The government of a democracy is accountable to the people. Its decision-making process must be transparent because there are real and potentially severe consequences that may arise from poor decisions.
But from the word go, the Coalition government have chosen to hide information from the public.
Federal public servants were prohibited from giving evidence to the SA Royal Commission into the Murray-Darling water management plan.
Two Ministers refused to be interviewed about their involvement in tipping off the media about a raid on AWU headquarters and several of their staff refused to provide statements when requested to by police.
Untold millions have been spent fighting freedom of information requests and appealing decisions directing them to release information.
Increasingly, government contracts are handed out on “limited tender” which means no competitive process. We can’t know if someone could have done a better job for less. And there seems to be no follow-up appraisal of whether outcomes are being achieved.
The Auditor-General’s reports into value for money for defence purchases have been quashed at the behest of arms manufacturers.
Other reports sit on Ministers’ desks for months. They are either released quietly on the eve of holidays or football grand finals, or we are told that it is a “report to government, not by government” which apparently means we have no right to read the information we paid for.
Consultants are now paid big money to provide tailored information to the government rather than listening to advice from public servants in their departments.
Jobs are handed out to mates with no interview or merit selection process – Tim Wilson’s brief but lucrative sinecure at the AHRC being one of the most egregious examples.
Decisions like leasing the port at Darwin to the Chinese for 99 years for a pittance are made seemingly with little if any consultation.
As the national broadcaster has its funding slashed, $30 million is handed over to Murdoch’s pay tv with absolutely no explanation of why or how this happened.
Who decided on the inland rail route and what informed their decision?
Why, after paying so much money for water buybacks to supplement environmental flows in the Murray-Darling, are fish dying in their millions?
Why was a small charity set up by corporate interests given almost half a billion dollars all at once to “save the reef” when money to the CSIRO and university research is cut?
Why, after spending billions on the Emissions Reduction Fund, are they still rising? Has land-clearing really decreased? Have people really planted more trees?
The benefit of public ownership of essential infrastructure like transport, communications, water and energy utilities, has been completely ignored in a headlong rush towards privatisation epitomised by Abbott’s asset-recycling strategy which saw state governments sell-off anything they could regardless of the impact on price and service delivery to citizens and the whittling down of the commonwealth we inherited but will not pass on to future generations.
Rather than defending us from the exploitation of unscrupulous merchants and employers, the government has decided it is best to leave us at the mercy of the free market – unless a donor needs a boost like underwriting their new coal-fired power station because no-one else will.
Whilst the Coalition asks who do you trust on national security, it seems clear that our greatest need for protection is from other institutions and from the abuses of government itself, particularly its collusion with these other institutions.
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