<< I confess to knowing very little about "the environmental management part of the public service". >>

And yet Pericles you are convinced that there are massive inefficiencies, self-serving mismanagement and anti-economic anti-future-wellbeing activities undertaken by this department, whether it be federal or any state environment department.

I suggest that perhaps you are simply assuming the worst without really knowing the veracity of your claims, re: environment depts or any other sections of the PS.

So perhaps you could give some examples of gross inefficiencies in depts. That you are more familiar with, and confirm that your solution to dealing with this is to simply slash staff numbers, or whether there is a better way of approaching it.

<< Unfortunately, your blanket claim that your absence would result in: >>...pollution, land degradation, unsustainable productivity and unsustainable ecosystems, and the old aggressive-and-ruthless-rule-the-roost syndrome<< ...carefully avoids the question entirely. >>

Not at all. It goes straight to the nub of the issue. I mean, you really don’t need specific examples do you? Isn’t it just completely self-evident that with a lack of regulation we’d incur all manner of environmental impacts, which would come back to haunt us economically and in terms of quality of life?

Hey, it is entirely possible that govt depts are both doing a basically satisfactory job and doing it very inefficiently at the time. So, if I was to give you the examples you want, it still wouldn't indicate good efficiency.

What we need to concentrate on is maximising efficiency, not just a simple slashing of the size of the PS.

That's probably a good point to leave it, Ludwig, as we seem to be going round in the same circle.

>>What we need to concentrate on is maximising efficiency, not just a simple slashing of the size of the PS.<<

I see these as one and the same: cut the fat, improve efficiency.

>>So, if I was to give you the examples you want, it still wouldn't indicate good efficiency.<<

Yet you are quite happy to suggest...

>>...perhaps you could give some examples of gross inefficiencies in depts<<

I have seen nothing that will shake my view that the public service is engaged in a wide variety of activities for which it does not have a specific mandate, that it is accountable to no-one but itself, and is a substantial drain on our productivity as a community.

And I suspect it would take a major explosion to shift your own view that the public service is manifestly misunderstood, is vital to the well-being of our nation, and - if only it had more people - would be a glowing example to us all of dedication and efficiency.

Have a great day. Pick a flower for me.

Yeah, I’ve had enough of discussing the boring old public service too.

Hey I picked a flower for you – a Tridax procumbens:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ricehoppers.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/tridax-procumbens-l-flow.gif&imgrefurl=http://ricehoppers.net/2009/07/farm-survey-instruments-in-ecological-engineering-what-pretesting-reveals/&h=493&w=500&sz=145&tbnid=JiZJwvg23CxK_M:&tbnh=90&tbnw=91&prev=/search%3Fq%3DTridax%2Bprocumbens%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=Tridax+procumbens&usg=__aP3bLx_kU0B3TX4X0py3opEu9M8=&docid=dRpMCISeb-jTZM&sa=X&ei=paJVUJnQBqSYiAfTx4DwAw&ved=0CC8Q9QEwAg&dur=32730

A common urban weed in north Queensland.

Actually, I picked about 35 flowers in one fell swoop!

What you see in the above link is not one flower but a tight head of many flowers, consisting of about 30 disk florets and 5 ray florets. Yes, that’s right; what appear to be the petals are actually separate flowers in their own right – the ray florets. That’s the nature of daisies, which comprise the huge family Asteraceae.

So there you go.

See you on another thread real soon. ( :>)