Trevor Cook on public relations, social media and politics

More coverage of Rudd’s ‘war’ with his public service

I talked about this earlier today but it has been running all day, and its very interesting:

  • Public service union condemns Rudd’s comments – "CPSU National Secretary Stephen Jones has condemned the leak, but says Mr Rudd’s warning that public servants will be expected to work even harder is inflammatory given the recent round of budget cuts."
  • The Australian – "The accusations (about leaking) come as the commonwealth public service is straining under an enormous workload from the Rudd Government’s reforms and numerous reviews and as 3200 jobs are being cut across the bureaucracy."
  • Canberra Times – "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has declared war on the public service, sending in police to investigate the leaking of a cabinet document and demanding even more work from his bureaucrats" & "Public Service Commissioner Lynelle Briggs confirmed to a Senate Estimates committee this week that department secretaries and other public servants had raised concerns with her about heavy workloads in the face of the efficiency dividend cuts."
  • Scopical - "The Rudd Government chose not to purge the public service after Labor’s
    win, saying instead they wanted to get on with delivering key changes. The Prime Minister said yesterday he accepted the outcome of this decision."
  • Andrew Podger (former public service commissioner) - "Leaks are quite common with a new government because
    there are some people who still feel loyalty to the previous government
    and feel they don’t owe the new government their loyalty."
  • Lyndal Curtis, ABC reporter – "What they (public servant) are frustrated with is that they are being called in at
    all hours to give advice which is then ignored and that your office is
    chaotic."
  • Rudd Watch – "How on earth would the public service have got their hands on Martin
    Ferguson’s confidential letter to his cabinet colleagues? This was a
    closely-held document that no public servant would ever have set eyes
    on."
  • Henry Thornton – "Said public officials are apparently complaining about working their
    butts off only to find their advice ignored, disappearing into the
    Prime Minister’s pile of briefing notes never to surface again."

Update: Leakwatch

Post a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.