Rees' 1st anniversary

What a ramshackle first anniversary for Nathan Rees:

* A state down the toilet in every sense of the word;
* A squabbling Labor party;
* A stalemate in the Legislative Council;
* A court system in disarray;
* A stupid spin doctor programme called 13 Super Departments;
* A crumbling public sector;
* Hospitals well and truly stuffed;
* No plans and no work done to improve the transport for the south west and north west of Sydney
* Rural/regional services stretched beyond breaking

And now the self-serving interests of the business community comes on line to haunt Rees.
Bring on the state election now!

Finally Public Administration in NSW Under the Gun

Finally there is some mainstream media discussion of the public administration policies of the NSW Government! An excerpt from Beverley Kingston's essay in Sydney Ideas Quarterly has been published in today's edition of the Sydney Morning Herald.

Kingston refers to the problem as the "rotting core". She quite rightly points out that once upon a time the management of departments involved people who stood up to ministers and who could plan long term regardless of who was running Macquarie Street. Now the senior bureaucrats are mere puppets and political animals who do their masters' bidding. They fulfil stupid contracts and write up reports of their performance indicators and claim that they "led" the department in doing x, y, and z.

Usually the executive bureaucrat does nothing at all in working out the details of x, y and z because the schemes are delegated to employees who do the grunt work. Employees are rarely thanked but are expected to deliver results irrespective of whether scheme was feasible in the first place.

When a scheme goes belly up the senior executive bureaucrat reacts like a pit-bull attacking employees. Executive bureaucrats like to take credit but never the responsibility for orchestrating things that may be plain stupid, unworkable or even implausible. These days there seems to be no regard for deep intelligence, skill, and acquired knowledge needed to run departments.

Kingston says:
"The instructions coming from the top are not necessarily informed or relevant, but frequently overwhelm the ability of individuals with expert on-the-spot knowledge to take an initiative or defy a direction."

How true! I've seen senior bureaucrats react with sandpit temper tantrums when someone with intelligence tells the boss the facts of life run contrary to the proposed policy or scheme.

That's why a colonic irrigation clean-out is needed: Directors-General of departments and their deputy subordinate sycophants must go from the NSW public service. The places to start the clean-up are the departments of Health, Attorney General, and Transport.

Another Lame Duck Premier About To Depart

Yes, it is just a mere formality before Nathan Rees ceases to be Premier of NSW and a new marionette show orchestrated from the right-wing faction of the ALP begins. The choice of a woman - Kristina Keneally or Carmel Tebbutt - will be a change of puppet for sure. But the lads in Sussex Street miss the point: we are not fooled by the attempt to imitate Queensland with Anna Bligh.

As the Upper House relationship between the ALP and the Shooters Party remains at a stalemate the prospect of a hung Parliament needing to be dissolved for an election looms large.

The members of Cabinet should be asking themselves how did they end up in this mess. All they have to do is think back to the absurd lobbying of Laurie Glanfield and John Hatzistergos over the merger of the Protective Commissioner and Public Trustee in June. They secured the passage for that via wooing The Greens in exchange for stuffing up The Shooter's bill on bang-bangs in National Parks. If Glanfield and Hatzistergos had not been so adamant about pushing through on that issue then maybe Labor would still have The Shooters onside. Now they don't and it is impossible to govern the state without at least 3 secure votes from minor parties.

Premier Rees Takes A Vacation! Ha!

Premier Rees has vanished for the week before Parliament resumes. That gives the gals and boys time now to sharpen their daggers when Caesar returns for the frenzied Ides of March doom that awaits him. More puppetry of the Premier show!

Nicholas Cowdery: Appoint Him As NSW Attorney General

What a stinking piece of crap this article is in the Sun Herald about Nicholas Cowdery the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions. It allows John Hatzistergos to make all kinds of assertions about Mr Cowdery, while it seems the Attorney General is conveniently hoping that no one will put the spotlight on the Chernobyl-like melt-down that has rooted his entire Department.

Nicholas Cowdery seems to have a fine legal mind and has more astute judgment about the policy crap that clogs up the NSW Public Sector. I'd support Mr Cowdery being made Attorney General!

Memo to Rees: Don't Try To Deflect Attention

Which spin-doctor dreamed up this silly piece of nonsense for Nathan Rees to sprout about "maybe it is time for a new national flag"? This is a sign of sheer desperation to try and divert attention from the abominable administrative mess blighting the NSW State Government and NSW Public Sector.

UPDATE:
Barry O'Farrell quite rightly sticks it to the Premier on the drivel about the flag.

Changing the Puppet in Macquarie Street

Only a couple of weeks to go until the deadlocked NSW Parliament resumes "business". And the demise of Nathan Rees as Premier-Puppet seems assured. There will be a Punch-and-Judy-Show and then another puppet will appear.

The ALP in NSW is wasting its time because the whole Labor Government is no longer a patient in intensive care. No the Labor Government is just another body in the fridge waiting for the overworked coroner to do the post-mortem!

We look forward with a yawn to the next "Sooty Show" from Labor.