My say on Ute-gate

Sometimes I actually think I am psychic, but then I realise that I am actually just a cynical public servant who has lost all faith in the political system and basically all politicians. Even the good ones are shit and the bad ones are well, Theo Theophanous – need I say more…..but I tell you I could see as soon as this story broke that a public servant was going to cop the blame for this Ute-gate business at some point, I mean, it just had to happen.

Now before I get started on my rant about politicians, I might just say a few words about public servants.

I need to start by saying that realistically when I was at school and at Uni studying I always knew I would be a public servant, I am not really sure why. I was always interested in politics, had a huge obsession with Paul Keating and would write fan mail to Joan Kirner rather than BROS, so it’s fair to say that the interest was always there.

I think what attracted me to be interested in being a public servant rather than actually being involved in politics was really just that I was under the crazy misapprehension that I has the capacity to contribute to the development and delivery of social policy in a completely bipartisan capacity.

I never actually really pursued a “career” in the public service, but it did just kind of happen after I finished Uni and it made sense, I never really had any experience in the private sector of any significance and in the early days I guess I actually felt like I was doing some good in the time when education and skills reform was flavour of the month. Then of course it became less palatable and I learned some very hard lessons about how social policy IS actually made – but that’s for another instalment.

What I will say is that generally speaking the role of the public servant is extremely misunderstood. People get it if you sell something, make something or have a job that has a television series based on it, I mean, we all know that CSI is exactly like it the real thing……but there are no shows about the public service except for things like Yes Minister and more recently and probably more accurately The Hollowmen.

If you have not seen The Hollowmen, I encourage you to watch it. The script is literally spot on. It shows a bunch of people who are working on behalf of the politicians who are largely stupid, indecisive and easily manipulated (according to public opinion as opposed to maintaining a sense of morality or attempting to maintain a stance on an issues which is well understood), but these people work hard and are under pressure to satisfy the political and personal needs of the politicians under extremely difficult circumstances.

I am aware that there are obviously plenty of public service jobs where the old notion of the brown cardigan clad, odd socked wearing balding man stamping bits of paper in a slow and drawn out manner and attempting to seem important or to be a decision maker in some capacity, very much still exists and they are out there, I have met them, sat next to them and occasionally tried to explain to them that they bring the rest of us into disrepute, but by and large this person is an endangered species.

The reality is that public servants come under a great deal of pressure in the process of serving the public, because the reality is that we are expected to serve the Ministers, and if anyone is stupid enough to think that we receive emails from Ministers (including the Prime Minister or Premier) which directly state that we should do X in order to assist them they would have to be barking mad.

The influence they have is far more subtle that that and takes many forms which can not be traced and is all just he said she said stuff which is never able to be proved and will always be denied. It is more about a culture that exists which makes it impossible for someone to refuse a request from a senior officer.

But because politicians are never responsible and completely above reproach when something like the Ute-gate thing comes up or ends up looking more like egg on the face of an MP from either side of politic you can bet your bottom dollar that a public servant will be blamed for the fuck up.

Tony Abbot has now blamed a federal treasury official for “making up” the story and handing it to the opposition who have now ended up looking like a bunch of clowns. Give me a break.

The senior public servant who is said to have let the leak out was a bloke who was previously on the staff Malcolm Turnbull and they appear to have some level of connection still, however this is being denied by both parties.

So here is what I reckon happened – the senior public servant got pissed with Malcolm or one of his staffers and they chatted about the fact that this finance scheme which was being administered by Treasury was attracting a bit of attention from various pollies who where trying to help their mates out who have suffered financial loss as a result of the Global Financial Crisis…..which is fairly standard fare really, but what I never bought was the fact that there was an email instructing Treasury staff to “help out” K Rudd’s mate who owned a car dealership and needed assistance under the GFC assistance package.

The reason I never bought this was that going back to my earlier point – you would NEVER write that sort of shit down. But the Treasury person was probably pissed and mouthing off and then had to create an email after the story got out. So at the end of the day there are a number of people to blame, Malcolm and his idiot staffers for not getting their facts right and having some concrete evidence before they went public, the public servant for mouthing off without having evidence that was actually able to nail K Rudd and then of course there is the culture that exists within the public service where Ministers and their staff do lean on bureaucrats who are supposed to be politically impartial.

Furthermore the stupidity of the people who have been writing into idiot TV “Sunrise” asking why “Average Joe” should care about this, you must be fucking kidding me??!!

At the core of our political process there are the government departments who administer money, policies and other government business and this process should be completely independent and transparent and should not be subject to political influence or corruption and nobody, not even the Prime Minister should have the power to use public money to “help out a mate” – but guess what its isn’t and it does happen this way and THAT’S what we should all be getting loud about!!!

Melissa Doyle is a complete fuckwit and an insult to woman and especially those of us who continue fight the stereotypes associated with being a female, you and blonde and having boobs but waking up to the sound of her dumb voice trying to ask a “sensible” and “intellectual” question of that moron David Koch, who I might add was unable to answer, he in fact said that “Average Joe” should be concerned because this proves that pollies lie – what the fuck??!! Are you kidding me?? As if we didn’t already know THAT!

This angered me, but was followed by a clip of Tony Abbot blaming a public servant for the fuck up and that just tipped me over the edge. I came close to putting the TV outside on the street and letting a homeless person come and take it but changed my mind on account of the fact that its footy season and I would miss too many games if I had no TV and I would have to go to the pub and watch footy, where I would just drink and that would be all bad for everyone, so I thought I would keep the idiot box, but I must remember not to leave it on.

As for being a public servant and the shit that goes along with that, well there are a few issues……do I like my job? Yeah, its ok….is it everything I though it would be working in the public service? No, nothing could have prepared me for this, and mainly nothing could have prepared me for the disappointment that often sets in when I feel compromised or unhappy about issues or activities I observe or am part of….would I leave and go and work in the private sector? No, I tried for a few months a couple of years ago and I missed it here, I missed the process of government and laughing at the many ironies and similarities between my every day working life and the script from The Hollowmen……so why complain? I’m not, I often get frustrated, annoyed etc with certain things in the workplace that go on, no more than other people in any workplace really – what I am complain about on this occasion is the fact that people who seem to feel that they have something to say about the issue and contribute to the discussion seem to be so ill-informed and the politicians treat those of us who do know what’s going on with contempt by darting and dodging ultimate responsibility for a culture that they have ultimately been apart of creating.

It doesn’t matter what your political beliefs are, if you think for one minute that one side of politics is not capable of behaving in a certain way, you are fucking kidding yourself……so where does that leave us? Needing to understand our system better, rejecting shit media coverage of political issues and stop eating the political rhetoric like blocks of Cadburys chocolate. The only way to stop what goes on is to firstly understand it, but people don’t and as a consequence I drink and try to forget that I live in a country of ignorant stupid people who watch Melissa Doyle and David Koch in the mornings and pump their kids full of sugar filled cereal instead of meaningful and intelligent conversation.

Right – wine time.