Bureaucracy in Australia such a poor performer next to private enterprise

Rarely, and from bureaucracy’s front line, can the operation of Parkinson’s law have been so vividly described than by Claire Lehmann (“Too much red tape is hazardous to health”, 10/8).

In 1955, Professor Northcote Parkinson, based on his experience in the British Naval Office, wrote of a tendency for bureaucrats to make more work for each other. He defined this in his famous law – that work expands to fit the time available for its completion. Lehmann’s woeful tale of her employment at the Commonwealth Health Department would undoubtedly have been adduced by Parkinson as convincing evidence.

It also explains the unfortunate delay in a rollout of Covid vaccines for which the Morrison Government is blamed. Yet Canberra may not be the law’s only venue. Perhaps other bureaucracies are infected? Indeed, my own experience suggests its powerful presence in our universities, their ranks swollen by well-paid administrators in recent decades.

John Kidd, Auchenflower, Qld

Claire Lehmann makes some very good points about the efficiency of the public service here in my town, Canberra.

I have lived here for the past 35 years, always working in the private sector, but I do get to see quite a bit of what goes on. Importantly, so as not to tar them all, it must be said that there are very many high-quality public servants at all levels (but particularly at the top, as naturally the good ones rise up), who are interested in the efficient running of Australia, for the common good.

However, after the good ones, there is the rest of the public service. Many of them are there for life, protected by arcane rules and laws that prevent them from being sacked for non-performance. Many spend their time pursuing their “rights” through never-ending grievance processes, simply because they were not promoted or claim they were bullied by being set a deadline. The really hopeless ones are shuffled from department to department, with their bosses despairing at the hopelessness of the (non-existent) firing process. Many spend their working days planning their next social outings, their travel and attending to their domestic needs.

It is high time for reform of the public service. It could start with introducing private sector rules for working obligations and removal of non-performers.

Ian Morison, Forrest, ACT

God and reason

Paul Monk (10/8) is right to ask for a more rational debate about religion but he regurgitates old myths about Christianity and Western history to justify his “rationalism”.

First, the modern worldview has its roots beyond the Enlightenment into the medieval period and before. For example, there is much scholarship on the Christian roots of modern science and of the role of monasteries in keeping alive Western thought.

Second, Catholics emphasised faith and reason together, not in opposition (as Monk does). The Catholic respect for reason enabled the creation of universities in the Middle Ages.

Third, Christianity did not use philosophy “dogmatically”, but creatively and expansively, which has left a legacy until today. For example, Christian thinkers developed the meaning of the word “person” in Greek and Latin to give us a rich concept of ourselves that we still use today.

Finally, Monk mischaracterises dogma. It was not a constraint on reason but a foundation (its first principles). All systems of thought require first principles to function. Catholic thought interrogated its first principles (dogma) extensively to ensure their rationality. It is one of the main reasons the West developed a rich intellectual tradition.

Dr Joel Hodge, senior lecturer, School of Theology, Australian Catholic University

Thanks to Paul Monk for his scholarly and calmly rational essay on the question of religious belief and non-belief in contemporary Australia. I was born into a middle-class Anglican Australian family in 1940. While endorsing the moral and ethical principles espoused by Christianity, my life experience makes it impossible for me to believe in the existence of the Christian or any other god. The greatest reservation I have about religious belief is that it creates a fatally false view of our situation on this tiny speck of a habitable planet, but I accept that religious belief brings great comfort to many and will always persist. My hope is that in our nation there can be the mutually tolerant recognition so powerfully advocated by Dr Monk.

Clive Huxtable, Beaconsfield, WA

In awe

I reckon Janet Albrechtsen could write a column on the growth of toenails during lockdown and make it riveting, but add a judge with the bewitching name of Mordecai and Janet’s nailed it for sure (“When judges go off on a legal frolic of their own”, 11/8).

Rosemary O’Brien, Ashfield, NSW