Fighting corruption in Australia

[facthunter]

Gorgeous Gina is only worth 36 Billion AUD. You'd think people would stop picking on the poor "thing". m Somebody HAS to do it.  Nev

Edited July 30, 2023 by facthunter
typo

[Old Koreelah]

Tonight at 8:30pm. Four Corners lifts the lid on the privatisation of our Federal Public Service. Foreign fat cats ripping off mug taxpayers like us.

[Jerry_Atrick]

There has been so much to post on corruption in Aus lately as the ants stat coming out of the woodwork, I have been wondering where to start...

[Old Koreelah]

How do we stop government decision-maker, elected or public service, from being bribed by the cashed-up army of lobbyists who are given freedom to roam the halls of power? 

 

Perhaps they should have their personal finances (and even those of their close family members) subject to investigation for at least a decade after they leave office. The Feds could promise to guarantee their privacy, just like they do with little people like me.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I can see two things that could do it, and they would have to be enshined in the constitution:

• You cannot act in an offical capacity (e.g. as a minister, on a senate committee, parliamentary inquiry, etc), in an area where you or immediate family have a pecunaiary interest. The only exception could be the PM for obvious reasons, but the PM should declare those itnerests at the beginning of any proceedings to do with those interests. Any violation would be a prima facie guilty of my third point where the onus of proof reverses and the accused has to prove they are innocent.
• I think lobbying is an important part of political life. So I would propose the following:
  • No elected representative or senior/executive public servant can directly or indirectly engage in lobbying government or otherwise representing or assisting any person or organisation with loobying government for a period of 10 years after they vacate their public office.
  • Where the government of anyone in the public service is subject to lobbying on any government matter, the source of the lobbying, the request of the lobbyists and the government/public service response to the lobbyists as well as reasoning/weight given to the points of the lobbyist must be disclosed at or befoire the announcement of implementation of the policy, and this must incude any lobbying ignored or otherwise discarded.
  • Political donations should be allowed, however, if they are over a certain amount, they have to be made through an independent assessment authority. The authority would be required to be satisfied that there would be no conflict of interest in the donation and can either entirely reject the donation or reduce it to a smaller value (and then refund the donor the difference)
  • Any breach of the above would also be prima facie being guilty of my third point, below, and the onus of proof reverts to the accused having to prove their innocence.
• The third point (I have written about before) is a civil offence of breaching public trust or something similar. This would be where an executive civil servant or any elected representative or any person engaging or seeking to exert influence on the aforementioned recklessly or intentionally acts illegally, corruptly (in the NSW ICAC definition; not the Victorian IBAC definition), or in bad faith (i.e. they have tried to conceal what they are doing or lie to the public about what they are doing), engage in serious misconduct, or constructively seek an outcome without declaring in advance it is part of a policy of achioevement - the Tampa sort of comes into play there).. It should not include negligence as that is more or less incompetence and let's face it, that is what politics and the senioe executive of the public service is. It should also have a criminal level of evidence, although it should be a civil offence - i.e. one in which the government can seek damages from the individuals. Being found guilty (or liable) would automatically award damages to the government that stops any accrued benefit (e.g. superannuation, free travel, and the like), and in particularly egregious offences, the government can claim from their personal estate. The idea is that if you make them personally liable for their actions where they can lose something, they will be far more diligent in their roles. Of course, all awards and titles will be immediately forfeited.
• Stengthem whistleblowing protections - and provide an incentive. As an example, in the US, if a private citizen whistleblows and it ends up in a fine, the whistleblower can receive up to 25% of the fine: https://www.phillipsandcohen.com/whistleblower-rewards/. Also

 

I am sure there are issues with the above, and there needs some tuning, but it is a start.

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[Marty_d]

Take the money out of it. FFS Morrison and his crew put a cap on public service numbers while spending up big on private contractors, in part because of their pathetic ideology but mostly to avoid Senate Estimates scrutiny. 

You want a vibrant democracy? Build up the public service,  build up the judiciary, and get rid of lobbyists and corporate donations.  And tell the big 4 to go piss up a rope.

[spacesailor]

WHY! .

More ' public servants ' .

Self serving money grubbers .

Who think the public are " Their " servant's. 

Never helpful . Often antagonistic .

  The list of objections is as long as the ilst of those " servants ".

Take a ' day ' to observe ' the machinations of the " centrelink " office .

( formally,  the dole ).

My grandsons refuse to " sign on " for their pittance,  BUT yet ,are Still on the Centrelink records .

According to the tax man .

 spacesailor

 

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by spacesailor
Missed word

[facthunter]

 Where else do they do it he way you'd like it to be Space? At least Here we occasionally get to know what's going on and change the gov't without people dying. A DECENT Media would work wonders.  Nev

[Marty_d]

A lot of people have problems with some agencies Spacey, especially call centres.  Lots more have positive interactions.  By the same token lots of people have problems with private corporations too.  And you pay more for them to pay their shareholders. 

[facthunter]

Line their OWN pockets  after the gov't kickback to keep it all happening. Recall ABot's "Australia is NOW Open for (funny) Business," and for businesses to remember what members of the gov't had done for them while in Office when they Retire.  Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

2 hours ago, spacesailor said:

Self serving money grubbers

Really? Maybe you should look at the salary levels of public servants v the private sector at equivalent levels. And then compare them to the costs of consultants doing the same job. I think you will find out who are the real money grubbers

[Bruce Tuncks]

BUT I do like Spacy's point ( that public servants should be held to a high standard ) even if he didn't say exactly that, that is what I understood and agree with.

[Bruce Tuncks]

 At Edenhope, there was actually a "buildings inspector" who was insane.

The council CEO told me that they had no choice in the matter, in that they had a statutory obligation to provide the "service" and that he was the only qualified applicant. Once he dismissed a footing ( 90cm diameter was specified) because they had built a 90cm square footing. But when he dismissed a fire-proofing job on a wall ( 3m width specified ) because he wanted the whole wall fire-proofed, he was taken to court by the owners who were bankrolled by the COUNCIL. Yep, they paid the costs of some people to sue their own employee.

I personally refused to deal with him after finding that he really thought that his "approval" meant that he liked the thing, and not that it obeyed the regulations.

[facthunter]

They had the number of offices reduced and staff levels also by the Morrison Gov't. Is what Space says widespread?  I wouldn't know. I know He's against Bureaucrat's period by his posts. perhaps a spell in India for comparison might help.  Nev

[spenaroo]

Eh, its been known for years that they have been reducing the number of government employees and swapping to contractors. Ive reports from several different departments about mixed staff, where no-one knows if the colleagues are government or contract workers. and also heard of others where the job has been axed, but advised to apply and move to a contract role. doing the exact same work - but now through a company instead of direct.

all done to make it look like a smaller more efficient bureaucracy. because no one has been recording the "outside" workers in department staff figures. 

[Marty_d]

Exactly. There needs to be mandatory reporting of how many jobs are being done by contractors, WHY they're being done by contractors and what the annual cost is compared to equivalent full time ongoing position.  Everywhere in government. 

[old man emu]

Perhaps a big part of the problem is that when in government, politicians want to be "moving forward", That's a worthwhile desire, but unfortunately, you can't move forward from an unstable foundation. There comes a time when you have to review what has been implemented of earlier plans to see that they have either been completed, or are on track as previously planned. Once you know that things are going as planned, then you can implement what has been planned in other areas.

 

Public servants work for government and for citizens. They're responsible to the elected government, not a political party. They develop and deliver public programs or services, inform policy-making, and provide evidence-based advice to leaders. But these are not the Public Servants that you and I see. We see the poor bastards who have to cop the flak for politicians' blunders. Robodebt, anyone? 

[spacesailor]

IF .

Those " RoboDebt " ' public servants ' had tried , even a little harder to ' humanise ' their actions some would have survived! .

But as usual they are Above , helping their customers.  & Just merrily ignored Blatant injustices. 

spacesailor

[facthunter]

They did what was demanded of them. Nev

[Marty_d]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

IF .

Those " RoboDebt " ' public servants ' had tried , even a little harder to ' humanise ' their actions some would have survived! .

But as usual they are Above , helping their customers.  & Just merrily ignored Blatant injustices. 

 

What about the brave public servant who raised this with the CEO and gave her the reasons why it was wrong and illegal?  And all the others who spoke up to their bosses. Everyone to blame for robodebt is in that sealed section.  It's the pollies and some high level public servants, not the ones you come in contact with. 

[Bruce Tuncks]

I sure agree about the need for transparency when swapping workers from govt to contract.

We will not make much progress against corruption without more transparency and protection for whistle-blowers.

BUT australia has at last moved up in the anti-corruption stakes. I reckon though that we will need to do a LOT more .

[old man emu]

Four Corners on the ABC reported on the consultancy scandal. It had its roots in a Government of a certain persuasion slashing the size of the Public Service, and then contracting out the advice-gathering work that used to be done by the PS. The reason was said to be that the PS was not able to manage and carry out its core functions. Here we are talking about the work of policy and programme advisors and developers, not the counter staff most of us deal with at our level.

 

However, as was said in the ABC report, the Public Service needs to consult experts in many fields associated with major projects simply because the PS no longer has those experts on staff as it did in the Long Ago. It seems however that the Big Four consultancies aren't really involved in advising the PS if, for example, a road bridge should be built here and not there. One of the biggest rorts involved the upgrade of the Government's IT presence. But that was a job for which one could see something being done. It seems that the real rorts are in policy consultations where the answer to how long before we get an answer is the cliche'd "How long is a piece of string". These Big Four are charging out their time on an hourly basis at rates that would make a plumber blush. 

 

In my sideline, of auditing (checking) compliance with a management system plan, I've seen quotes from auditing companies where they would send in a team of three with the junior's time being charged out at $150.00 per hour or more, and the leader at near $300 - and I got those figures nearly ten years ago.

 

The whole consultancy game is a rort. I bet you know of blokes with a lot of experience in some function of a business who are given redundancy on Friday and arrive back at 9:00 am on Monday as a consultant doing the same work. Why? Quite simply - tax avoidance. Am I correct?

[Old Koreelah]

 American consultant firms paid squilions to advise our government on defence purchases? The same crew working for US weapons makers? 
 

Maybe that explains the outrageous prices.

 

Time to ensure our Public Service has enough skilled people to serve our country.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/public-service-puts-taxpayer-billions-at-risk-by-fumbling-major-contracts-20230809-p5dv1c.html

[old man emu]

Ironically, ScoMo's lasting contribution to the Australian People will be the elimination of an "Who cares? It's only tax dollars" attitude to the management of the Public Purse. Just look at the many inquiries taking place involving government agencies. It would seem that the worm (taxpayers) has turned on the bird (Politicians).

 

I wonder if those whizz-kids who have a Masters of Business Management qualifications have ever sat down to study and discuss the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 family of five quality management systems (QMS) standards that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. 

 

ISO 9000 deals with the fundamentals of QMS, including the seven quality management principles that underlie the family of standards.

ISO 9001 deals with the requirements that organizations wishing to meet the standard must fulfill.

ISO 9002 is a model for quality assurance in production and installation.

ISO 9003 for quality assurance in final inspection and test.

ISO 9004 gives guidance on achieving sustained organizational success.

 

All these standards are based on the commonsense approach to problem solving that we all begin to implement from infancy:

The main feature of this system is that, after making a plan and implementing it, you check that the doing is meeting the goals of the plan. As a result of the checking, you could act to tweek the "doing"  to smooth off the rough edges, or do a major overhaul because the "doing" wasn't meeting the planned goals. This is not some airy-fairy idea dreamed up in the Harvard School of Business. You are going to use this scheme right now as you consider you reply to what I have posted. Either that, or you'll use it to go get a cuppa.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

They might  be interested in that if the spoils of office didn't take priority for some groups.  Nev