26 October 2010

Bureaucracy gone mad!

26 October 2010 | Sandpiper

I’ve finally had it with state bureacracies. My son (now 20) originally got his learners licence in NSW when he turned 16. He has worked full time since then so has not had a lot of time for lessons. He has moved state twice for his jobs during the last 5 years, once to Adelaide where he also obtained a learners licence and then to Canberra where his South Australian learners licence expired days after we arrived and before he could realistically prepare for a test in a foreign environment.

So he had to obtain the ACT learner licence at a further cost to himself for the compulsory Road Ready Course- even after holding a learners licence for 5 years. He was happy to do so. However, having established at both the Dickson and Civic Shopfronts that he did not need to have this ACT licence for the full six months prior to booking a licence test I am flummoxed today that he’s been told that ‘they have no proof that he had a South Australian licence’ and have refused to provide him with a licence test date- regardless of the fact that the Dickson shopfront made us wait at length while they faxed SA regarding his SA licence before granting him the ACT learner permit and that he was holding the expired SA licence in his hand while speaking to the woman from Canberra Connect.

My son pays a LOT of tax. All he wants is his licence but between his busy work schedule and our government bureaucracy I’m starting to wonder if he will ever get it. He is an honest, responsible citizen who has never put a foot wrong and is still attempting to comply with every hurdle this bureaucracy insists on putting before him. But it does make me question why it exists- why the replication? Does he go to work to pay taxes to fund these hurdles that are put before him which prevent him from going about his life? Why do we put people who move state (and their wallets) though the wringer?

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colourful sydney racing identity8:47 am 27 Oct 10

TVStar said :

Summary to this point:

– Mother asks question on behalf of son regarding renewing learners permit.
– Original poster tries to make some unknown point about son having paid tax.
– Original poster suggests ACT ‘bureaucracy gone mad!’
– Derision of bloggers initially only stopped by a short discussion regarding the 1999 Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on tax reform, also known as the GST agreement, and federalism in the Australian context.
– Some pertinent international comparisons.
– Short survey of 400 years of western intellectual thought on the meaning and inevitability of taxes (mostly focused on English examples).
– Anecdotal but credible evidence presented that said son was in fact a vague knob when seeking to obtain learners permit a Civic Shopfront in basement of Civic Library, possibly on 16 September 2010.
– Further derision of original poster by bloggers made ‘angry’.
– Dickson Motor Vehicle Registry and staff compared with UK equivalents; accused of general public servant incompetence and stupidity.
– Son accused of being a latent homosexual.

Have I missed anything?

Perfect. Could you please summarise every topic on RiotAct that has 50+ posts? Maybe you could start a website of your own RiotActDigest.com – I would sign up in a flash.

homeone6:47 am 27 Oct 10

Yep – You’ve forgotton to mention in the dot points the summary that some knob is making in an effort to make sense of something that’s not very likely to be sensible.

TVStar8:33 pm 26 Oct 10

Summary to this point:

– Mother asks question on behalf of son regarding renewing learners permit.
– Original poster tries to make some unknown point about son having paid tax.
– Original poster suggests ACT ‘bureaucracy gone mad!’
– Derision of bloggers initially only stopped by a short discussion regarding the 1999 Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on tax reform, also known as the GST agreement, and federalism in the Australian context.
– Some pertinent international comparisons.
– Short survey of 400 years of western intellectual thought on the meaning and inevitability of taxes (mostly focused on English examples).
– Anecdotal but credible evidence presented that said son was in fact a vague knob when seeking to obtain learners permit a Civic Shopfront in basement of Civic Library, possibly on 16 September 2010.
– Further derision of original poster by bloggers made ‘angry’.
– Dickson Motor Vehicle Registry and staff compared with UK equivalents; accused of general public servant incompetence and stupidity.
– Son accused of being a latent homosexual.

Have I missed anything?

Pork Hunt5:40 pm 26 Oct 10

Any red blooded Aussie male who does not book his licence test to occur within a nano second of said person being eligible is, in my opinion “batting for the other team”.

p14:51 pm 26 Oct 10

Jim Jones said :

James-T-Kirk said :

Everything was better in the past.

Um … nope.

For a start, before about 70 years ago, the world was only in black and white. And then for a long time the colours were all kinda faded. I’m so glad I live now, in a brightly coloured world.

Jim Jones4:27 pm 26 Oct 10

James-T-Kirk said :

Everything was better in the past.

Um … nope.

Master_Bates4:20 pm 26 Oct 10

WHAT ^%$&^%^ PLANET ARE YOU ON JTK.

Most of the public servants in this town work incredibly hard, under trying circumstances to provide a good outcome for our clients.

Pull your head in.

James-T-Kirk3:46 pm 26 Oct 10

peder said :

[
I feel I’ve got to defend Dickson Registry here. I transferred my UK licence to an ACT licence last year without any problems. Staff were very efficient and helpful. It took about 20 minutes and I left with licence that day. No practical or theory driving test required. I think the only thing I had to do was an eye test at the counter. The UK driving licence is one of a handful of forieng licences that the ACT will do this for. Perhaps the rules have changed since you transferred back or perhaps you were seen by somebody who didn’t know what they were doing, but you can definitely just transfer.

It is not Dickson registry you need to defend. It is the 80% of incompetent staff members who work there.

Sometimes, and just sometimes, you will get one who understands the rules. The rest of the time, you will encounter what is typical of the modern Public Service. Having seen 20+ years of government changes, the actual reality is that 20 years ago, Public Servants were competent, and specialised. They knew the rules, and were capable of independent thought. Now we have seen decades of mismanagement in the name of introducing efficiency measures, coupled with the inevitable movement of the clever individuals into other areas, we are seeing the new breed – the professional public servant who can walk into any job across the service, and bumble along, oblivious to the actual damage they are causing the country.

Thank god that the other 20% of public servants remain aware of the rules that they have to administer, and are aware of the reality that they are there to serve the public…..

Oh – Thats rigt – it is the ACT GOVERNMENT SERVICE, isn’t it – they are just there to serve the government.

housebound3:36 pm 26 Oct 10

It took you this long to get sick of bureaucracy!

Dazzlar3:23 pm 26 Oct 10

Bet you’re glad you posted, aren’t you!!!

peder2:43 pm 26 Oct 10

Snarky said :

No advice for the OP I’m afraid, but here’s my experience with the Dickson Registry.

About ten years ago we moved to the UK for a couple of years from our home in Sydney. About 6 months prior to leaving I had to renew my NSW licence (which I’d held for nearly 20 years), and the NSW RTA cancelled the old one by punching a hole in it and giving me a new one. I got to keep the old one.

In the UK you just rock up to the DMV (Dept of Motor Vehicles), fill out a form, hand over your valid Aust licence and a handful of pounds and they issue a new UK licence, no questions asked. So, now I have an old, expired NSW licence and a current UK licence.

Forward a few years, and back in Aus. When I got to the ACT Motor Registry I again applied to convert my current UK licence to an ACT licence.

“No. If you’re coming from a UK licence you need to sit a road rules test first. Test will be fifty bucks please, done when we’re ready in a few days” says the nice lady at the counter.

Protests that I was an Australian citizen (passport), that I’d been an Australian driver for 20 years, showing the fine print on the UK licence that I was able to drive, and the old NSW licence cut no ice at all. No road rules test = no ACT licence. The End.

Then the nice lady said “If you were trying to transfer from another Australian licence I could do it immediately.”

So, while both my curent UK licence and the old, now three-years expired NSW licence were sitting on the counter between us I reached over, retrieved the UK licence and said “I’d like to transfer from this old expired NSW licence to an ACT licence please”. She looked me squarely in the eye, paused to to take stock, and said “Okay”. I walked out 5 minutes later a bonafide ACT driver. And still with a valid UK licence too.

Make of that what you will.

🙂

I feel I’ve got to defend Dickson Registry here. I transferred my UK licence to an ACT licence last year without any problems. Staff were very efficient and helpful. It took about 20 minutes and I left with licence that day. No practical or theory driving test required. I think the only thing I had to do was an eye test at the counter. The UK driving licence is one of a handful of forieng licences that the ACT will do this for. Perhaps the rules have changed since you transferred back or perhaps you were seen by somebody who didn’t know what they were doing, but you can definitely just transfer.

Amanda Hugankis11:29 am 26 Oct 10

I pay tax – a hefty amount and have done so for the last 22 years. But at 36, when I found myself divorced and wanting to change my name BACK to the one I was born with, AND trying to obtain my learners permit to drive at the same time, I found myself in a bureucratic nightmare WITHIN THE SAME STATE! I went to Medicare – what do I need to change my name back? A driver’s license with my new address. I went to govt shopfront, and they told me I needed a rates notice, a rental contract (living with friends!), an electrickery bill. No could do. Birth certificate held no weight as anyone can obtain anyone’s b/c. Decree nisi was applied for by and granted to me in my married name, as I was at that time, so no evidence the maiden name I was claiming was who I was. Bank wouldn’t play. No one would play. Crappy as it was, it was what it was. I had to deal with it.

Its naught to do with his age, or his tax contribution, or his standing in the community. Government agencies and businesses don’t look at someone and say ‘well, you seem nice, respectable, you say you work hard … arrrgh, get away with ya! Don’t worry about complying with our rules … you’re one of the good guys!’

Believe it or not, most rules that seem bureaucratic and a ‘nightmare’ have come about because there are a few bad apples in our community (I know, right?!) that have done the dodgy, forcing industries and govt to make us jump through rings of fire, essentially screwing things for the rest of us. In other cases, its just states talking to states and the breakdown in between. In some cases, its security and assurances for us and/or the business/govt (and all our precious taxes), even though sometimes we can’t see it, all we can see is inconvenience.

Lady – there are people that can’t get essential surgery in this country, people in remote communities without basic facilites, suicide in rural communities and a rising cost of living that is causing more and more people to slip into the realms of poverty, the list goes on. These are tradgedies our taxes don’t even touch the sides of. As inconvenient as it is, your son’s license issues is not a tradgedy. Just an inconvenience.

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