I would charge the public servants AND the politicians involved. I suspect the politicians are too slippery and will get away. However the public servants at the top and bottom wont be so lucky.

While it may not be fair to the servants, it will concentrate their minds on the tasks they do. They will ensure that everything after that is legal and properly implemented. No more "I was only following orders". What was it the British navy says about admirals, you only have to shoot one occasionally to keep the rest in line.

regards
dkit

You don't need an inquiry to bring the "public service into disrepute"; they do that for themselves. Politicians are the ones who should be brought to book for not controlling the public service.

We should have been looking into the public service's crimes against humanity in the Covid debacle by now.

"Is the Albanese government up for it?". That should be 'what is the Albanese government up to'; but, we know by now that, right from their election, the Albanese government has been hell-bent on highlighting the failings of the previous government instead getting on with their own job. The Robodebt fiasco at least revealed 400,000 crooks who were getting public money they weren't entitled to; the Socialists will probably give it back to them, plus extra.

Now. Will there be an inquiry into Covid mismanagement and bastardry: the biggest totalitarian episode in our history, which has Albanese Socialist state premiers' fingerprints all over it?

I believe it will have no choice, as it has made so much political capital out of the issue.

This piece of political bastardry has absolutely underlined the IMMEDIATE need for an irrevocable bill of rights for Australian citizens. And needs to be addressed yesterday!
Alan B.

You don't need an inquiry to bring the "public service into disrepute"; they do that for themselves. Politicians are the ones who should be brought to book for not controlling the public service.
ttbn,
I think the Public Service Unions are more responsible than anyone for that mess. They're the ones protecting the incompetent by not letting them be moved sideways or down !

It's a good point, where were the central agencies like PM&C and Treasury, while DSS and DHS were victimising the peasants? Except, we all know the answer - they too were just brown-nosing the government.

Under Albanese, the Public Service will be just as obsequious as ever. Instead of punishing the peasants directly, Albanese will do it indirectly, by enforcing massive levels of immigration. That just happens to be, exactly what PM&C and Treasury want

I recall very vividly when a bureaucrat was involved in a domestic situation in which a firearm was discharged into the air. Because the local community wanted that person gone, the only way to get that person out was a promotion to somewhere else. Under Public Service conditions or rules or legislation or whatever, this person could not be demoted or stood down.
This is a critically serious flaw in that system ! This is why we hear of so much incompetence or corruption or misappropriation because we can not rid ourselves of such people & decent people can't get into the service because of nepotism & political party affiliatioin.