Donkey: >> Ministers are basically the equivalent of a Board of Directors,
What is the responsibility of the numerous senior career bureaucrats <<

Donkey, these are the same bureaucrats that implemented govt policies for all the previous govts, the only thing to change is the operational guide lines and constrictions sent down from the ministers. Remember the govts response to their myriad of failings " we wanted the money into the economy asap so we did not worry about dotting the I's or crossing the T's.
The public service is akin to a box of thermometers being transported on a train. They go where the track laid down for them goes, and their reaction depends on how much heat you apply to them. You cannot blame the public servants for the unprecedented waste of public funds that this govt has paraded before us, and in less than one term.

>>How could the Government have possibly anticipated the breathtaking opportunism and dishonesty shown by the private sector in the insulation and school building programs?<<

I could have anticipated an exploitive run on the funds given that all I needed was an abn and a bank account to start billing them. Whether I did the job or not, whether I did it to standard or not, whether I inflate the costs astronomically or not, I would have been paid, and in a timely fashion as well.

Donkey I do not believe we have the caliber of politician (shifty or not) that we had previously. I vote for the party that I believe will take care of the country at a basic level. Healthcare, Education, Utilities, Military, Infrastructure, and foreign debt are the primary task of the govt. Given all that I vote on performance, so my quandary has always been to understand why a supporter of a Party defends obvious failures, and discredits opposition’s achievements. You can agree with one ideology over another, but why should incompetence and failure not be addressed and attributed. It is core dishonesty and certainly does not reflect "to thine own self be true".

Sonofgloin, although I can agree completely with your voting principles, & apply a similar system, I can not agree with your excusing public servants of all responsibility in the areas of waste. In fact, I think their incompetence, & lack of diligence has been, for a very long time, the cause of massive waste in Oz.

Over 20 years ago I complained bitterly when I found that a 5 pedestal & 1 urinal toilet block, at a small country school, had cost more than five 3 bed 2 bathroom homes would cost.

Our little school was growing quickly, & needed many things that waste could have paid for. The reason I was given, it was easier to take the highest tender, & use the same people, than check out other tenders.

I was later to find the same philosophy in other departments, with the Housing Commission a prime example.

When I asked my local member why nothing was done about this attitude, his excuse was "It's hard enough to get anything out of them, without trying to get them to do a decent job". At my amazed response he said that when you can't sack them, how can you control them?

So mate, I think we have, with Ruddy, & our public servants, the perfect coalition to waste our taxes

Hasbeen, some substantial truth speak in that little lot, a well coined sentiment "a coalition of wasters" it has a certain repetitive ring to it throughout the generations. I am astounded that the "Sir Humphrey" mentality has come to fruition, as opposed to when the scripts were written as a satirical extension of beaurocricy.

Rather than defending the PS I was bagging the incompetants in the cabinet.

I'm somewhat amused by this tendency toward the Cult of Personality, as if one person is the sum total of an entire government or nation.

On one side we have a obsessive control freak who speaks in a carefully scripted way and tries too hard to sound sincere.

On the other we have a rabid right-wing reactionary hypocrite who will say or do anything to get what he wants.

I wouldn't care if our Prime Minister was a blind one-legged hermaphrodite with Tourette's Syndrome as long as he/she did their job.

As much as Rudd has made errors - big and small, he's still acomplishing much and kept us our of depression. If the Libs had been in power they would have just given money to the banks and tax cuts to the wealthy and cut more services to pay for it.

The country decided to reject Howardism less than 3 years ago and I can't see why they would want to go back to something even further to the right.

Wobbles,
If you care to think you'll find that Howard didn't lose the election nor did Rudd win it. Stupidity was the big winner but already, after 3 years some of the then voters are becoming more enlightened.
Because a great many young voters have been indoctrinated in their Universities it is only natural that they'd be impressed by Rudd's so-called intellectual smoothness rather than realise that substance accounts for far more than impressive rhetoric. Unfortunately for the country Rudd's rhetoric is not matched by his substance. It's alll nice & good whilst the money lasts but when the cash flow starts to ebb mere words just don't cut it. And it's words that the ALP is all about unlike Labor which stood for some substance. Conservatism is self explanatory. Well, to the thinking anyway.

Individual,
I think Howard certainly did lose the election very decisively, as well as his own seat, and it was more to do with Workchoices and other repressive policies than a bunch of naive Uni students having a fling.

Just like the Obama phenomenon in the US, there has been a big backlash - due in part to unrealistically high expectations but also to a very hostile press. Even the ABC is on the anti-Rudd bandwagon.

Rudd's failures don't mean that Abbott is automatically correct about anything - as the polls have shown.