Arjay, Janet Albrechtsen’s data on public servants warrants close scrutiny. In particular, be aware of what she counts as a public servant – and denigrates. Police, military personnel, customs and immigration officials, nurses in public hospitals, teachers in state schools, taxation officers, trade representatives, traffic and planning officers for local councils, Telstra workers, parks and wildlife officers, public librarians, public broadcasters…These and many more would all be counted as Australian public sector employees in Albrechtsen’s demonology, as they should be, and as they are in official ABS statistics.

The old stereotype of generic public servants making tea and spending time “counting their superannuation” doesn’t wash. The overwhelming majority work their hearts out.

To put public service bashing into perspective, in August 2005, according to the ABS, there were 8,526,600 employees in Australia – 81% of whom were in the private sector and 19% in the public sector. Australia’s population at that time was 20,340,000 of whom nearly 4 million were under 15 and nearly 2.7 million were aged 65 or older. Public servants work hard for the young and the old as well as for those of working age.

Under John Howard’s government, there are currently 18 government departments and around 60 statutory agencies in the Australian Public Service. A list of these bodies is at <http://www.apsc.gov.au/apsprofile/agencies.htm>.??

Hey you lot, get off this post if your not prepared to stick the boot into Flinty.

I should never have mentioned Albrechtson, Hedgehog.

Just thoroughly fed up with Arjay sticking the boot in Public Servants, working class, small business, big business, ABC, teachers, human beings and on and on ad nauseum.

However, sticking it to Flinty will only convince said Flint of his imagined superiority and self-righteousnes. Given that Flint is such a regular 'contributor' to OLO (who else would tolerate his rants?) the best we can do is boycott future articles thus reducing the number of posts.

All for boycotting Flinty, say Aye!

Poor old Davo, everytime he shows his pompos face here he gets a pasting, when will he ever learn. Col nice twist of the truth earlier. You could be a Tory politician.

Beware,when Peter Debnam gets into power,he actually might have the courage to do a Geoff Kennett.We need a no nonsense leader to get NSW out of this depressing blanket of ineptitude.I remember the Victorian number plates up here during the 90's recession."Victoria On the Move",and they were here in Sydney looking for work.Now it is "Victoria the Place to Be" How ironic!

Perhaps the surplus baggage in NSW can now migrate to Victoria and become a burden to the Bracks Govt.The moral of the story is that Labor Govts cannot manage economies because they basically appeal to the weakness in human nature and the electorate are under the illusion that the Govt will provide,not realising that it is they, the individual who provides everything and not the seemingly well intentioned parasites who feed off their ignorance and endeavour.

Obiviously there are many hardworking Public Servants particularly nurses,however when parasites begin to out number hosts,we have an imbalance that must be rectified.

Arjay, you obviously don't know your history. Your hero, Jeff (not Geoff) Kennett, was thrashed at the polls when he savaged the public sector in the name of "no nonsense" market ideology. Slick PR stunts such as sloganised number plates were no substitute for real public sector services which people actually want and need. And the Labor Party has been in power ever since in Victoria, rectifying the wasteland Kennett created especially in hospitals and schools.

Arjay, you say that Labor Govts cannot manage economies but do you have a way of explaining why as we speak every State government in Australia is a Labor one? Perhaps people are not so stupid as you think?