TOWARDS A PROFESSIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE FOR QUEENSLAND

Email dated 30/8/07

Mr Greg Rowell

A Plan to Fix the Water Crisis

I noted with interest that your candidacy for Lord Mayor of Brisbane focuses on a proposal for grassroots actions (ie involving water tanks, action in sporting fields and parks, water savings in homes) that will presumably help reduce Brisbane's water supply problems.

I would like to suggest for your consideration that there is a need also for serious institutional reforms if problems such as the water crisis are to be solved and not repeated in different forms in the future.

This point is argued in more detail in Structural Incompetence and SE Queensland's Water Crisis. The latter refers, for example, to the contribution which: unworkable federal financial imbalances; political neglect of public administration in the 1980; failure of public sector reform in the 1990s: and amateurish arrangements for infrastructure development and growth management have had in the emergence of the current crisis. While these impact on, but are not controlled by, local government, I submit that your aspirations for Brisbane City Council are unlikely to be achieved until there is reform of the dysfunctional environment in which local authorities are forced to operate.

I would be interested in your views about these matters.

Regards

John Craig