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Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass has handed down a scathing report into the politicisation of the public service.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Luis Ascui<\/cite><\/p>\n It is a process that evidently accelerated during the second term of the Andrews government. Glass\u2019 findings are extensive, including the \u201cfrequent\u201d appointment of former ministerial staffers without open and advertised processes; rushed and shoddy recruitment practices; poor record-keeping and opaque selection methods; and decisions made in \u201cecho chambers\u201d and not subject to the scrutiny of expert career officials.<\/p>\n Particularly alarmingly is the process has also involved a creeping culture of fear in the public service about speaking out, along with the corrosion of longstanding Westminster principles of responsible government, excessive secrecy and the overuse of consultants.<\/p>\n All the while, the number of staff in the premier\u2019s private office has jumped. So much so that last year then-premier Daniel Andrews had roughly the same number of staff as the prime minister and the NSW premier combined.<\/p>\n A typical response from those who inhabit ministerial offices at the top end of the city is: \u201cSo what?\u201d<\/p>\n The counter-argument is that the political arm of any government is always eager to deliver on their election commitments and to \u201cget things done\u201d, creating a natural and healthy tension with bureaucrats who must ahere to due process.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Allan went so far as to dismiss Glass\u2019 findings as \u201cinferences\u201d, \u201cspeculation\u201d and throwing \u201cshade\u201d on the Victorian public sector.<\/p>\n On this, Allan was at best disingenuous and at worse deliberately misleading. Indeed, the Ombudsman\u2019s findings were not directed at public servants themselves, but at the growing number of politically appointed individuals seeking to control and override them.<\/p>\n Allan should have known better, particularly if she wants to demonstrate a leadership style that sets her apart from her predecessor.<\/p>\n In a podcast released on Friday but apparently recorded before Glass\u2019 report was handed down, Andrews went even further, claiming the state\u2019s integrity officers were not entitled to \u201cpretend that anyone voted for them. They\u2019re not entitled to pretend that they\u2019ve somehow got a mandate that is equal to, let alone superior to, the duly elected government.\u201d<\/p>\n The idea that Glass and her fellow integrity officers are somehow claiming a mandate to do anything other than uphold their statutory duties \u2013 let alone pretending people voted for them \u2013 would be laughable were it not so serious.<\/p>\n In The Age\u2019s<\/em> view, the government\u2019s approach \u2013 and the resulting slipshod decision-making and recruitment practices of the last nine years \u2013 has at times palpably acted against the best interests of the state, and, ultimately, the medium-term political interests of the government itself.<\/p>\n The Ombudsman uses the Suburban Rail Loop as a case in point. The $125 billion proposal, \u201cshrouded in the fog of cabinet secrecy\u201d, was hatched in the lead-up to the 2018 election.<\/p>\n She found the project was the brainchild of a single senior executive at the newly formed Development Victoria agency, who had attended conference organised by a consultancy firm, and developed by a select group of consultants and party loyalists. Senior public servants, including long-serving departmental secretary Richard Bolt, were shut out of consultations on the 90-kilometre orbital rail line.<\/p>\n The result, in The Age\u2019s<\/em> view, is an enormously expensive proposal that has had very little independent scrutiny applied to it. Not only is it unclear how it will be paid for, the question of whether or not the same needs for Melbourne\u2019s middle ring suburbs could be met more cheaply do not appear to have been sufficiently considered given the amount of public money at stake.<\/p>\n It is clear there is public support for the project, which has been a vote-winner. But that shouldn\u2019t come at the expense of due process.<\/p>\n With public debt heading to $171 billion by mid-2027, equivalent to almost one-quarter of the state economy, these financial risks are all the more palpable.<\/p>\n The excessive secrecy and the use of consultants surrounding Victoria\u2019s botched proposal to host the Commonwealth Games provides another powerful case study. As Glass notes, \u201chistory has since revealed major flaws in the assumptions underpinning the financial modelling\u201d.<\/p>\n The lack of rigorous public sector scrutiny of such projects before they were announced poses obvious risks to public funds.<\/p>\n These risks are not theoretical. Victoria has, for example, already been forced to stump up $380 million in compensation payments for the cancellation, before even considering other waste and opportunity costs involved with the scotched Games bid.<\/p>\n This has neither served the state\u2019s taxpayers who ultimately must pick up the bill, or the government, which is still struggling to clean up the political and financial mess. Rather than following in the footsteps of her former boss by attacking and dismissing, Allan should seriously consider the report\u2019s recommendations.<\/p>\n As Glass puts it, nothing will change without a recognition at the highest levels of government that change is necessary.<\/p>\n Patrick Elligett sends an exclusive newsletter to subscribers each week. <\/i><\/b>Sign up to receive his Note from the Editor<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nMost Viewed in National<\/h2>\n
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