13 October 2006

Hon Mr. Kim Beazley, MP
Leader of the Federal ALP

Rebuilding the Public Service??

I noted with interest your proposal for long-overdue reform of the Commonwealth public service.

My interpretation of an article in which you were quoted: Opposition leader, Kim Beazley, has pledged to rebuild and restore trust in a ‘cowed’ public service after a decade of it being trampled on by the Howard Government. He promised a new era of accountability and accused government of promoting a culture of cover-up. Echoing the PM’s pledges before the 1996 election, he promised to: boost FOI arrangements; reform political donation laws; and ensure that public service appointments are based on merit. (Maiden S., ‘ALP to rebuild public service’, Australian, 4/10/06).

While I wish you well in pursuing such a goal, there is unfortunately little credibility in what you are suggesting, because governments of all political persuasions have systemically abused public services for more than two decades. And, while oppositions routinely promise 'reform', they then do not actually do anything significantly different if they gain power. For example:

• as noted in the article outlined above, the current Prime Minister made similar promises in 1996 to reverse the abuses of the Commonwealth public service that had grown under earlier ALP governments, but in practice his government seemed to merely redirect (rather than eliminate) the abuses. Similarly:
• prior to its election in 1989, Queensland's Goss Government cynically promised a 'return to Westminster' but then proceeded with the disgraceful abuse of a reasonably professional but badly neglected public service. This process, apparently motivated mainly by a desire to build the ALP's power base, arguably created a public service devoid of moral or professional credibility and laid the basis for the dysfunctional administrative machinery that now causes government to lurch from crisis to crisis (see Queensland's Worst Government?). However:
• Queensland's opposition now argues that these problems can only be overcome by a change in government - a claim in which they also lack credibility (see Queensland's Oppositon seems Equally Guilty).

If the ALP wants to demonstrate sincerity in relation to what you are proposing, it does not need to wait until after a federal election. ALP governments have control of state administrations and, at least in Queensland and probably elsewhere, have a record of abusing political power that is as bad as that of federal governments (see The Growing Case for a Professional Public Service).

Until there is serious effort to correct abuses in state administrations, I am afraid that the ALP's worthy reform proposal will suffer a huge credibility gap.

Regards

John Craig