Civil service review and the end of public sector punk

Pedro says:

10:41am | 29/03/10

If Howard is punk, then Rudd has to be the Phil Spector wall of noise ...

Bush Wacker acker says:

12:18pm | 29/03/10

Just saw Malcolm Fraser comment at his recent book launch, hereditary political families is scary, hereditary public servant families is even scarier. Time for change, hire some people with commercial experience, move some of the bureaucracy out to the bush and start hiring some of these older Australian’s that are having their pension start date pushed back.

Margaret Gray says:

01:02pm | 29/03/10

“...When I reflect on the Howard years, the soundtrack in my head is Johnny Farnham, Dire Straits or Phil Collins…”

And you’d be TEN YEARS out of date, music genius.

Knowing how to spell CBGB doesn’t make you ‘punk’.

Were you even alive when punk music was not being played on the radio?

Baza of Brisbane says:

02:12pm | 29/03/10

I am not sure I can see JWH singing God save the Queen or anything really. A strong public sector is good for our nation, it provides or should good support to any sitting government. One contributer wants people hired from the private sector, good luck with that as even top public sector wages do not compare with the lucre being handed out by the top banks for instance. But nice article Nadine.

Dazza says:

09:18pm | 29/03/10

Another self serving article from a union secretary who is aiming for a safe labor seat in a few years just like her predecessor Stephen Jones.

David says:

09:42pm | 29/03/10

The public service is the new aristocracy. Underworked, overpaid, out of touch, and a parasitic burden on those who have real jobs. Private enterprise (especially small business)  is being crushed by taxes and red tape. It will end in revolt.

Andrew Goff says:

12:23am | 30/03/10

Our public service is weak, but mainly due to incredible bereaucracy. Layers and layers of middle management passing the buck and drafting new legislation with layers and layers of statutory detail.

Why? Apart from more job opportunities for mediocre people, there is no interest in making it simple. In fact, there are many vested interests in making the law as complex as possible.

Centrelink comes immediately to mind - my mum’s experience with them was so bad she (in a rare moment of rude language) told them to “stuff off” when she was claiming a benefit. This was after 3 weeks and 4 different stories from incompetent staff (on more than $60,000 a year! That’s more than a teacher gets ffs!).

A ratio of 1 manger to every 2.3 staff members is obscene. Overworked? If they are it is only due to woeful training and technology and a culture so big on meetings and committees that there is no time for actual work.

Howard’s approach to try and force the Public service to change may be one of the bravest moves in politics. Unfortunately it was sabotaged by both public service cronies and politics, and even sadder was that he tried to fix it with party political appointments. Awful.

I very strongly beleive in a regulated free market, but when a public service is as incompetent at regulating as ours has been for decades it makes me look more like a dreamer than a practical person.

Adam Dennis says:

06:29am | 30/03/10

While I don’t necessarily agree with this entire article, I did spend 17 years in the APS, from 1981 onwards. The APS I joined was a horrible 1960’s place, made more oppressive under Lynch’s Razor Gang. The Second Tier Wage Agreement of ... 1989? ... led to dramatic changes in the way the Service worked, and began what I now think of as the halcyon days. As a business owner since the late 90’s, I often reflect on the broad range of skills I developed through hard work and opportunities in the APS. Of course there’s plenty of people who don’t work so hard ... but in all the negative comments above you could replace “public service” with “insurance industry” (or anything else) and your statement would be equally valid. I met and worked proudly with lots of people who believed in the words “public service” and really did it justice.

I remain convinced that a properly focused and streamlined APS could be a boon to this country, whereas a bloated and fractured Service is a millstone around our necks. This is the challenge for Terry Moran.

Micko says:

09:34am | 30/03/10

Nadine…your union agenda betrays you.

A unified public service is simply code for forcing all agencies to offer their employee the same wages and working conditions, regardless of the underlying labour market from which a government agency is drawing its skills.  This suits the union because it can leverage the highest paid areas to pull the wage levels of rest of the service upwards. 

The union would also prefer that public servants were mobile within the public service, but less likely to come from, or exit to, the private sector.  This is because 1) a private sector worker is less likely to have been a union member, especially not a public sector union member (the CPSU – the union that the author of this article is the boss of is the principle one) and 2) by promoting the idea of a generic public sector worker that moves around doing generic type jobs in various agencies the union (or public sector association) becomes a central part of that persons working life and part of their professional identity.

Sorry…but gone are they days when you could be a generic (cardigan wearing) public sector employee with broad and basic skills (like when to sign off a letter “yours sincerely” or “yours faithfully”) are gone.  The public sector now requires technical experts in a vast range of areas such as economists, engineers, health experts, educationalists and defence experts whose skills are not readily transferred from one service delivery areas to another.

Since the market for economists and accountants is different for call centre workers one might naturally expect that the wages and working conditions for Treasury and Centerlink employees might be different, not least we would expect call centre workers to work outside traditional 9-5 public sector working hours. 

The public would be better served if there was more frequent exchange of employees between the public and private sectors…this would promote the exchange of skills and ideas…it would keep the service modern and would ensure that when the nature of public sector service delivery changes then public sector workers whose skills are no longer required can readily make the transition back to the private sector.  Additionally the private sector cold benefit from the wealth of knowledge, intelligence and skills invested in the public sector.

AussieJazzman says:

11:06am | 30/03/10

There is one central flaw to the agenda that the CPSU is pushing (and I say this as a member), and that is union affiliation to the ALP.  Whilst CPSU membership is affiliation-optional, it is no secret that the higher echelons of employees and elected officials are almost all ALP.  The idea of a non-politicised public sector is an admirable one, it’s incredibly wasteful for incoming governments to slash and burn the top ranks of the sector in order to clear out the stooges.  However, if the union is affiliated, moving to the CPSU’s preferred model of a single, union-negotiated classification system inherently undermines the idea of the independence of the sector where the central player representing the workers is a major contributor to ALP coffers.  Whilst Ms Flood may argue that this will have no impact whatsoever on the actions of the union, even if that IS the case, the perception of bias will still be there (not helped by Stephen Jones being parachuted into Throsby).  This will effectively force the Coalitions hand should it come into power.

Furthermore, affiliation to the ALP prevents the CPSU, and other unions, from lodging legitimate criticisms of Federal and State Labor Governments.  The difference in the tone of content of political messaging emanating from the union movement shifted substantially immediately after 07, and the CPSU has found itself incapable of criticising the Government with vehemence, even where vehemence is justifiable.  The most significant example is the change in tone from the construction unions from loud outrage to mildly muted opposition to the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act measures, despite the fact that the Rudd Government retained most of their coercive powers within the Building and Construction division within Fair Work.

In short, disaffiliate, represent the interests of your members honestly to both sides of Government, and you will be a more credible voice and have less to fear from the Coalition, and lose the damaging perception that you’re just in it for preselection.

S.L says:

02:58pm | 30/03/10

To write about the Howard government and the public service in punk terms is something I’d never thought of but it was a reasonable assessment in my view. I wonder if any of the shock jocks from radio 2GB or any other branch of the Liberal party cheer squad has read this?
Food for thought Nadine, well written.

very upset and stressed aussie says:

06:18pm | 15/07/10

Polictics have become a ““SHOWBIZ”” like Kylie Mono and other famous celebrates SHOW BIZ IS THE BEST for media
and all of us ordinary public of Australia is unheard no listen to ignored who is in power is the winner and like us are still struggling day to day life
MINISTERS IGNORES US, POWER BROKER IGNORES US MEDIA WANTS MONEY MONEY ONLY MONEY
who will listen to the truth nothing but he truth
why is everyone become deaf to the truth

WHOAMI says:

08:17pm | 01/12/10

WHO AM I - I AM BIG BROTHER WITH BIG IDEAS
I HAVE OVER SUPPLY OF STAFF BUT I DON’T LIKE HALF OF THEM SO I DON’T WANT TO WORK WITH THEM
I NEED MY ‘‘MATES’’ MY PETS I PULL OUT FROM THIN AIR POSITIONS FOR MY MATE AND ADVERTISE EXTERNAL LET PUBLIC BE FOOLED MAY INTERNAL DISLIKED STAFF BE FOOLED THEY ALL ARE FOR MY PETS
I AM THE AUTHORITY, NO BODY CAN TOUCH ME
HR IS CORRUPT, THEY ONLY LISTEN TO US, UNIONS ARE WITH US
RECRUITMENT OFFICERS ARE TOO BLOODY BUSY DOING INTERNETING DON’T CARE WHO IS COMING WHO IS GOING
WHO AM I
WITH BILLION DOLLAR ‘’‘'IT ‘’‘’ SYSTEM IS MADE FOR ONLY ONE PERSON
ONLY ONE RECORD IS ENTERED
‘’‘IT ‘’‘’ SYSTEM IS CORRUPT MISLEADING STATS THIS SYSTEM CAN RECORD EVERY KEY STROKE BUT WHAT FOR WHO WANTS TO KNOW WHO CARES
WHO AM I
AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SERVICES

CULT says:

06:05am | 10/03/11

“Australian Public Service ”  is cult
when you break it
you are criminal
so you have to be like them
otherwise you are discarded
like dirt
no lawyers no commission
can help you
‘CULT that is money wasting on recruiting
more cult staff