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What does the Government do and what is its role?

Mar 12, 2017

At first, this question may seem a bit silly if not a bit simple but sitting back thinking about it the question has merit. They say times are changing therefore so has the need for us to support the ever increasing Government and public service system.

Government after Government appears to have divested themselves of many operational and managerial roles. This changing roll brought about by their own failures to budget could be the reason why we have such poor weak and isolated Government today.

I am of an age to remember the time when all fundamental and essential services were Government managed, operated and controlled by the Government for the benefit of the community it represented – after all they were paid for by the community

It begs the question therefore if the Government does not operate or manage essential services why do we need to maintain, at an ever increasing cost, a Government system that has grown uninhibited over the last forty years.

The following are a couple of public systems that have been sold from under us:

Employment – the Government job finding system operated as CES and seemed to work and was basically uncomplicated and concentrated on job and position placement. Government then decided to outsource the role based on public service criteria, and we all know that public service is terrible at establishing criteria and following through with audits to keep track of expenditure.

Private companies were encouraged to operate the system; they soon recognised that it was akin to printing money and false claims were rife. They willingly and freely got on board the gravy train The losers were the unemployed, left with a system that ran them ragged and treated them with contempt.

Electricity – Very active in the current media with the fear of insufficient stocks of electricity to see us through the next few months. We have witnessed the sell off of this industry, resulting in the complete mess we see today. The consumer has suffered where it hurts most, and that has been in the hip pocket – again the consumer is treated with contempt, a nuisance value, finding themselves in a position of being unable to question provision of supply and/or cost receiving only lip service from a Government content for the community to suffer to ensure their ideologies and those of minor players are achieved.

State Governments have sold all services for one reason and one reason only, to pay off the debt incurred over the years by inept Governments who have inflicted on us budgets unable to be achieved and with a total lack of forethought creating massive liabilities for us all.

There was nothing really wrong with any of the supply systems that were in operation when sold – the systems ran successfully albeit with a few hitches, but they were our systems, owned lock stock and barrel. Everyone knew where the products came from, who they had to contact and employees were confident of continued future employment and apprentices learnt their various trades.

Not only have we been sold down the river with respect to our services, but valuable public property / real estate has been sold off often under questionable methods and reasons. Without a doubt, all reasons eventually end up as a dollar value to pay off debt incurred by over excessive Governments.

We can all name other services that have incurred the same fate; Our gas supply system, our ports operations, our transport systems, our roads, our sports arenas, Australia Post, the list goes on and on.

One that we should never forget and deserves special mention is the people’s bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, with a proud history of support for the community who made it a success and capable of being sold to private interests only to come back under private ownership to bite those who built it.

Any public sales criteria is capable of being manipulated by an efficient well oiled private enterprise operation – as is currently evidenced, they extract the bones and concentration on those meaty areas making maximum profit for the Company and its shareholders, with little or no thought for the end user – It is basically a numbers game.

Governments are now incapable of controlling the monster they have created, they have become zombified and as a result make more and more costly wrong decisions. They have lost their way and having done so concentrate on the one driving ambition that all Governments have, and that is to remain in Government as long as they can. This is clearly visible by the way all parties react to each other in their respective Government Houses. The infighting within parties has been raised to a new level of degradation, making a school debate look intellectual.

But the question is ‘what does a Government do nowadays?’. The answer is self-evident having divested themselves of all responsibilities for the mistakes of the past they really have little of consequence to do. They compound budget problems on a six monthly or yearly basis – the ability to bring the budget back to some form of creditability forsakes them, notwithstanding their guarantees and undertakings.

Governments spend their time bending backwards listening to minority groups, we all know that, but as we do with most things in life, we just let them get on with it – the time has come for this to stop and for the Governments to actually start governing for the majority and adhering to the mandate upon which they were elected. .

Governments use commissions of enquiry, independent enquiries and numerous committees to bury matters that fall into the too hard basket then as long as the result is what they want they will support the findings. If it goes the other way, they will deny the effectiveness of any report produced. Most matters are lost in the system buried in a pile of paperwork that only the public service can produce.

Governments deal with matters of diplomacy, immigration, legalities and the constitution and really when you put two and two together they are making a right mess of it. They look after themselves and ensure they are personally rewarded for the little they do.

The question remains what do they do. Whether it be a local council, a State Government or Federal Government, all levels are more than adequately staffed and advised by public service departments that seem to be expanding each time you look.

I may be hopeful in this desire, but I would like Governments to make the hard decisions that will take us through this century, but I fear the calibre of current politicians confirm their ranking as below that of car dealers/lawyers in the public’s eye.

Thomas Jefferson said, ‘The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors’

If this is true, our present day Governors have lost their way.

In summary, I find it hard to fathom what or why we have the number of Governments that we have and what the hell they do. Help me please – perhaps someone can assure me they are doing a useful job and tell me what that is – but there again pigs may fly.