I can’t help but think our leaders are like drug addicts. No self awareness of their actions and just downhill all the way. Not sure what you would call the drug though.
‘A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.’
Alexander F. Tyler 1747 - 1813
I bet not very many of those same public servants would pay a cent of their own money for what ever they do!!
Thanks Chris. Unfortunately it makes me feel sick for our future. I suppose the public service needs more staff to compensate for the unsupervised workers who at home in their pyjamas. A real recipe for supporting bludgers.
See Parkinson’s Law the original 1955 study that proves how work expands to fit the time or the number of people employed to do it, whether or not it needs to be done.
The report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service was published on Thursday afternoon. Time has not permitted any comment in this week’s issue of The Economist on the contents of the Report. But the startling discovery enunciated by a correspondent in the following article is certainly relevant to what should have been in it.
Terrific piece, thank you Chris. And in the real world, alarm bells keep going off indicating that Australian business is in big trouble eg:
- 2022‑23 (7,942) vs 2021‑22 (4,912) : insolvencies rose by ~62%
- 2023‑24 (11,049) vs 2022‑23 (7,942) - another increase of 39%
- FY 2025 : for the first 8 months of FY 2024‑25, increase of 42.6% from the first 8 months of FY 2023‑24.
https://www.asic.gov.au/about-asic/corporate-publications/statistics/insolvency-statistics/
May I also add:
- PMI below 50 https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/manufacturing-pmi
- Bankruptcies soaring https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/bankruptcies
- Inflation surging (and that's even using the corrupt CPI basket which excludes the price of fuel, fruit & vegetables & housing prices) : https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/cpi-rises-13-september-2025-quarter#:~:text=The%20Consumer%20Price%20Index%20(CPI,cent%2C'%20Ms%20Marquardt%20said.
- the cost of living for most Australians is a nightmare: https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/red-shield-appeal/the-cost-of-living-crisis-in-australia
Who is to blame? Very poor leaders and a bloated, ineffective public service.
I can’t help but think our leaders are like drug addicts. No self awareness of their actions and just downhill all the way. Not sure what you would call the drug though.
Gosh you have been on a journey since your days on morning ABC radio in Canberra!
‘A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.’
Alexander F. Tyler 1747 - 1813
I bet not very many of those same public servants would pay a cent of their own money for what ever they do!!
Thanks Chris. Unfortunately it makes me feel sick for our future. I suppose the public service needs more staff to compensate for the unsupervised workers who at home in their pyjamas. A real recipe for supporting bludgers.
See Parkinson’s Law the original 1955 study that proves how work expands to fit the time or the number of people employed to do it, whether or not it needs to be done.
https://www.economist.com/news/1955/11/19/parkinsons-law
The report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service was published on Thursday afternoon. Time has not permitted any comment in this week’s issue of The Economist on the contents of the Report. But the startling discovery enunciated by a correspondent in the following article is certainly relevant to what should have been in it.
Nov 19th 1955
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Is the public sector Australia's fastest growing sector? Is any other sector growing?