The Public Sector - Death by a thousand cuts.

Bernard Robertson-Dunn (brd@dynamite.com.au)
Fri, 23 Oct 1998 10:11:47 +1000

Looking at the administrative arrangements orders for the new
government I am struck by some rather strange changes.

Traditionally - like before last week - most departments looked
after specific, external (to the government) policy and service
delivery issues. Only three had an internal, cross government role

- Treasury (who were responsible for policies
regarding collecting money)

- Finance and Administrative Affairs (who were responsible - either
seperately or jointly - for spending money and co-ordinating the
public service)

- Prime Minister and Cabinet (who had a cross government and
public service co-ordinating role)

If we look at the new Department of Communications, Information
Technology and the Arts, they have a mixture of external
responsibilities (Comms, Arts and IT industry) and cross public
service responsibilities (management of government records,
government online delivery and IT)

This is a significant change to the structure of the public service
and seems to be happening without comment or discussion.

I get the distinct impression that this governemnt is hell bent on
radically re-engineering government fucntions in this country. The
allocation of GST revenue directly to the states is anothe example
of this push.

I would argue that this re-engineering has been done without
thinking it through and that there will be a number of significant
unintended consequences that will bite this and future governments
in the backside and that we, the citizens, will ultimately pay the
price.

Unfortunately the symptoms, poor service delivery, inefficient and
ineffective government etc, will not be clearly linked back to the
faceless people who are responsible for these changes. Unless of
course it is just plain incompetence caused by a lack of good and
thoughtful advice from an already crippled and politicised public
service.

What has this got to do with networks and the internet? Our ability
to capitalise on the opportunities presented by new technology will
be severly impacted and we Internetphiles will carry on banging our
heads against a variety of brick walls.

-- 
Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.
-- Montaigne


Regards
brd


Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd@dynamite.com.au