Comments on: Revealed: The five reasons public servants leak

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The pressure of more BS than one mind can contain is bound to blow sometime. I mean, really, was there any actual information in the public debate on fuel watch without the leak?

By: K Churchill

K Churchill — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

An interesting article. But I disagree in part. I think the leak could well have happened for the fourth of the reasons posited by Bartos, or rather a derivative of it. Almost anyone in the Commonwealth Public Service could have become so concerned about the manic way policy is apparently being developed that they decided to throw the FuelWatch information to the media - like a hand grenade - to blow themselves out of the nightmare they are in.
Exhausted staff, struggling to respond to one frenzied demand or another, issued by Ministerial staffers themselves in a similar state of sleep deprived fogginess, may well have become desperate enough to cast their ingrained respect for the confidentiality of Cabinet material to the wind, hoping to get someone to see the elephant that has been in the room for the past six months.
My own ex-public servant soul shudders at the thought, but I can see that desperate measures may be called for, before a mistake of materially important proportions occurs because someone is asleep at the wheel.
Alternatively, the same scenario also works for staff in Ministerial Offices.
Either way, the public is served better by people who are awake, not half asleep on the job.

By: david

david — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

If this is the case..”a politically motivated leak (it certainly looks like that) from someone so disaffected that they just don’t care. If that is the case, this won’t be their last leak by any means.”….if the leaker doesnt care, then that person will be sloppy and an easy target for the Feds. If they have rat cunning then another leak or two is on the cards, but eventually success in this field one would think will lead to carelessness. My gut feeling is sooner or later, a head will roll. Tiredness is no excuse for outright disloyalty, whoever has leaked had other options open to them. No this is a Lib sympathiser, all roads lead to Rome.