Parliament can end culture of jobs for mates

21 September 2010The practice of handing plum posts to political friends is entrenched, write Andrew Macintosh and Deb Wilkinson in the National Times

AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRACY has long suffered from an illness in the form of politicised appointments to public positions. Both major parties have often appointed friends and colleagues to public offices to protect their interests and repay past favours.

This has become so commonplace that it now goes unnoticed and, indeed, is expected. Yet with the independents and Greens holding the balance of power in Federal Parliament, there is an opportunity to curb this practice.

To give the Labor government its due, in mid-2008 it introduced a new policy and guidelines to promote transparent and merit-based assessments in the selection of…

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Andrew Macintosh is associate director of the Australian National University's Centre for Climate Law and Policy. Deb Wilkinson is an author and policy consultant.

Photo: Andrew Jeffrey

 

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