Patricia Dasic
The government gets away with appointing its mates because there is no transparency in the way in which such appointments are made. Appointments to such statutory authorities are made by the Governor-in-Council on the recommendation of the minister concerned. And these ministers are, of course, subject to internal party pressures to make appointments that are pleasing to the party power brokers.
Dear Editor (Mercury)
Sue Neales’ article ‘It’s time to end Tassie water woe’, (The Mercury, 5/1) is supportive of what appear to be eminently sensible proposals regarding the future management of Tasmania’s water and sewerage industry.
However, the establishment of a central water authority, or three regional ones, is fraught with potential political hazards.
If the history of recent Labor governments in Victoria is anything to go by, statutory authorities such as water boards have been used as convenient vehicles to haul political mates aboard the gravy train of board appointments.
There have been a string of appointments of people who have no background or experience in the industry but rather owe their appointments to their connections with the Labor Party.
This has been to the detriment of water customers whose water authorities have been so badly managed there is now, in at least one case, a public call to restore a large regional water authority to community hands via publicly elected board members, as used to be the case.
The government gets away with appointing its mates because there is no transparency in the way in which such appointments are made. Appointments to such statutory authorities are made by the Governor-in-Council on the recommendation of the minister concerned. And these ministers are, of course, subject to internal party pressures to make appointments that are pleasing to the party power brokers.
The jobs are supposedly ‘skills-based’ but it is quite remarkable how, in so many cases, the people who turn out to have the skills – and are later shown not to have the skills – for the job are also connected to powerful elements in the ALP.
It may go even further than that.
There are cases where, reputedly, people have been appointed to board and executive positions on statutory authorities as inducements to stand aside in hotly contested preselection contests in order to clear the way for more powerfully connected would-be politicians.
So, by all means let Tassie have a better managed water and sewerage industry but please ensure we can have the utmost confidence that it is run by people who owe their jobs to their expertise not their political connections.
Patricia Dasic
