It’s been happening for decades and all sides of politics have a hand in how public servants became usurped by global consulting firms, diminishing the public service in the process. Who are these firms that hold so much influence over our governments and how do we keep them accountable? asks Lachlan Guselli.
The LNP rule “privatization and the free market makes things cheaper” has proven to be bullshit time and time again.
At a time when the relationship between the Australian public service and consultancy firms is under fierce scrutiny, a new unit is looking at keeping more work in-house.
The Robodebt saga was not the Public Service’s finest moment. The recent release of the National Cabinet minutes confirms that the problems of secrecy, obfuscation and ignoring legal advice are widespread. Rex Patrick explains.
The authors wave a red flag at public-private partnerships, which, despite major failures, continue to be promoted by institutions such as the World Bank to finance social services and infrastructure. By Océane Blavot, Rodolfo Bejarano and Mae Buenaventura in Brussels, Lima and Manila
“Our Future is Public: The Santiago Declaration for Public Services” — an agreement signed by more than 200 organisations vowing to work to “transform our systems, valuing human rights and ecological sustainability over GDP growth and narrowly defined economic gains.”
One of the most damaging initiatives that has deeply affected the delivery of public services and infrastructure projects on all continents is the rise of public-private partnerships, or PPPs.
The Whitlam government fostered a great strengthening of the public service and its policy capacity. Sadly, much of that has been lost with the excessive political controls of more recent governments. Can the Albanese Government reverse some of the decline?
Politicians would lose the ability to decide who gets billions of dollars in grants every year under a proposal from an independent think tank aimed at ending pork-barrelling in key marginal electorates.The Grattan Institute, in a report released overnight, said the “waste” of pork-barrelling had contributed to a fall in community confidence in Australian politics and increased perceptions that the political system was corrupt.
It showed huge discrepancies in the 19,000 grants allocated during that period, with Coalition seats sharing $1.9 billion compared to Labor seats’ $530 million. Adjacent seats received vastly different allocations with the only difference being the political hue of the electorate.
The Grattan research, which used much of the information uncovered by The Herald and The Age, found marginal seats were funded at almost four times the rate of safe seats in the $1 billion Community Development Grant program.
Busted!! The LNP strategy of putting LNP supporters in charge of Government Departments is straight out of the Steve Bannon, American GOP Republican and Leninist strategies. The LNP was intent on dismantling the Public Service and has been doing it for the past 13 years.
Agency’s statement, which triggered last-minute scare campaign from Liberals, prompts increasing questions about its independence
Australian Border Force did not issue press releases about any of the five boat interceptions it made in the four years prior to its controversial election-day announcement that a vessel had been detected near Christmas Island, prompting further questions about the political independence of the agency.
The ABF is investigating its election-day conduct, which the acting prime minister, Richard Marles, has described as a “disgrace”.
The agency issued a press release as voting was under way, warning of the interception of an asylum-seeker boat off Christmas Island, precipitating a last-minute scare campaign warning voters to maintain border security by voting Liberal.
Now no longer Independent of Government they are totally reliant on them for their contracts and have become the Organ Grinders Monkeys
Some of the most senior figures to have left the Victorian public service in recent years for jobs in the consultancy sector are back in charge of government agencies or departments.
Someone needs to challenge the broken political mind-set around the size and nature of the federal workforce. No one has a better track record of changing such political paradigms than you.
After decades of the “no more bureaucrats” political feedback loop, private contractors working for the federal government now outnumber federal employees, by a factor of more than two to one.
Last year public servant Josh Krook wrote a blog post in which he argued that Covid-19 benefitted big tech because forced social isolation would drive people to online platforms. He worked for the Commonwealth Industry Department that deals extensively with tech companies; he was fired because he refused to delete the post. This follows the firing of Immigration Department employee Michaela Banerji, who was dismissed over a series of Tweets, among other things, that were critical of Australia’s treatment of refugees. Banerji made 9,000 posts, mostly sent from her personal device outside of work hours. The High Court ruled Banerji’s dismissal was warranted because she had breached the Australian Public Service Code of Conduct which stipulates that public servants must act impartially and are prohibited from engaging in any forms of “harassment”. The 2019 High Court ruling (Comcare v Banerji) effectively said public servants could be sacked for comments they make on social media. And then we come to Geoff Philip Wade, a public servant employed by the Department of Parliamentary Services. Wade, who works as a researcher in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, is one of Australia’s most prolific anti-China Twitter users. Wade has made 42,000 posts, nearly five times that of Banerji, a great number of which appear to have been sent from inside Parliament House. Often during his “working day” he will send out Tweets every five or 10 minutes. He has published photos, phone numbers and personal email addresses of people whose only crime is being Chinese or advancing views contrary to his own. The Department of Parliamentary Services refused to answer questions about Wade’s use of social media during taxpayer-funded work hours. A spokesperson cited “privacy considerations”.
Archie Bunker was a symbol of Free Speech that Trump is not and an enabler of Violence
Donald Trump has been an unabashed menace to our country. Many lessons need to be learned. The biggest is that we should never allow a psychopath to run our country, no matter what divisions and hostilities are brewing among the people. His rhetoric, his motives, his intentions and his actions have all created chaos and turmoil — all with the goal of keeping him in power so he could serve himself, not others.
During his four-year tenure in the White House, President Donald Trump packed powerful federal regulatory agencies with dozens of right-wing loyalists who are well-placed to stall or undermine the agenda of President-elect Joe Biden from the moment he takes office.
The Public Service and the ABC seem to be seen as something very different by the LNP in a Democracy. MP’s become the “experts” (ODT)
Clearly this Prime Minister sees no role for the public service in identifying and responding to present and future policy problems that should demand attention. That role would extend to helping the Government of the day to set its policy agenda. But according to Scott Morrison, any advisory role for the public service is limited to advice on implementation.
I would contend, however, that this limited role for the public service, with its focus on implementation is very different from the role that the Australian public service, at its best, played in the past.
America’s Trumpland Politics is arriving in Australia. Public Agencies are being politicized in the manner of the USA (ODT)
Chris Bowen says the government is politicising commonwealth agencies
Chris Bowen has objected to the appointment of former Liberal staffers to the Treasury and the Productivity Commission. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Labor has raised concerns about the Turnbull government’s decision to appoint former political staffers to key bureaucratic roles in proximity to the federal election expected either later this year, or in the first half of 2019.
While there have been many comparisons made to Trump and Hitler, some accurate and some not, one action Trump appears to be taking is particularly chilling.
While there have been many comparisons made to Trump and Hitler, some accurate and some not, one action Trump appears to be taking is particularly chilling.
olddogthoughts 
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