Jennifer Westacott
THE Business Council of Australia has deplored the decline of the public service, saying intimidation by growing legions of political staffers has led increasingly to poor policy that hurts the nation economically and saps the appetite for reform.
In a scathing speech to public servants at a conference in Melbourne, Jennifer Westacott, the chief executive officer of the council, called for the number of ministerial advisers to be halved and for a mandatory code of conduct prohibiting them from directing public servants.
She urged the public sector to start fighting back against undue political influence.
”Australia can’t afford for you to be passengers, spectators, victims of political short-termism,” she said. ”I urge you to think big and take steps to regain control over your world.”
Ms Westacott’s speech signals the start of a campaign by the council, which represents premier businesses and corporations, expressing its dissatisfaction with the standard of politics at federal and state level.
Ms Westacott, a former senior bureaucrat in NSW and Victoria, believes the public sector has lost its independence and integrity.
Political staffers, often with little expertise and accountability, were undermining the public sector and eroding the long-term policy agenda with short-term thinking, she said.
She cited failure to address traffic congestion in Sydney and the carbon price as ”complex things done badly, political reforms designed as economic reforms.”
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/political-yoke-pulls-public-sector-down-says-business-chief-20120920-269ku.html#ixzz27KbhKyPB
