Comments on: Harry Evans: my 40 years of Canberra joy

By: Andrew Bartlett

Andrew Bartlett — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 04:02:37 +0000

This piece should be required reading for all students doing civics education. It would be a good idea to make it required reading for all newly-elected MPs too, especially Senators.

By: Richard Murphy

Richard Murphy — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:46:05 +0000

A current New Yorker article, Cocksure, on the perils visited on us all by executive ‘overconfidence’, is worth reading in this context. As Harry describes it, responsible government in this country has been hanging on by its fingernails for the last 25 years. Senator Faulkner’s recent transfer seems to indicate he’s done his job a little too well.

By: Paul Moritz

Paul Moritz — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:04:46 +0000

There have been several recent pieces in Crikey about public service independence and professionalism. Harry Evans’s record provides a clear example of what we should expect, nay demand, of our public servants. Unfortunately, their political masters are unlikely to agree with this proposition.

By: Geoff Coyne

Geoff Coyne — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:53:56 +0000

How refreshing to hear an independent and experienced voice talking of issues relating to the fundamentals of our government system. A far cry from the daily spin doctors and the ephemeral issues that they are concerned with. Geoff Coyne.

By: Simon Loveless

Simon Loveless — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:32:01 +0000

If the House of Representatives is so useless, why not abolish it? And just have the Senate?

Deliberately provocative question, and I agree that this wouldn’t be the most democratic outcome, given the malapportionment built into the Senate’s state-based electoral system. But we always hear about the desirability of houses of review. Surely all houses of any parliament are supposed to be houses of review? If any house of parliament is not acting as such, then what purpose is it serving?

Harry Evans quite correctly pointed to proportional representation as the key to the Senate’s independence. Couldn’t Queensland be reformed simply by introducing proportional representation into the existing House of Assembly, rather than reviving the upper house? Couldn’t we do the same in the lower houses of every other state, and of the federal parliament?

By: John T

John T — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:16:39 +0000

Thanks, Harry - such lovely clarity, and authority. One of the most directly informative pieces on the Australian Govt I’ve read in my 70 years.

By: Brendon Jarrett

Brendon Jarrett — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:02:50 +0000

Well said Harry Evans. We’re all in your debt for years of consistent good advice and willingness (in the biblical sense) to kick against the pricks. Your bravery has not gone unnoticed either. Publish soon.

By: Peter Logue

Peter Logue — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:48:03 +0000

Congratulations Harry on long years of honourable and distinguished public service. I look forward to the unexpurgated book, so make sure you hang around for 30 years or so.

By: Susan Timmins

Susan Timmins — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:19:07 +0000

Peter Timmins

Thanks Harry for all the years of speaking truth to power, once again demonstrated in this frank, honest and accurate assessment of the state of the central institution of our representative democracy. We can do with someone like you now calling it as you see it from the sidelines.

By: meski

meski — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:50:44 +0000

That’s biblical? I’d heard it as “The race may not always be to the swift nor the victory to the strong, but that’s how you bet”