Public servants alone cannot wear the blame

I was well regarded as an economic policy adviser to bodies chaired by prime ministers of the UK and Australia. In 1991, Kevin Rudd recruited me to write the Goss government’s economic development strategy and I later moved to Queensland Treasury. Eventually, I was forced out. A high-level supporter told me I was seen as a threat because of my “honesty, integrity, intellect and analytical rigour”. In short, I sought to serve the public rather than pander to what ministers wanted to hear.

I’d be very surprised if the Victorian public service operated differently. Those public servants singled out would know their careers depended on deferring to the whims and preferences of their government masters, who as we know have very strong left-wing, pro-union, “woke” biases (“The Quarantine Scapegoats”, 29/9). So the buck does stop with Daniel Andrews and his ministers and justice will not be served if only public servants wear the blame.

Michael Cunningham, West End, Qld

It’s time for the National Party to step up and exert more influence over federal and state government policy formulation. We have just experienced how ideological governments, as in Victoria, whose policies are based on the inner city green-left, can be extremely incompetent when it comes to the fundamentals of governance. In this day and age of virtue signalling, identity politics, cancel culture, minority grievance, unconscious bias and other woke beliefs it is surely time for a rebalancing of the books, a renaissance of sorts.

What better place to start than the traditional family values, work ethic, risk-taking, community-sharing, mateship and basic commonsense that exists in our rural townships and regions? It is these values that made Australia great. They should not be usurped by the inner city green-left, who are more interested in international-based dogma than the well-being of fellow Australians.

The National Party must increase its representation across Australia to give concerned citizens another choice for the coming election.

Ron Hobba, Camberwell, Vic

It is utterly bizarre the ADF was not the first choice for quarantine control in Victoria, in fact around the country.

The ADF is made up of more than just combat troops. It has a huge logistics, medical and administrative capacity, all trained for remote operations in places all over the planet, let alone this country. Even the combat troops and their command structure have a large body of experience in civilian oversight in circumstances far more challenging than inner-city Melbourne.

What bureaucrat could not get behind that as a go-to one-stop shop solution? And hey, the Feds would be paying. But no, and now we have this duck-shoving “nobody knows who made the choice” response. I can understand why they are ducking and weaving, though.

M. Seward, Port Fairy, Vic

Mark Scanlan (Last Post, 29/9) ponders whether Victorian politicians and public servants in the hotel quarantine bungle, if faced with industrial manslaughter charges, will, Nuremberg-like, adopt a “Spring Street defence” of “just following orders”.

However, there are some operational differences between Hitler’s Third Reich and Daniel Andrews’ Victoria. The Nazis’ hideous “Final Solution” was highly organised, efficient, thoroughly documented, with a clear chain of command. By contrast, Spring Street’s “solution” to quarantining returnees is revealed as an uncoordinated shambles in which any chain of command is amorphously opaque and any orders apparently arbitrary and in a state of flux.

In such a quagmire, it is difficult — but surely not impossible — to identify those responsible and accountable for the deaths of the 787 people who suffered and died from the unleashing of COVID-19. And it is imperative those whose lives were destroyed receive consideration and justice.

Deborah Morrison, Malvern East, Vic

The enforced wearing of masks when outside and alone defies all logic. By the Premier’s own admission, Victoria’s mask laws go further than the health advice upon which so much of his ridiculous laws are apparently based. The fact he would angrily ask a reporter “seriously, why is it such a massive issue” when she reasonably questioned this perfectly illustrates his frame of mind. He is not fit to lead this state.

Marina Richardson, Melbourne, Vic