Aviation in "caretaker mode"-I guess the Bureaucrats are in charge?

[Frank Arouet]

What can possibly go wrong?


The following came cross my desk this week and I was struck by similarities with our authorities in The Senate, in various reviews and inquiries. It makes one think that nothing short of a Spanish Inquisition will get the truth and transparencies required to effect any change to the malignant regulatory muddle that has decimated a once vibrant industry.


"We’re all used to a certain amount of doublespeak and bureaucratese in government
hearings. That’s as old as forever. But in the last year of listening to testimony from
government officials, there is something different about the boredom and
indifference with which government testifiers skirt, dodge and with hold the truth. They
don’t seem furtive or defensive; they are not in the least afraid. They speak always with
a certain --they are lawyered up--but they have no evident fear of looking evasive. They
really don’t care what you think of them. They’re running the show and if you don’t like
it, too bad. And all this new bureaucratic style on the national level. During Watergate
those hauled in and grilled by Congress were nervous...But commissioners and
department heads now --they really think they’re in charge. They don’t bother to fake
anxiety about public opinion. They care only about personal legal exposure. The do not
fear public wrath.


Peggy Noonan, “The new Bureaucratic Brazenness,” The Wall Street Journal, October


4-5, 20014, A13".

[Lead Balloon]

That's because they're now part of 'the protected'.

Here's a fine example of the government spending taxpayer's money in the public interest. The 'protected' sending out a warning. Don't ever embarrass the Pollie Protection Service - sorry - the Australian Public Service: Fraud investigator wrote helpful guide, found himself in court

An expert public service fraud investigator who published a helpful guide to government departments was charged with disclosing sensitive information, despite basing the book entirely on publicly available content.

The bizarre case came before Magistrate Peter Dingwall for sentencing on Thursday, and he had no hesitation in making a non-conviction order for the long-serving senior public servant.

"This is one of the clearest cases for [a non-conviction order] that I've seen in my 26 years being here," Mr Dingwall said.

The man had considerable experience in fraud investigation, studying it at length, working in the private sector and in government departments and at the Fair Work Ombudsman.

He had also served the community significantly in other ways. He was with the State Emergency Service during its response to the Thredbo landslide, and has spent 11 years in the Rural Fire Service.

The book, Australian Public Service Fraud Investigation, was written with the aim of recording his considerable experience and helping government departments prevent and investigate fraud.

He used information from his employment, but the entirety of the book's contents were based on publicly available information.

Strangely, he was charged and prosecuted for using a government database to help format and distil the material for the book.

His barrister Ken Archer said the allegations against his client were effectively that he breached intellectual property of the department.

"Your Honour will see from the documents that they are documents that are essentially, in my respectful submission, distilled from publicly available documents," he said.

The book sold 27 copies, before the department issued an objection.

The public servant immediately stopped publishing, and then cooperated fully with police.

"He did not commit the offence believing that it was wrong to have done so," Mr Archer said.

He was then charged with disclosing sensitive Commonwealth information, which carries a two-year maximum penalty.

The proceedings forced him to resign from his job, and he has had to seek psychological counselling and medication due to the stress.

The Commonwealth prosecution argued that the man should be convicted, saying it was necessary to deter others in the community from acting in the same way.

The prosecutor did not dispute the defendant's excellent character, but said that was common for public servants.

He conceded there was no harm flowing from the book to the department, but said the offence was not trivial.

Mr Dingwall rejected the prosecution's push for a conviction, finding it was a case that warranted a non-conviction order.

"The defendant was entirely motivated to pass on what he learnt in his extensive study to others who may benefit from it," Mr Dingwall said.

"In my view, the criminality is very low indeed."

[aroa]

Those at the trough know only too well the way things work.
As they have said...' Ministers and polllies come and go...we go on forever.'

Case . Minister Truss, his ASRR He's gone. Its gone. Job done.

Public servants, my arsk...Self servants.

[CoodaShooda]

I was talking to a public sectorite (note...not servant) yesterday when she mentioned that a particular decision had been made by the Acting Chief Executive of her department.

Having known the incumbent Chief Executive for nearly 40 years and not being aware that someone else was acting in his place, I asked the obvious question "Who's the acting CE?".

Her answer? "I can't tell you that!" - and she was serious. :eek:

(It took me five minutes to find its a chap I've only known for thirty years. Our next conversation will be interesting. :E)

I've been in the interesting position of being able to watch the establishment and growth of a new government and public service and then to mourn its creeping demise after the administrators changed its name from Public Service to Public Sector. It has long lost touch with the community it was established to serve and is a law unto itself. :mad:

[Lead Balloon]

It is disturbing to watch the fabric of government slowly weakening and fraying. The SES (Senior Executive Service) should be renamed the PPS (politician protection service). They effectively work for the advisers and Chiefs of Staff in the various Ministers' offices - increasingly, just political hacks and wannabes.

The politicians' interest is now conflated for the public interest.

Most everyone below the PPS level is so afraid of doing something "unpopular" that they've lost touch with reality (e.g. your friend who was afraid to nominate the acting CE, as if it were some kind of state secret) or just keep their heads down for fear of being noticed.

Utopia and Hollowmen are documentaries.

[Trigglypuff]

Lead Balloon, I have seen many events where the SES in a department would rather spend another $5-$10M fixing a "perceived" problem than tell the minister a program or system is going to be a month late. Quite possibly for a promise that the minister forgot they even made. They are all far too scared for their jobs to be bearers of bad news. Frank and Fearless were smart, they left the public circus and are now contracting back at 2x the rate with 1/2 the care.

[Lead Balloon]

Ah the good ol' days. I remember Frank and Fearless (and their friend, Ernest).

I've heard Jobson Groath and Laura Norda have come out of retirement for this election campaign (as usual), although Laura's a bit out of favour these days. Zena seems much more popular this time around, despite her phobias.

IT contractors, in particular, love the 'big promises', because everyone wants to buy software instead of doing work. There's no end of people ready and willing to sell governments some software that is sure to be the solution to everyone's problems.