On another thread,
Clapton posted the following comment in relation to the reappointment of Mike Taylor as the Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, by Anthony Albanese.
The fact that he re-appointed Taylor for 5 years shows how incompetent he is and can't see (or doesn't care) that Taylor must ultimately also share total blame for Byron's failings because the Secretary is meant to properly oversee the operations and policies dreamt up by Byron (which is why the Act was changed in 2003 to give the Secretary proper powers of oversight). Taylor knew exactly what was going on - and what was not going on eg regulatory reform, partnership policy, allowing now to come to work - and stood by and let it all happen. As a reward he gets re-appointed for 5 years. Shows just how out of touch Albanese is - I suspect that he will be just as bad as Anderson. Nothing will change. Regulatory reform will drag on forever - or at least until there is a major airline accident.
It occurs to me that Mike Taylor is barely known. He has been in the position for nearly five years and obviously has immense power. For example, I have recently been told by a person in CASA that the decision in relation to the $100 million ADS-B subsidy rests solely with the Department.
Can you imagine that? They will be making the decision, yet the decision makers are almost invisible. Mike Taylor is in an incredibly powerful position and I’m sure most agree he is almost invisible. Surely he should be made famous. This is a democracy.
I’m sure he would be prepared to be held accountable for the decisions that are made by the organisations under him. He should be regularly interviewed by the media – just as the media regularly tries to get comments from Bruce Byron and Greg Russell.
Posters comment on the large amount of money paid to both Bruce Byron and Greg Russell, but no comment is made in relation to the pay that a secretary receives. Does anyone know what it is? Is it commensurate with the decisions they have to make?
My main criticism of the Department is that once a bureaucrat comes up to speed in aviation, they disappear. For over three years we had a man called Martin Dolan, who was the Deputy Secretary and responsible for aviation. He no sooner came up to speed when he left the Department. We then had the very capable Mike Mrdak, who came up to speed on aviation but then also left.
The main point is that Australia is an accountable democracy – it is not China, or not yet – and people who are making decisions must be held personally accountable and should be in front of the media at all times.
Most importantly, they must be responsible for the decisions they make which are correct, and also for the decisions they make when they are incorrect. You only have to look at the military procurement program (where no one has been held accountable for the $1 billion Super Seasprite fiasco) to know how the bureaucracy works. Why wasn’t the Secretary of that Department held accountable?
We want top people running our bureaucracies, not “Yes, Minister” type people. I’m sure everyone will agree.
Here is a bit of
information about Mike Taylor. His experience primarily appears to be in the bureaucracy and specializing in agriculture – he doesn’t appear to have any experience in aviation. There is further information
here.