The hang over from the Howard years is that power has been very cetralised and departments are being run in exactly the same way as they were. Cosseted in Canberra makes the decision making process easy but then a great deal of energy has to be expended because the central bureaucracy doesn’t trust the advice of those in the states who are at a far lowlier level and therefore are not in a position to be listened to.

The running around in circles takes a lot of time but an approach which acknowledges that federal public servants working in the states can often provide answers and can be trusted and will save everyone work in the long run is not a feature of the current federal sphere.

However when you have a group of ambitious but ill informed people in charge and who will churn through before their mistakes are discovered you have a situation requiring long hours and ensure that the people who create the problems are long gone by the time the clean up team is required.

Whilst Howard created the problem it is unlikely to change under a control freak dictate. the problem with being risk averse is that it causes delays which in the end create more matters to be controlled.

Expect to hear more about the pressures of the public service. Like Bernad thought it is hard to be too sympathetic as nobody at the top does anything to ensure that key positions are filled long enough to build expertise and competence.