Bureaucrats are easy scapegoats for the ills that come with governments supplying thousands services. Sure they make some ridiculous and identifiable errors. Who in their life hasn't?

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

Login or signup to continue reading

But the overall mess in the provision of large-scale services just isn't their fault. The NDIS and aged care are just examples.

Our demand for nationwide services generates the need for enormous blackhole bureaucracies.

Activity is generated but who is answerable to whom and for what is unclear. That's the nature of bureaucracies. Everywhere. We become slaves to process rather than outcomes.

If our faith in bureaucracies isn't stupid enough, we add to that stupidity. We carry the incredibly naive view that if something is written on paper it probably has some truth to it. There was a time that was a reasonable proposition, but no more. AI has certainly put an end to that.

If the inertia of a bureaucracy and the fallibility of the written word isn't enough we further restrict our bureaucrats because we're too weak to take the tough route with cheats and crooks.

Sometimes, we are really stupid. Imagine saying to bureaucrats in Canberra: "Here's quite a few billion dollars. Please organise disability services for thousands of people spread out around Australia with a wide variety of needs, make sure we don't pay too much and make sure each service is actually delivered". Stupid. We do the same in so many areas.

How on earth was that ever going to work? And when, not surprisingly, it doesn't work, we all too often blame the bureaucrats. Fancy being blamed for not being able to do what was impossible in the first place.

How can bureaucrats in Canberra be all-knowing about the services that are required and possible to deliver in so many different circumstances around Australia?

Equally, perhaps more importantly, how could they know if the services have actually been delivered?

Of course, we can require providers to fill in forms and tick boxes. Imagine the tsunami of forms floating around the bureaucracy. How on earth can they all be adequately reviewed in the first place? Let alone checked for veracity. So how do we really know if the service was provided? When, tragically, we find it hasn't been provided or provided adequately there's no doubt a process for pursuing the provider. That's where we make a........

© Canberra Times