the opposition form a government. I guess as long as that is a distant possibility, it is easy to have a laugh.

mynym said :

So, from the exclusive focus on Katy’s english expression, I gather that we are all very blase about the Zed’s position? We would be happy, I gather for the sort of leadership shown by the opposition to be transferred to government? Small matters of accountability should be handled this way? Comments like “In many other similar workplaces timesheets would simply not be required” demonstrate the appropriate level of judgement and responsibility in someone aspiring to public office? Nice way to flag how you intend to run the place if you had the chance. Nice evasion about how people were on leave, but it was just that no records were made of it. If the records showed the people were not on leave, were they on leave? Of course, without records, we have no way of knowing. None of this strikes anyone as a poor qualification for running an opposition office, let alone the entire ACT? We go into howls of outrage over a stray pothole, but long-running and apparently systematic failure to account for taxpayer money is ho hum? A bit of nudge nudge, wink, wink as a way of running the budget?

So you work for Katy then?

Maybe it would spoil the fun to acknowledge what this really tells us about the likely quality of public administration should the opposition form a government. I guess as long as that is a distant possibility, it is easy to have a laugh.

Looks to me like Zed might do better employing staff who are competent to perform their jobs rather than relatives and Liberal party officials.

And as far as Katy is concerned, have you got the paperwork for the GST submission in yet? That might just be several orders of magnitude more significant than this.

JessP, you make my point for me. The alternative CM shows he cannot run a small office responsibly and you want to make this about anything but that. And no, I don’t work for Katy, but I do sympathise. How could I not given the contrast of decency that we are seeing hereabouts?

It’s the nudge, nudge, we all know what really goes on and a bit of flexibility in the political use of taxpayer funds is all right crowd that increases my sympathy. Once again, is that level of maturity and moral responsibility what we want to see in government?

If this is real, then the lack of ability to manage what is basic corporate hygeine is very worrying. If he can’t get his team to keep some simple paperwork in order, how will they go if in power?

(Not that it will matter, it’s a Labor town).

How many timesheets? How many staff? How many dollars? Is it only Zed Seselja’s office?

it was well known in 2010 that staff were being seconded to federal campaign duties.

So whoever decided to kick this off has been keeping their powder dry.

The question is whether this is a Labor plot, or someone inside the party looking to get ahead?

It would help if the CT’s Noel Towell had included in his report what prompted him to go digging in this direction.

This responsibility falls under the chief of staff. Being in public office and open to scrutiny it should have been rectified earlier – clearly there is an issue here. Stephen, if you are reading this (I know he will be – big RIOTACT fan), give yourself a double uppercut and pull your head in.

My biggest worry is what the 10 staff in Zed’s office are doing.

Seriously, he is the opposition leader for a 350,000 person jurisdiction and he has 10 staff.

Surely, a media adviser, a policy adviser, a policy assistant and 2 admin staff would be more than sufficient.

Why we as the public tolerate, politicians at all levels and sides of parliament having so many media advisers that produce inept crap beggars belief.

mynym said :

So, from the exclusive focus on Katy’s english expression, I gather that we are all very blase about the Zed’s position? We would be happy, I gather for the sort of leadership shown by the opposition to be transferred to government? Small matters of accountability should be handled this way? Comments like “In many other similar workplaces timesheets would simply not be required” demonstrate the appropriate level of judgement and responsibility in someone aspiring to public office? Nice way to flag how you intend to run the place if you had the chance. Nice evasion about how people were on leave, but it was just that no records were made of it. If the records showed the people were not on leave, were they on leave? Of course, without records, we have no way of knowing. None of this strikes anyone as a poor qualification for running an opposition office, let alone the entire ACT? We go into howls of outrage over a stray pothole, but long-running and apparently systematic failure to account for taxpayer money is ho hum? A bit of nudge nudge, wink, wink as a way of running the budget?

Maybe it would spoil the fun to acknowledge what this really tells us about the likely quality of public administration should the opposition form a government. I guess as long as that is a distant possibility, it is easy to have a laugh.

Are you new to Canberra? Did you miss the last 10 years of Stanhopian governance? I too am surprised that this sort of behaviour has been linked to the leader of the opposition, because I completely expected it to come from the CM and her government.

If a crime is suspected, call in the AFP.

Wasting the Assembly’s time on it is only throwing good money after bad.

So how long until Zed pulls FOI on the Labor party books?

Anyone running a book?

Thanks for quoting me MysteryMan. I love to see myself in italics. I have been here 16 years and I must say that I have not seen any major signs of maladministration under any of the ACT governments. We have high incomes, good education, good health, good housing, fast broadband, lovely parks and gardens, the lot. It’s like Pleasantville here except for the knockers. What’s not to like?

The current opposition is another matter. Allowing for the fact that you are surprised this misbehaviour is happening in the opposition, do you feel they are Stanhopian enough to make them incapable of good government? Or can they become a good government despite their palpable lack of judgement? Or is it a ‘momentary lapse’ over several years in which – through the lack of contemporary records – the public will never know if and to what extent its money has been used for Liberal party campaiging?

I must say that I have not seen any major signs of maladministration under any of the ACT governments

You missed the GDE?

If we want to look at waste of money.
From a Govt who could not maintain an oversight to see concrete was poured correctly – more than once.
Could not buy a hospital over a period of years.
Prevaricated for years over building the Cotter Dam – where some sort of dam enhancement was a drop dead obvious no-brainer since about 2004.
The territory’s unfunded liabilities have blown out by more than $1 billion in the past two years as borrowing to fund Actew’s expenditure on big water projects continues – work out the effect of that on your hip pocket nerve.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/politics/acts-1b-blowout/2401149.aspx
I will leave it there.

Thumper said :

I must say that I have not seen any major signs of maladministration under any of the ACT governments

You missed the GDE?

And Rhodium Asset Solutions which chalked up losses that still have not been calculated (in the millions of dollars)
And ActewAGL’s investment in TransACT wich cost us over $54 million plus the interest forgone. And I hear the ACT Government super funds are in bad shape – anyone retiring soon?

welkin31 said :

If we want to look at waste of money.
From a Govt who could not maintain an oversight to see concrete was poured correctly – more than once.
Could not buy a hospital over a period of years.
Prevaricated for years over building the Cotter Dam – where some sort of dam enhancement was a drop dead obvious no-brainer since about 2004.
The territory’s unfunded liabilities have blown out by more than $1 billion in the past two years as borrowing to fund Actew’s expenditure on big water projects continues – work out the effect of that on your hip pocket nerve.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/politics/acts-1b-blowout/2401149.aspx
I will leave it there.

You have said it all welkin31.

mynym said :

I have been here 16 years and I must say that I have not seen any major signs of maladministration under any of the ACT governments.

This is by far the funniest thing I’ve ever read on this site.

Pure comedy genius. Hats off to you sir.

dungfungus said :

Thumper said :

I must say that I have not seen any major signs of maladministration under any of the ACT governments

You missed the GDE?

And Rhodium Asset Solutions which chalked up losses that still have not been calculated (in the millions of dollars)
And ActewAGL’s investment in TransACT wich cost us over $54 million plus the interest forgone. And I hear the ACT Government super funds are in bad shape – anyone retiring soon?

Don’t forget trashing revolve and giving the recycling contract to a shonk who took our money and declared himself bankrupt, as he had done elsewhere before.

Actually, some might argue this wasn’t actually mismanagement, but something else.

I guess “mynym” and his fellow apparatchiks are crossing their fingers that Noel Towell doesn’t take too close an interest into why John Hargreaves announced his retirement.

This just looks like standard boiler-plate political bullying to me… except for this quote, attributed to Katy herself:

trevar said :

“There is potentially thousands of dollars of ACT taxpayers’ money which is unaccounted for and which no amount of attempts by Mr Seselja to casually brush aside these serious matters should be allowed to occur.

The third clause in this sentence, led by a ‘which’ but not adding detail nor extending the concept of the initial clause is a cause for concern. The clause begins with the indicative mood, but moves to the imperative mood and loses meaning entirely. Under the National Curriculum the ACT Government is now implementing, coherence is a year 4 concept and extension is year 5. If Katy did indeed utter this sentence, it reveals that the head of the government implementing the National Curriculum here in the ACT is not actually literate to a year 5 level. So how could she possibly be qualified to accuse anyone of anything?

The second clause is problematic too. The first ‘which’ should be a ‘that’, because it leads a defining clause. Not an uncommon problem; substituting ‘that’ with ‘which’ in a defining clause is relatively common amongst those who are not highly trained in English usage, so I’ll forgive that, but beginning a clause using the indicative mood, but then moving to the imperative mood before adding any detail or extending the concept of the initial clause is just plain, old-fashioned illiteracy. I don’t know what year it should have been learned when Katy went to school, but under the current curriculum it looks like she needs some help from a year 4 teacher before she opens her mouth.

Thanks for the lists of stuff-ups, welkin, dungfungus and thumper. Pity you missed the fatally botched demolition of the Acton hospital, but I guess that doesn’t go well with your side of politics.

I do take one lesson from your lists, however, which is that someone who cannot run a small office accountably is not remotely likely to be able to do better when it comes to big, important things.

Just as an aside, I like the way you try to make both not building a dam and building a dam seem to be evidence of maladministration, Welkin31. Nice work if you can get it.

Replacing ‘which’ with ‘that’ is a common microsoft word software suggestion, when one runs the spellcheck/grammar check on a document.

mynym said :

Thanks for the lists of stuff-ups, welkin, dungfungus and thumper. Pity you missed the fatally botched demolition of the Acton hospital, but I guess that doesn’t go well with your side of politics.

I do take one lesson from your lists, however, which is that someone who cannot run a small office accountably is not remotely likely to be able to do better when it comes to big, important things.

Just as an aside, I like the way you try to make both not building a dam and building a dam seem to be evidence of maladministration, Welkin31. Nice work if you can get it.

Oh, you were serious?

I take back the bit about comedy genius and replace it with severe delusion.

mynym said :

Thanks for the lists of stuff-ups, welkin, dungfungus and thumper. Pity you missed the fatally botched demolition of the Acton hospital, but I guess that doesn’t go well with your side of politics.

I do take one lesson from your lists, however, which is that someone who cannot run a small office accountably is not remotely likely to be able to do better when it comes to big, important things.

Just as an aside, I like the way you try to make both not building a dam and building a dam seem to be evidence of maladministration, Welkin31. Nice work if you can get it.

On the contrary, I was against both the closing of the then Canberra Hospital at Acton peninsula and the gala demolition of the site. In fact, I told all my family and friends to stay away from the event as they could get injured or killed. Appears my judgement was better than Ms Carnell. Allowing the grotesque (inside and out) National Museum to then be built there was another administrative disaster but that’s another subject to argue about. Now that you mention hospitals though, how about the Calvary/Labor saga and the new “non-acute” election year hospital Labor are now promising?