How to run a go slow to tricky questions

It’s probably all of a piece with the bureaucratic handling of the storm in a skinny latte cup over Hanson’s vehicle usage. Sadly, it’s hardly surprising when you have a bureaucracy answering to a very small unicameral legislature, with four year fixed terms and with the same party having been in power for more than a decade. On the latter, Andrew Barr’s reference to the “forthcoming Festival of Democracy that is the Territory Election”, in his 21 June speech (about his new rates and taxes system) to the Property Council, may have been an attempt at drollery for the benefit of his audience, but to me it had more than a whiff of the hubris, and impatience with the baggage of democracy, which this Government all-too-often displays. To the extent that is so, I have little doubt similar attitudes would have permeated at least some elements of the bureaucracy.

This suggests to me that the entity in question should stop referring to itself as the ACT Public Service and start calling itself the ACT Government Service, with all that implies. When it comes to the crunch, there can be little doubt that serving the Government of the day – seemingly regardless, at times, of trifling considerations such as probity, accountability, natural justice and the principles of administrative law – is its first and over-riding consideration.

This makes me cringe at how much time & money are wasted in the cogs of the public service. A handful of people are involved in query redirection, status check email etc, for 2 paltry sentences. Depressing….