That is the model I propose, A head of Tertiary education would need to hold a degree on the field of education to be voted by his peers to represent education. A Union representative would need natural understanding of workers needs and have leadership to be voted as rep of Unions etc.Each person would have to decide in what field they wished to be represented and receive one vote only. For us it might be a seniors Pensioner / retiree, who we would chose to represent us. Local Government would remain as is.

I think our senior bureaucrats in the Public Service get too high a salary too early, long before they actually become even familiar with chores let alone competent & far too many never even reach the first stage of usefulness.
Foxy mentioned Frydenberg & the only reason he's able to perform somewhat better than the rest of the team is because he has a cultural background that has responsibility & respect as its main ingredient !
When the basic prerequisites of responsibility & respect aren't part of peoples' culture then it is not surprising that performance reflects that lack in their duties.

Dear Josephus and Individual,

You've both raised some very valid points.

Thank You.

I'm starting to look at our politicians in a
different way now thanks to many of the
comments raised here. Our MPs are certainly a
mix of various talents, qualifications, and
experiences.

Hi Foxy,

As a general rule I don't agree that politicians have to be qualified, and therefore by default ministers. Having said that one would hope those in a senior position from Prime Minister down would at least be "cluey" enough to be able to handle a very complex job. My years of political experience tells me everyone from the raving idiot, to the well educated, sane, intelligent person seeks to represent us in parliament.

At the ministerial level, the minister is not required to be a genius at the operational aspects of the portfolio, he or she has public servants for that function, but rather the minister has to direct government policy in a particular area, and ensure those policy objectives are being met by the functionaries of the PS. Also the minister has to be able to explain policy broadly to the community through interest groups, media etc, he or she has to be intelligent enough to understand and carry out what is a very demanding job.

Do we get the best person for the job, not always, like cooks in a bakehouse some are better than others. AND after all they are all politicians first, and experts second.

Dear Paul,

Well put. You've said it much better than I could have.
I've worked with a few politicians, doing research
as well as writing speeches. And as you say - first
and foremost they were politicians - however, I did
learn a great deal from most of them - especially what
not to do.