It’s a combination of issues, Kharon.
First and foremost, whichever side is in government, they both rely on the same bureaucrats to keep the heat off the government.
Who is that most downunda pruners blame for every aviation ill? CASA. And that suits both sides of politics very nicely, thank you very much. From governments’ perspective, CASA is doing a splendid job, notwithstanding that CASA actually achieves almost nothing of substance.
You lot take it hook, line and sinker, every time.
The last thing either side of politics wants to do is intervene and take control of anything, because then the spotlight of responsibility would move from the fall-guy bureaucrats to the politicians.
The second, more insidious, issue is that there are very few people left in politics who actually know anything about anything of substance. You now have a generation of politicians whose life experience prior to being elected comprised mainly of working as a staffer for a politician. (That’s why Peter Costello felt entitled to ‘take back’ ‘his’ seat from his staffer to whom the Liberals ‘gifted’ the seat.) Those politicians have also surrounded themselves with staffers who’ve never actually achieved anything other than going to Uni and joining a political party.
These people are great at managing the news cycle and dumbing down complex issues. However, they have no idea how to deal with substantial problems that require strategic thinking over a long-term. They equate the public interest with the party’s short-term political survival. All they do is what’s necessary to get into and stay in power.
Let me demonstrate: When Rudd got the knife, one of his own Parliamentary colleagues was asked, during a radio interview, why Rudd was so unpopular in his own party. The answer was: “Because the country was being run by unelected adolescents.” That was a reference to the staff in Rudd’s office.
Bad news: Australia is still being run by unelected adolescents. They just happen to be in offices other than Rudd’s – for the time being.