Why is the federal government so incompetent? Some causes.

Originally posted by Orson: ↑

There's a bigger picture issue starting to emerge throughout this crisis (especially through the tweets of political journalists) of complete and utter chaos at a federal level in government. It's not being covered in depth by the media but worth looking at.

Revelations have emerged of: secret acting ministers; departments not knowing who's in charge, who they report to or even their head of department or minister; unelected political advisors in their 20s with no authority barking orders at public servants, Defence Force and emergency service personnel; sunglassed security officers removing people "who look as though they might be critical of the PM" from their own towns or evacuation areas before the PM or Liberal Party ministers visit; journalists called to national security briefings only to be backgrounded with negative stories about the Liberal NSW Premier; and much, much more incompetence and division.

I believe there are some key causes. Here's a few:
Public service paralysis. Scott Morrison downsized 18 departments to 14 on 5 December before going on holidays shortly after. Five head of departments were lost, and the federal public service had no chance to bed in the changes before the holiday break. Some now literally don't know what they're responsible for, who they report to, and who is authorised to act on a matter and liaise with people outside their department. They're paralysed due to the PM's decision and timing.
Culture of secrecy. The PM and various ministers (like the Defence Minister Marise Payne) went on holidays in secret, and secretly installed acting ministers in their place. Not many in the public service knew who their boss was at that time. Liberal Party policy advisors were giving orders (perhaps illegally). Did you know that Christian Porter was Acting Defence Minister during the Mallacoota naval evacuation? Did he?
Home Affairs is missing and they're supposed to be running the show. The Department of Home Affairs coordinates Australia's disaster and emergency response. Peter Dutton is in charge. No one seems to know where he is. The Department of Home Affairs has closed their offices due to poor air quality from the bushfires they are supposed to be responding to but aren't.
Making everything about politics. The PM could have acknowledged that we were in a terrible bushfire season and prepared for it. He'd now be praised. Because of his recent actions at the climate change talks though, he seemed to feel that he had to minimise a catastrophic threat to Australia because of his political stance. That meant ministers and departments followed his lead, all doing little and stating that we were adequately prepared when the whole country knew we weren't.
Media protection. The PM has had extraordinarily positive media coverage until the last month. Few know that GDP growth has halved under his leadership, household income lost 4% and the economy has started to fall towards a recession for everyone but the big end of town, because Murdoch papers glossed over it. So he got lazy. Ministers not being able to do their jobs became the norm, as journos wouldn't write about it. Now that's changed.
Kneejerk reactions. The PM believes not so much in governing as being seen to be governing. Normally everybody does their thing and he comes along for photo ops at the launch to get the glory. Now he's actually making major decisions that throw disaster responses into chaos, without telling the right people and preparing for it.

Ultimately, we have a level of incompetence rarely seen at federal level at a time when we desperately need our federal government to be at its finest. It's a mess.

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You're forgetting something, the Federal Public Service as basically on holidays from Xmas Eve until after New Years. That's the problem.