Well, we wouldn’t know!
During the leaders debate, Bligh made public an analysis of the savings possible from Springborg’s Yes Minister-esqe economy drive that was produced by Professor John Wanna, a bloke whose work is rather respected when it comes to the intricacies of public administration.
The only problem is that the document is seemingly a little difficult to get hold of for reasons only known to the ALP.
If anyone has an electronic version of it or knows where one can be found, can they either send it to me here or drop a link in comments.
This document is rather important – not making it widely available is rather silly.
UPDATE:
Nice of the ALP to finally start circulating it -and thanks to all those that sent me copies and posted links as they turned up. For anyone not reading comments (shame, shame!), you can download the document here.
84 Comments
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I think front-ending would actually be an easier way.
Mark B -read Prof Wanna’s document. It is a game changer.
It’s an annihilation, that aint no sound bite….it’s a symphony!
How can you be planning less teachers and smaller class sizes at the same time?
As Wanna says on page three:
Easy – Encourage kids to skip class.
54- As Rudd so elegantly puts “you need to have a goal”
Aren’t goals supposed to be achievable and affordable?
Hutch that comment was denecessary, the Borg knows we gotta ejumikate them young ‘uns.
Is Borg-speak a combination of Bush-isms meets Joh-speak?
I get the impression Lawrence hasn’t even read the Hungry Caterpillar. If he has it was probably upside down.
I think the problem is as Mark points out – this report won’t really make much difference to the average punter even *if* they hear about it. It doesn’t seem likely that obtuse arguments about the conduct of budget policy makes any real impact outside the small cadre of public administration wonks and politics-watchers…
Don’t know about that Scot. It confirms what workers already know.
http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/story/2009/03/13/hospital-workers-concerned/
* Face it – most of the public think pollies get paid too much. With talk of hundreds of spin doctors and jobs like Beatties in Holywood they also agree there is piles of fat in government.
* Springborg then ads to this Blighs terrible financial management and how we need to reduce debt. Peole get this argument. They agree it will be hard but dont believe Bligh that her gov is trimmed to the bone already.
* a big wordy policy document most people can’t understand and won’t read, by some academic that most people have never heard of won’t change any of this.
* remember that big ‘fightback’document Hewson went to the 93 election with? It was supposed to have all the answers. Fat lot of good that did him also.
I know how much you crikey types still aren’t over Joh being in power for so long and turning the alp into a rump in qld, but it was Bligh yesterday trying to channel Joh in yesterdays debate. Saying how she had to be like Joh or we wouldn’t have had the gateway bridge and the dams etc that he built for qld.
(Interesting how she listed Joh’s infrastructure in seq but couldn’t list her own)
RIP sir Joh.
I think you are showing you age Susan, you would have to seventy to admire Joh, times have moved on into the 21st century.
I’m trying to find any reference to Wannas report in the media, anybody?.
1934pc this was in the Oz.The six page report itself was in comments on page one of this thread.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25183258-5006786,00.html
One point on the productivity dividend that is missed by most including Wanna is the impact on ICT in both the public and privat sector. Horan said durring the week that $303 million could be shed from Qld Health by getting rid of consultancies and contractors. I don’t think he or many others realise that a fair slice of that $303 million goes to the Qld ICT industry and some contacts I have there are less than impressed. So the so called productivity dividend not only impacts public sector jobs but private sector ones as well. What the average person fails to realise is that ICT is part of the infrastructure which underpins frontline services so how does team Borg reconcile this with their promise to “retain existing infrastructure spending’.
Springborg keeps quoting the First Royal Commissioner at the Bundaberg hospital inquiry too. His attitude was that only doctors and nurses should be in hospitals and everyone else is denecessary. Queensland Hospitals are about to become a real nightmare if those sort of proposals are adopted by Springborg and McArdle.
I was at the Royal Commision the day that the former AMA president was being grilled. The proposal made no sense then and is still nonsense now.
MATT WORDSWORTH: But for the nursing union and the medical association, it’s not the sensations of the Morris Inquiry that will solve the problems in Queensland Health. Both are pinning their hopes on this man, Peter Forster. He has the bold task of restructuring the $5 billion-a-year beast that is Queensland Health. With about 60,000 employees, the AMA says the bureaucracy is out of control.
DR DAVID MOLLOY: You sense that Queensland Health could cheerfully do without 4,000 or 5,000 employees and probably the whole thing will run better.
http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/qld/content/2005/s1373614.htm
Luckydave @ 52 – I’ve read Wanna’s report. His argument and logic are clear and irrefutable.
But Scot @ 57 is right in my view. Very few people will read it, and the ALP has been making these claims already. Simply adding that an academic’s report bolsters them won’t in and of itself make that much difference to public perceptions.
I also suspect, as I’ve said before, that everyone is already anticipating The Borg jettisoning his promises on day 1 after the election if he wins, and that reduces the salience of the argument over fiscal policy and funding.
The analogy some have been making to Hewson’s birthday cake isn’t an exact one.
Voters in 1993 (and 1998) knew they would be personally affected by a GST.
And Hewson blew himself out of the water.
Queensland voters in 2009 might believe (wrongly) that slashing public service numbers has no effect on their lives.
And Springborg has a heap of obfuscating rhetoric about “spin”, “advertising”, “fat cats” and is denying the premise of the Labor attack.
The real audience for the Wanna report is the press. It’s probably designed to skew press coverage away from the LNP.
Incidentally, Podrick’s comment @ 65 is spot on. ICT is absolutely crucial to service delivery, to a greater degree than other “back room” functions.
Mark,
You seem to be saying that everyone knows Springborg and Co are lying but that’s not a factor in people making a choice for who will govern.
I’m not sure that this should be a surprise, GG. Maybe Anna and co. should have run more heavily on the “trust” theme. It’s a weird campaign – you can see the direction they’ve mapped out, but they don’t seem to really flesh out any of the messages.
“I also suspect, as I’ve said before, that everyone is already anticipating The Borg jettisoning his promises on day 1 after the election if he wins, and that reduces the salience of the argument over fiscal policy and funding.”
Yes I agree with you about this. I suspect that Bligh is winning the analytical argument but losing the political argument. Even though Springborg’s claims are nonsense, it makes Bligh sound like she is just defending public servants and government waste. Not popular themes at all. Insofar as people accept her argument against Springborg, people will say “well he might not be able to save all of that money but at least he’ll save something”.
She’s on much stronger ground when she talks about government ‘not stepping backwards’.
That’s right, Martin, I think.
The Bligh campaign comes off as being very much in defensive mode – particularly in the last week. No doubt she had a good point about the Borg’s complaints about the oil spill, too, but he’s got the cut through lines and she’s got what seems to come across as bureaucrat speak.
True if you look at the campaign as seen through the media. On the ground it may be different. The LNP has alienated all public servants, their families and circle of influence.
Small business who exist by tendering for Govt. contracts may also have that “niggling doubt”. Workers, who know the business they are employed by rely on Govt. contracts, may be feeling a bit insecure.
Thats a lot of people with a “niggling doubt” about the LNP, Mr Springborg may have been better off not to have dreamed up his efficiency dividend. To quantify it as 3% or a billion dollars was lunacy. He could have just said we will find efficiencies – full stop.
Hmm….cynic that I am and working on the theory that Labor would never have paid for an ‘independent’ study that didn’t tell them exactly what they wanted to hear, I googled “John Wanna ALP”.
I’d submit (although obviously do not know) that he’s pretty firmly in the Labor camp, having published several books, articles and opinion pieces on the hitory of the ALP, Labor leaders, the ACTU, labour movement and so forth. From a purely political viewpoint, and considering Labor themselves commissioned it, it does raise a question mark or two.
MDMConnell
It really does not matter, as long as Prof Wanna is not percieved as a loony (which he certainly is not) the damage has been done.
Remember all politics is local, whispering campaigns, fear uncertainty and doubt are powerful motivators.
“Hey Fred did you hear some Professor said Mr Springborg has to cut jobs or services” nah its just fat cats “but this guy says that Molly, you know the nurse who pops in every now and then may lose her job” really Bill I didn’t know that? – thanks.
The LNP need every vote they can get – and they have made an error.
Possibly.
I wonder if both sides will be getting the push-polling running full steam over this
“No it’s not just fat cats it’s ordinary battling Queenslanders” vs “Nah that’s all Labor spin, and that Professor’s a Labor guy anyway”
I’m still skeptical as to whether that many people are paying attention at all! On my admittedly unscientific survey of just about everyone I know, I haven’t found anyone who reports people talking about the campaign among their friends, at their work etc. aside from folks who’ve said things like “when’s that election again?”…
#77
So what’s generating the swing to the LNP? If the public were that disengaged I’d expect the polls to be around where they were last time, maybe minus 1-2% for the government since it’s 3 years older.
Is it a sort of apathetic “oh well I guess it’s time to give the other mob a go for a chance” thing?
I think so! I’m still of the view that there’s been a trend away from the gov’t, people have had a brief focus on Bligh’s record and Labor’s record at the start of the campaign, more or less made up their minds, and will vote accordingly next week.
The dynamic Beattie was fighting last time – accumulated dissatisfaction about services and boredom with the government – is still there. And I don’t think Bligh has either turned it around or been a particularly effective political communicator.
The government comes across as a bunch of tired managerialists. There’s no compelling reason I can think of anyone could get massively inspired by the Queensland ALP vision or even describe what that might entail.
And I think it’s been a bloody awful campaign. It reminds me of a tattoo that’s awaiting the colour between the lines. The strategic concepts have been sketched, but the political message to drive them home and make them effective is absent.
For instance, the assertion that the Borg is a bumbling incompetent hasn’t had much support from his performance during the actual campaign. I’d be switching to another line of attack.
Or the justification for the early election really implies a “trust” theme, but it hasn’t been articulated in a particularly compelling way.
The campaign I think emphasises subliminally Labor’s over-confidence going in, and disbelief that they could be under real pressure.
Labor has been on the nose for years, but the opposition has not been all that electable. Springborg basically admitted that after the last election also. I think the LNP are getting the swing because the ALP can’t fall back on the big attack of the unelectable rabble opposition they were always so fond of. Maybe it made Labor lazy.
Many disgruntled libs and labor seem to almost be in denial that the opposition has actually merged into the LNP and reinvigorated the party. Many won’t even use the new name (surely a classic sign of denial). I think the two campaign launches today will be interesting to compare. The footage I saw of the LNP merger looked more like something out of the US than the boring kind of thing Labor and the Libs did at the last federal election.
Today’s campaign launches will show if ALP supporters are still enthusiastic or if their polling shows they are in trouble and the members aren’t really behind the campaign.
It will also show if anyone is actually supporting this LNP and turns up, or if all the Libs have left the party and only a hand full of people from west of Toowoomba in cowboy hats turn up as some would have you believe.
My guess is, Anna Bligh will claw back some momentum next week, and as for John Wanna, people who don’t like the message usually shoot the messenger.
Very interesting that Cambell Newman said at the LNP launch that not only did he successfully carry out a 2.7% efficiency saving when he came to power but he did it with a hostile council and the guy who carried it out was Tim Nichols who can now do it for the LNP again at the state level…
Looks like Cambel wated to the last week to drop that bomb shell.
I see in the Fin Review last Thursday “Four economists and a public policy expert contacted by the Australian Financial REview yesterday agreed the $1 billion in savings were achievable after 11 years of expanding government in QLD…
3% is not really a big number. That’s what the private sector is achieving. It is possible to do for at least 10 years…”
It would seem to be reasonable that you could achieve significant efficiency gains not by reducing services, but reducing administrative costs.”
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