I cannot see the point of Online Opinion give space to these propaganda think tanks. Leave it to News Ltd and Fairfax; they have already swamped the market with them.

Nice article Julie. We might start by asking why we need a Department of the Environment and a Department of Climate Change. Surely, the climate is an environmental matter. Similarly, why have separate Departments for Human Services and Health and Ageing?

Talk to a public servant in any State government and the cost of duplication between State and Commonwealth programmes will become obvious. Many Commonwealth 'initiatives' replicate existing State programmes and do so without the flexibility necessary to merge the two into one. Frontline service providers are thereby driven mad by overlapping programmes with different reporting and accountability requirements, the more so because Commonwealth programmes are often short term, say three years, with the funding ending at the end of the third year. State governments are then criticised if they don't continue the funding for programmes they didn't want or need in the first place.

All this comes about because the Commonwealth increasingly uses its taxing powers to intervene in areas which are much better left to the States. Which party has the courage to do something about this situation? Not holding my breath on that one.

'Most economists agree that such microeconomic reforms were appropriate, enabling the more efficient private sector to innovatively deliver a range of additional services to customers at lower costs in real terms over time.'

Not a shred of reliable or independent evidence has ever been able to prove this. On the contrary, the rise of monopolistic capitalism has created huge, unwieldy , inefficient international corporations, whose capacity for innovation has been greatly compromised by their enslavement to the 'competition' (i.e. profit) factor. The larger these corportions become, swallowing up everything in their paths, the less they are able to meet the local needs of the international markets in which they operate. In addition, the corporate sector receives the greater bulk of real government welfare, in the form of tax breaks, incentives and funding cronyism.

Having succeeded in imposing their dominant global free trade ideology on international commerce, academia and politics, the neo-liberals of the West are now openly and brazenly gunning for the public sector. With thousands of think-tanks and governments directly or indirectly on their payroll, the bastards will almost certainly get their way. Welcome to the nineteenth century.

no good lecturing to a party addicted to spending and big Government. It will take another 12 years of Conservatives to wind back the waste. And as for the climate change department well!. Just wait until we employ many more to collect the carbon tax, many more to give it away and many more studies to fool the public into thinking its legitimate.

Runner. Your type of cost cutting will cause unemployment. There's plenty of fat in the system that needs a trimming. The hysteria of the carbon tax makes employment and fully paid for. Make up your mind which way you want us to go. Wind back Tony is in a corner, it may well become a box.

There is a very simple reform to the Public Service that would accomplish wonders. Traditionally, the status and salary of an official depend on the number of his subordinates. Change this by setting the base salary for an official based on the duties of his position, and then reduce it by a nominal amount for each subordinate. This would achieve a massive improvement in efficiency.