Dear Yabby,

I'd like you to read in its entirety the
following website:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/features/four_corners/

It explains how the business of government was
being done under Mr Kennett.

I'll list just a few of the items discussed for you here:

1) Lack of transparency in processes.
2) Contracts let without tender.
3) Deals done in secret under the shield of
commercial confidentiality.
4) Laws changed to deny the public's right to know.
5)The fate of Victorian Auditor-General became
a rallying-cry for those concerned about the
Government's style of doing business. A plan
supported by the Premier to allow Departments to
appoint their own auditors - was widely seen as an
attack on the Auditor-General's power to review
Government decisions.
6) Part of a systematic campaign was to stem the
powers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, The
Equal Opportunity Commission and Local Councils.
7) Two hundred or more Acts of Parliament went
through which exluded the jurisdiction of the
Supreme Court to review the actions of Government...

And there's more, much more - but read it for
yourself. Describing the guy as having "Balls"
is not quite how most Victorians would describe him!

Most of us agree that without proper controls -
things get out of control (corruption - jobs for
the boys - et cetera.) It's important to maintain
a system of checks and balances.

As for the Library Staff - we not only offered to
take cuts in salary - we offered to job-share -
to save jobs! But when you cut three jobs - to
appoint a CEO - who is consistently on "leave"
at a salary that three librarians could have
been appointed on - I'm sorry Yabster - you had
to be there to really appreciate how pathetic it
all really was!

Anyway - I don't want to discuss it with you any
further except to politely say - we'll have
to agree to disagree on this one.

I am a dual citizen of the US and Australia and agree with both Foxy and Yabby. I think Foxy has it right when she describes Kennett in Victoria, and Yabby has it right when he describes Bush in the US.

Foxy, I'm not arguing about the Kennett government, although Yabby's point abouthim inheriting a basket case is accurate. I wasn't a supporter of Kennett (albeit for purely personal reasons) and I don't have a lot of time for his efforts since politics. Depressed people don't need a "peak body", they need help on a day-to-day basis. I guess there are higher director's fees payable to the board of a "peak body"...

My point, however, was more general: restructuring and technology-driven change are essential. A sensible worker's representative body doesn't stand in the way of such things but tries to ameliorate the worst impacts on workers.

I don't see a lot of good sense in the Union movement today, but I do see a lot of political operatives lining themselves up for a tilt at being a Labor MP.

Dear Antiseptic,

I'm not against innovation or change.
As I've stated on other threads - the
only constant in life is change - and having
worked in Special Libraries, Public Libraries,
University Libraries, the ability to adapt
has been part and parcel of my career.
My career has encompassed all aspects of the
provision of Library Services, ranging from the
selection and acquisition of library material,
cataloguing and processing of material,
managing and operating library loan and circulation
systems, preparing book-lists and current awareness
bulletins, and providing reference and research
services, including community information using
directory databases and other sources. I've worked
with computerised library systems, trained junior
staff, dealt with difficult patrons in a wide variety
of situations. I've managed inter-library loans,
reservations, and branch requests. I've organised
library displays, done bibliographic searching on
databases, compiled bibliographies on a variety of
subjects, and been involved in the promotion of
library services - including taking library tours of
International Students on a large American University
Campus.

The Re-structuring however that took place
within Regional Library Systems under Mr Kennett -
was unnecessary - and did a great
deal of harm. He was determined to cut jobs no
matter what the cost - and he succeeded in Victoria by
cutting 75,000 jobs from the public sector - which
is no small feat. He also sold off the power industry
to the private sector - but that's a separate issue.

Anyway, I don't want to dwell on the subject. Unions
don't always get it right - and as I've stated previously
I do get frustrated when they do their job badly,
union bullies have always existed - (as bullies have
everywhere) - but
as I've stated previously I support without reservation
the right of all working people to join together so as to
preserve and protect their livelihoods.

Pelican,

>>Governments and public servants are sometimes too focussed on the 'look' of a thing than the realities - sometimes at the behest of their Ministers sometimes not.<<

I couldn't agree more. It's amazing what can be "done" with a nice and slick powerpoint demo. We had a case fairly recently where a PP was used at the conclusion of a data search project to depict the search system as working when it was nowhere near ready (except in the mind of the project leader). Fortunately, the Audit Office (ANAO) did an audit of this (and a lot of other related systems) and came up with a fairly scathing analysis of the outcome.

BTW, the ANAO officer who did the audit was a woman - she was switched on and intelligent, saw right through the haze of bulldust from day one and did a fine job. The report will almost certainly result in a permanent reform being made to the way such projects are done in future.