We have a federal government; each state and territory have a government and there is a myriad of councils and shires in each as well.
Each level of government has its own responsibilities however there is a lot of crossover in some areas. Take for example health and education. The federal government provides a lot of the funds that each state and territory government need to operate these sectors. Although the feds provide the bulk of the finances it is the states and territory governments that are responsible for them.
In health you have a bureaucracy at federal level determining what level of funding should be allocated where. In particular the feds are responsible for funding hospitals, but the states run them. You then have another bureaucracy at state level allocating the funding to each public hospital and of course another bureaucracy within each hospital allocating funding to the various departments. That is a lot of money being spent from the allocated budget before one patient receives a benefit.
And for education the process is repeated, again with a lot of money being spent before one student lifts a pencil in a classroom. Then there is the political argy-bargy that goes on between state and federal counterparts in the sectors. Each minister in each sector would have a plethora of advisors, media and administrative personnel so the minister can be across their brief and take pot-shots at others over how their administration is better than the others. More money out the door before it gets to be used on grassroot purposes.
At the recent Hotel Quarantine Inquiry in Victoria a complicated bureaucratic system of decision making has been revealed. The end result was a disaster that no one is keen on taking responsibility for. Now I am sure that this level of bureaucracy is not unique to Victoria and there will be other jurisdictions that have the same complexity of administration in various areas. This again highlights the theme of a lot of money being spent before what is left over gets an outcome.
The public service juggernaut in Australia sailed through the Covid19 restrictions without a scratch. While other sectors were laying off people, reducing hours or closing down, the fortnightly paycheque for public servants kept on being deposited into their accounts. All hell broke out in NSW when the government put a freeze on public service wages during Covid19. Unions threatened industrial action, not satisfied that they didn’t have to take the risks like those in the private sector. Secure in their jobs and with no pay cuts it riled many that were suffering through no fault of their own.
At the local level the various shires and councils that look after their patches are too many in some states. In WA there are 138 councils. Yes, WA is a big area but some of these shires cater for a population of 300 ratepayers or less. The WA government has flagged that they are amenable to reducing the number of shires to make it more practical. Peppermint Grove Council in Perth’s leafy western suburbs covers an area of one square kilometre. (That is not a typo). It has revenue of only $5M and at last count had 24 employees. Surely it would be a candidate to merge with another council, in fact as part of a merger of a few councils in the area. The government is also keen to reduce the number of councillors that sit around the table.
I suppose the point I am trying to make is that at all levels we have too many politicians and too many bureaucrats that waste money that could be going towards the myriad of projects that need the money more.