Time for a Canberra shake-up: Gottliebsen

It’s about time our politicians started to face up to a real problem plaguing Australia – the lack of managerial talent in the public services in Canberra and the states.

When Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott debate health issues later today, it is unlikely they will get anywhere near the biggest issue facing health. There is simply not the management talent in the health system to achieve what the politicians keep promising.

Some of the biggest gaps are in the top levels of management, although the management gaps go all the way down the system despite the fact that some hospitals are extremely well managed.

While Canberra is good at providing policy options in areas like Treasury and Finance, the record of the Canberra public service in actually managing activities is very patchy. Therefore, it is possible that the Rudd plan will make the health situation worse unless big dollars are thrown at the problem.

In recent times we have seen disaster after disaster emanate from the Canberra public service – someone needs to finally ring the warning bell. When the public servants screw up we always blame the unfortunate minister and rarely hold the public servants to account. Ministers must take a big slice of the blame, but if public servants were treated like private executives and shown the door after major mistakes, the Canberra public service would be less interested in increasing its size, irrespective of risk.

I must emphasise that there are many talented and hard working public servants in Canberra. The disasters tend to occur when they are asked to do something new or very large.

In insulation, while it’s true that the government’s demand for quick results increased the managerial risks, not all the blame rests with Peter Garrett and Kevin Rudd. The public service must accept part off the responsibility.

Research by The Australian shows that the public service has underestimated the costs of school building projects and approved projects where the outlays were not covered. As the election nears, more school building problems are likely to start surfacing. Again the public servants were operating outside their areas of experience.

And of course the greatest of all mistakes is the plan to spend $16 billion on the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) being developed in the US. Last week, in an alarming new development, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that the JSF faced “mounting cost and schedule pressures; complex, extensive, and unproven software requirements; and a nascent, very aggressive test program that continues to experience significant delays…Since our last report, development costs have again increased and the schedule for completing development and operational testing has been extended. Further acquisition cost increases and delays are expected.”

Whether it is health, insulation, schools or defence, there needs to be executive as well as ministerial accountability in Canberra and the states. While in theory it makes sense to centralise, until the Canberra public service acquires the talent to manage in areas with which it is not familiar, giving Canberra more things to do is high risk.

This article first appeared on Business Spectator.