Comments on: Operation Sunlight: lifting the lid on government transparency http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/12/10/operation-sunlight-lifting-the-lid-on-government-transparency/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:29:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Dr Harvey M Tarvydas http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/12/10/operation-sunlight-lifting-the-lid-on-government-transparency/#comment-6423 Dr Harvey M Tarvydas Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-6423 Tanner Talent as good a TT (double T) as Totally Tarvydas. Tanner Talent as good a TT (double T) as Totally Tarvydas.

]]> By: Janus http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/12/10/operation-sunlight-lifting-the-lid-on-government-transparency/#comment-6424 Janus Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-6424 That's it!! The last straw!! Keane is about as "fair and balanced" as Fox News in the USA. I have read Bernard Keane since he arrived at Crikey and never has there been a better apologist for the ALP in government. He continually makes their argument for them. He starts off today with what could well have been the header of Tanner's press release "The Rudd Government continues to make significant progress in increasing governmental transparency and accountability". Just because Tanner and Keane says it - it doesn't make it so. Keane has been around long enough to know that changing the "Outcomes" means each department negotiating the wording of each "outcome" (which I believe can be longer than 24 words) of each unit in each department. Invariably, each department wants to protect its turf and its programs so the negotiation process allows them to negotiate new wordings that do two things simultaneously (1) please the government by convincing them of "change", and (2) maintaining their existing programs etc without acutally changing. The millions of dollars that has gone into this waste of time is frightening! However, each new government wll do it to show they have made "changes". There is a reason the saying "the more things change the more they stay the same" is so well known - it was written by and about the bureaucracy. The fact that there will hardly be any real tangible changes made, other than to words written on paper, is what makes the first line of the article so offensively apologist. That’s it!! The last straw!! Keane is about as “fair and balanced” as Fox News in the USA. I have read Bernard Keane since he arrived at Crikey and never has there been a better apologist for the ALP in government. He continually makes their argument for them. He starts off today with what could well have been the header of Tanner’s press release “The Rudd Government continues to make significant progress in increasing governmental transparency and accountability”. Just because Tanner and Keane says it - it doesn’t make it so. Keane has been around long enough to know that changing the “Outcomes” means each department negotiating the wording of each “outcome” (which I believe can be longer than 24 words) of each unit in each department. Invariably, each department wants to protect its turf and its programs so the negotiation process allows them to negotiate new wordings that do two things simultaneously (1) please the government by convincing them of “change”, and (2) maintaining their existing programs etc without acutally changing. The millions of dollars that has gone into this waste of time is frightening! However, each new government wll do it to show they have made “changes”. There is a reason the saying “the more things change the more they stay the same” is so well known - it was written by and about the bureaucracy. The fact that there will hardly be any real tangible changes made, other than to words written on paper, is what makes the first line of the article so offensively apologist.

]]> By: Scott http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/12/10/operation-sunlight-lifting-the-lid-on-government-transparency/#comment-6425 Scott Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-6425 If we are going to give up in the face of cynicism, we should not even vote. Calling Bernard an apologist for the ALP in government may or may not be fair but I do not see that as the issue here. The Howard Government's obfuscation of the processes around spending were self-evident even to the minimally informed such as myself. <br /><br />With a system so thoroughly broken, how can Labor tinkering do any harm? Living in Queensland and working under the systems Rudd helped institute in the Qld public service I am fully aware that the best intentions are easily subverted by day-to-day political expediency. So Bernard may indeed be praising Labor without justification because Labor may indeed be planning no more than obfuscation masquerading as reform. But we can dream, can we not, without being called Labor party shills? Call us naive if you must : ) If we are going to give up in the face of cynicism, we should not even vote. Calling Bernard an apologist for the ALP in government may or may not be fair but I do not see that as the issue here. The Howard Government’s obfuscation of the processes around spending were self-evident even to the minimally informed such as myself.

With a system so thoroughly broken, how can Labor tinkering do any harm? Living in Queensland and working under the systems Rudd helped institute in the Qld public service I am fully aware that the best intentions are easily subverted by day-to-day political expediency. So Bernard may indeed be praising Labor without justification because Labor may indeed be planning no more than obfuscation masquerading as reform. But we can dream, can we not, without being called Labor party shills? Call us naive if you must : )

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