While it's easy to give minority groups a kicking, the major parties are even more to blame, the role of the Public Service has been completely changed by successive LIB/NAT Governments. The role they used to play was frank and fearless advice to Government, to use their decades of experience to help Government work out what could or couldn't be done.
We have all heard the criticism, too much red tape, too unwieldy and those criticisms have been valid, understand though the reasons why, red tape is there because people are corrupt and they corrupt the red tape process as well, but the red tape is meant to be there to stop corruption. It's unwieldy because it's meant to be, rational well thought out decisions need to be reviewed and that takes time.
The Public Service have become "the problem", when it should be the answer, but we have lost generations of institutional memory and anyone trying to fight for them becomes part of a deep state conspiracy.
Where we are now is something different, the Public service isn't there for advice it's there to implement Government Policy unquestioned, just before Xmas, Dec 5, the Secretary for the Dept of Environment and Energy, became the Secretary for the Dept of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. A new Dept. of Agriculture, Water and Environment was formed. Watch any fire chief any spokesman for the a Gov. service in this period and they will not talk about climate change nor will they have anything to say about, readiness to fight fires, equipment, trainer, staff levels. Nor will you hear any NGO criticise Government; they found out under Howard that any criticism of Government or Legislation meant that the NGO lost their funding completely, criticise Government and they don't exist for much longer.
For decades now we've lived with a "Summer Crew", they're not there to fight fires, they're there to keep tracks open, to help manage, but they're not there to understand the forest, They don't have to be paid sick pay, holiday pay, they work short term contracts, sure there are some old soaks amongst them but generally they're the university aged students of local farmers and Environmental Studies students getting some real world experience. We have it this way because it's cheaper, because these people have no weight when it comes to questioning policy, the people above them, even when they know what they are doing is wrong, they know that to question or kick up a fuss means either the end of their career or the end of their job completely and that's even more effective with Summer Crew.
Go back to the Kennett years at state level and a blanket unquestionable 10% cut to the Dept. of Environment, (Marie Tehan didn't even try to fight it, offering to cut deeper) and the Dept. of Human Services. Think on the Dept. of Human Services that money was taken out of Psychiatric Care, a cousin of mine was released out of care into his father's custody and promptly burned his Dad's uninsured house down, at the same time there was a massive increase in stabbings, bashings and fires, just the obvious result of putting thousands of people of really questionable sanity out on the streets without the monitoring of medication.
The Labor Party isn't safe here either, they don't fight it because it can't be fought, it's sold to us as tax relief, lower taxes, better tax returns, bigger super, streamlined government. Even if the Lib/Nats bring it in Labour rolls with it because no one can sell higher taxes. If you really want to blame a political party give the Nats a kicking, these are the seats they stand in, win and hold for generations, they stand by and sell their own voters down the drain so that they can have a share of power, they can get the thrill of being important. They make sure that money isn't spent, country people keep voting for them and they keep getting financial support from Agribusiness and Mining.
The real blame though rests with us, we vote for these governments, we make choices about the reasons why we vote for them, we don't care about the detail, we don't read the fine print, we don't care what it means for other people, we vote on personality, how good looking someone is, how genuine they are, what it means for our back pocket. It's a damned sight easier to believe than to think, it's a damned sight easier to hate than to try and understand. We voted for the governments of all persuasions that have got it wrong for decades.
We have all heard the criticism, too much red tape, too unwieldy and those criticisms have been valid, understand though the reasons why, red tape is there because people are corrupt and they corrupt the red tape process as well, but the red tape is meant to be there to stop corruption. It's unwieldy because it's meant to be, rational well thought out decisions need to be reviewed and that takes time.
The Public Service have become "the problem", when it should be the answer, but we have lost generations of institutional memory and anyone trying to fight for them becomes part of a deep state conspiracy.
Where we are now is something different, the Public service isn't there for advice it's there to implement Government Policy unquestioned, just before Xmas, Dec 5, the Secretary for the Dept of Environment and Energy, became the Secretary for the Dept of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. A new Dept. of Agriculture, Water and Environment was formed. Watch any fire chief any spokesman for the a Gov. service in this period and they will not talk about climate change nor will they have anything to say about, readiness to fight fires, equipment, trainer, staff levels. Nor will you hear any NGO criticise Government; they found out under Howard that any criticism of Government or Legislation meant that the NGO lost their funding completely, criticise Government and they don't exist for much longer.
For decades now we've lived with a "Summer Crew", they're not there to fight fires, they're there to keep tracks open, to help manage, but they're not there to understand the forest, They don't have to be paid sick pay, holiday pay, they work short term contracts, sure there are some old soaks amongst them but generally they're the university aged students of local farmers and Environmental Studies students getting some real world experience. We have it this way because it's cheaper, because these people have no weight when it comes to questioning policy, the people above them, even when they know what they are doing is wrong, they know that to question or kick up a fuss means either the end of their career or the end of their job completely and that's even more effective with Summer Crew.
Go back to the Kennett years at state level and a blanket unquestionable 10% cut to the Dept. of Environment, (Marie Tehan didn't even try to fight it, offering to cut deeper) and the Dept. of Human Services. Think on the Dept. of Human Services that money was taken out of Psychiatric Care, a cousin of mine was released out of care into his father's custody and promptly burned his Dad's uninsured house down, at the same time there was a massive increase in stabbings, bashings and fires, just the obvious result of putting thousands of people of really questionable sanity out on the streets without the monitoring of medication.
The Labor Party isn't safe here either, they don't fight it because it can't be fought, it's sold to us as tax relief, lower taxes, better tax returns, bigger super, streamlined government. Even if the Lib/Nats bring it in Labour rolls with it because no one can sell higher taxes. If you really want to blame a political party give the Nats a kicking, these are the seats they stand in, win and hold for generations, they stand by and sell their own voters down the drain so that they can have a share of power, they can get the thrill of being important. They make sure that money isn't spent, country people keep voting for them and they keep getting financial support from Agribusiness and Mining.
The real blame though rests with us, we vote for these governments, we make choices about the reasons why we vote for them, we don't care about the detail, we don't read the fine print, we don't care what it means for other people, we vote on personality, how good looking someone is, how genuine they are, what it means for our back pocket. It's a damned sight easier to believe than to think, it's a damned sight easier to hate than to try and understand. We voted for the governments of all persuasions that have got it wrong for decades.
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this really is a sh1t thread 
