This is one of the concluding paragraphs from Aaron Patrick’s coverage of the Ruby Princess report and Premier Berejiklian’s decision to not take scalps:
Her decision will have three effects: it will preserve continuity in the management of the pandemic, it will boost morale in the public service, and it will assure her political colleagues that she will support them publicly when they are under intense pressure, giving them more confidence to make difficult decisions.
This is not a commentary on Patrick per se. TAFKAS considers him one of the more sound journalists in Australia. And there is some good rationale for not “punishing” people for making mistakes because they and their organisations usually learn from them. Not to mention it permits risk based decision making, something that is particularly important for the public sector.
However, TAFKAS will look forward to similar sentiments from Patrick’s AFR colleagues when it comes to “wrong calls” made by Australian businesses and business leaders.
Does it though?
My take on the whole steaming pile of responsibility avoidance papered over with “process” and “consultation” is that a risk based decision making environment was the last thing they wanted.
bullshit.
If there are no consequences for poor decisions, there’s no reason to avoid making poor decisions.
“There is a reason why there are strict guidelines for declaring a state of emergency.
Specifically around the maximum time of the emergency.
It’s to protect us citizens from a tyrannical government hijacking democracy.
Because the only thing that separates us to a dictatorship are the fundamental freedoms that are temporarily stripped from us when a state of emergency is declared.
As soon as it is temporary no more, we are no different to a dictatorship.
No one in the media seems to be questioning Dan Andrews move today to extend his state of emergency indefinitely.
The premier is working with the solicitor-general to figure out how to remove that one protection citizens have to prevent governments going rogue.”
heads up via: Avi Yemini @twitter – https://twitter.com/OzraeliAvi/status/1295303396094693376
sky news: Vic Premier moves to extend state of emergency capabilities indefinitely
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6181636219001
And no doubt we’ll see the same restraint applied to the situation in Victoria ….
Soon (if not already) you’d have to be a mug to work in the private sector.
Absolutely Correct 100000000000000000 + %
Hazard should have gone along with many health experts (sarc)
No Ifs No Butts
All nsw premier has done is show she and the rest of her lefty liberals are not up to the job
The concept of “risk based” decision making only makes sense when the risk is actually risky … hence why ownership is such an important thing in society and why the public sector should never be trusted with those tasks that do involve a risk judgement.
Keeping track of driver’s licenses and rego payments is about the upper limit of what they can handle.
We have seen this again and again … let’s take a look at infrastructure, after years of having government employees build roads, we finally discovered it works better to have private investment, private contractors and a private/public combined decision about whether this road is needed at all. Sometimes the investor loses money (like that infamous cross city tunnel) but that’s not a failure … that is the free market correctly demonstrating that risks are risky and nothing in life is guaranteed. Unless you have a similar mechanism operating inside the public sector, then you do not have the required machinery to make decisions. How many times do we need to re-learn this?
So nobody in authority is to be held accountable but individuals and businesses can be find for failing to adhere to social distancing rules?
Yes, great leadership that.
fined!
AFR is the most anti-business financial newspaper on the planet. Redder than a baboon’s bum.
Or for knocking off at 4.00 pm after a day that started at 9:30 am and included a two hour lunch break, morning and afternoon tea.
If there are no consequences for poor decisions, there’s no reason to avoid making poor decisions.
One word Accountability, there is none.
The statements above are so absurd it’s difficult to know where to begin.
There does not need to be continuity in the mismanagment of the panicdemic, for starters. If various politicians and bureaucrats make shockingly bad decisions or are asleep at the wheel (especially if this results in mass loss of lives, FFS), they should be summarily removed.
As for morale in the bureaucracy, you’re talking about one of the few sectors of the “labour” market inured from mass job losses. How their morale would need boosting is beyond me. Try losing your job and your home and see what happens to your morale (hint: it won’t be “boosted”).
Health Hazzard is a useless drunken incompetent who should have been made to resign or been sacked months ago. “Supporting” him so he can continue to make very bad decisions (on advice from equally useless incompetent bureaucrats) is obscene.
Beryl Gladyschlocklian is an irredeemable disgrace and her appalling, gutless behaviour is the antithesis of leadership – and you obviously don’t need to be one of our morally and intellectually superior j’ismists to grasp that undeniable fact.
‘And there is some good rationale for not “punishing” people for making mistakes because they and their organisations usually learn from them.’
But we are not talking about simple ‘mistakes’ – ongoing human error that any organisation experiences from time to time and can learn from.
According to the Commission’s report, these were ‘inexcusable ‘ and ‘unjustifiable mistakes’. In other words, prima facie failures of diligence, a fundamental responsibility of any pubic sector employee. In the APS, at least, to fail to act with care and diligence is a clear breach of the Code of Conduct.
Organisation can learn from failures in diligence, but that shouldn’t excuse the perpetrators.
It is absolutely extraordinary that it even exists. Only in this stupid, stupid country.
I’m sorry no one’s to blame for cruise ship blunders
Yoni Bashan
NSW POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
Gladys Berejiklian has offered an “unreserved apology” to the victims of the Ruby Princess crisis but is refusing to take action against any colleagues or health authorities over the scandal, which claimed dozens of lives and led to more than 1000 infections across the country.
The disembarkation of 2700 COVID-19 infected passengers in March, despite a number being tested for the coronavirus, was caused by “inexcusable” and “unjustifiable” mistakes by NSW Health, a special commission of inquiry found.
The “various mistakes and failures” of NSW Health led to the cluster on the cruise ship becoming the largest in the country during the first wave of the pandemic, Bret Walker SC wrote in the commission’s final report.
The NSW Premier and Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Monday defended the government’s response and provided a public apology to the victims, saying Mr Walker’s recommendations would be implemented swiftly.
Disciplinary action, however, would not be taken against anyone involved in the decision-making, Ms Berejiklian said.
“Mr Walker is very clear on what the monumental mistakes were in his view, and certainly he expressed the view that they were isolated,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“Had he said they were systemic issues, I would have dealt with that immediately. I would have taken action.
“Can I now apologise unreservedly to anyone who suffered as a result of the mistakes that were outlined in the report, undertaken by individuals within the health department or the health agency.
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to suffer and continue to suffer as a result of that trauma.”
Mr Walker singled out the NSW Health expert panel for designating the Ruby Princess a “low risk” of COVID-19 contagion to the public. That panel included Sean Tobin, the Chief Human Biosecurity Officer, and Mark Ferson, the panel’s senior physician.
Professor Ferson told the inquiry that although he had read the ship’s acute respiratory illness log, he had done so “quickly” and had not noticed that there were passengers from the US.
Professor Ferson declined to comment on Monday.
Ms Berejiklian faces internal discontent over her handling of the scandal. Several colleagues — including one in cabinet — accuse her of misleading Coalition MPs after telling the partyroom that the problems had been caused by Australian Border Force officers.
Ms Berejiklian in April told the Coalition partyroom that the government was not to blame for allowing passengers to disembark, comments that prompted a backlash from Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram.
Mr Walker found the ABF, “despite its portentous title, has no relevant responsibility for the processes by which … passengers were permitted to disembark”.
The federal Agriculture Department, which gave final clearance for passengers to disembark, only did so “on the favourable word of a so-called Human Biosecurity Officer — here an officer of (NSW Health)”, Mr Walker wrote.
The Australian spoke to six Liberal MPs who voiced disquiet about Ms Berejiklian’s and Mr Hazzard’s handling of the inquiry findings, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
One said Mr Hazzard’s apology had “lacked empathy” while a second said Ms Berejiklian needed to “explain herself” over her comments about the ABF’s involvement. “It was an underwhelming apology,” one Liberal MP said.
“It didn’t address the people who lost their lives — they don’t get a look in. It was a heartless way to deal with the heartfelt mea culpa that you should give.”
Kenneth Read, a Ruby Princess passenger now involved in a class-action lawsuit against Carnival Cruises, said the government’s apology was satisfactory. “I think it was genuine, and she unreservedly apologised, but most of the people I know that were on the ship are much more annoyed with the cruise line than they are with NSW Health,” Mr Read said.
More than 20 passengers died as a result of contracting the virus on board Ruby Princess, which returned to Sydney after a 14-day round trip to New Zealand departing on March 8.
The vessel returned to Sydney early after international borders closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay said she agreed that individual NSW Health staff should not be punished, but said Mr Hazzard needed to face the consequences. “I was asked whether there should be any ramifications for those involved, and I absolutely don’t,” she said.
“These are good people, just doing their job under very difficult circumstances. We believe there is a thing … called ministerial accountability.”
Mr Walker’s report made a number of recommendations to the government relating to disembarking and the Biosecurity Act, which is administered by the commonwealth. But it identified a litany of errors committed by the expert panel tasked with assessing incoming cruise ship arrivals.
Ruby Princess was graded “low risk” by the four-person panel, though the inquiry found that this assessment was made without sufficient interrogation of the data that was coming off the ship.
Professor Ferson was the only person on the panel to assess the acute respiratory diseases log provided by the Ruby Princess doctor, which was out of date.
Remaining panel members did not have access to a copy, and Professor Ferson’s analysis did not identify the accelerating number of patients presenting to the ship’s medical centre as it sailed towards Sydney.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant issued a short apology in relation to the “impact on the health and wellbeing on the community” while Mr Hazzard said he was sorry “lives have been impacted by decisions in this once-in-100-year pandemic”.
Dr Chant said the impact of the Ruby Princess decision-making had “taken a toll” on the public health officials involved in assessing the ship’s risk.
“In hindsight, they would have made a different decision. Obviously no one wants to make this sort of error of judgment, but those practitioners, at that time, were under immense stress,” Dr Chant said.
From the Comments
Patrick
43 minutes ago
If this was a work health and safety event in the private sector, the courts would administer huge fines, ban directors, and perhaps even jail them. Obviously what’s good for the goose is not good for the gander. Huge double standards. Failure of duty of care. Ministers and public servants should not be immune. This has to change
Sonny
51 minutes ago
If this NSW Health chain of command was in a business whose failures resulted in so many deaths, such economic cost and social dislocation these Executives and expert advisors would be facing charges.
Premier, do the right thing and act!
Err, ‘public’. confusing ‘pubic’ with ‘public’ has blighted more than one APS career.
Or alternatively, lack of consequences leads to slipping back into old habits as the Public Service hasnt exactly been an exemplar of lesrning and adaption over the years. They would bleat at that comment and mouth cliches but really they just havent.
In what other field of endeavour in Australia could you unleash sickness and death on the community without consequences? well maybe apart from the justice/ bail /parole system.
And there is some good rationale for not “punishing” people for making mistakes because they and their organisations usually learn from them.
The adage that all problems in all organisations are due to bad management until proven otherwise, remains valid. Of course people need to take some responsibility for their decisions, but most serious stuff-ups are due to multiple issues, and scapegoating is frequently dangerous and misleading. It’s up to the people at the top to make a balanced judgement and Gladys seems to be right with this one.
The lawtrade will be tooling up for the coming deluge of class actions stemming from government incompetence in the handling of the Chinese Biowar Virus Attack , Wuhan Dan the China Man will have to renage on his Chinese Communist Loans to pay the judgments against his pack of fools .
Once again the taxpayer is stuck with the bill for fifth rate political hacks incompetence .
‘It’s up to the people at the top to make a balanced judgement’.
But that’s exactly what they, by all accounts, failed to do. Walker SC singles out in particular a body called the NSW health expert panel – its members presumably very well remunerate for their expertise – for what appears to be fundament failures to exercise due diligence.
These people may not deserve the sack, but there has to be some sort of sanction to preserve public confidence.
Having seen him on Sharri’s Fox show on a number of occasions, I would question Patrick’s journalistic credentials/impartiality and as to why you would consider him “one of the more sound journalists in Australia”. Firstly I would suggest you not mention him Trump’s name. He appears on each occasion of its mention to completely lose touch with reality, proving the existence of TDS and the ongoing propensity of the haters on the Left to have found no cure for their derangement/ ailment. Perhaps a broadening of his News Sources from just CNN might be a good start?
I’ll have to change the advice I’ve given to my children when they ask about career direction. I used to advise them to look at which industries were prospering and had long term prospects like IT, tele-communications, resources, professions, health care to name a few. Now it will be to get a degree in gender studies and climate change politics then join the public (why do we call it that?) service where you can see no evil, speak no evil nor hear no evil all the while getting paid well for a 5 hour day/4.5 day week with special holidays. Also you can never get in the shite because there is no accountability. As Sam Kekovitch would say “You know I’m right”.
Seriously though would it not make sense to join a public service if you were just coming out of uni?
Except for getting rid of Hazzard you are correct !
Unlike the private sector, which shoulders the responsibility and is held to account for piss poor management by politicians and bureaucrats. Take Four Bin Dan’s threat to charge senior management and CEO’s if an employee contracts COVID at their workplace and subsequently dies as a case in point.
I’m a senior manager at an essential business that supplies the power companies with maintenance products. I’m in the firing line for that unless it’s me that contracts COVID and dies.
It stinks.
Archivist #3550771, posted on August 18, 2020, at 7:54 am
Agreed.
And part of the problem is security of tenure in the so-called public service. At least in the private sector, there is the potential to lose one’s job as a consequence of a major stuff-up – whether directly by being fired for the error, or indirectly by the employer having to sell out or be taken over after its poor performance.
Ubique
Or for knocking off at 4.00 pm after a day that started at 9:30 am and included a two hour lunch break, morning and afternoon tea.
“Got in late this morning, will have to leave early to make up”?
Rohan #3551114, posted on August 18, 2020, at 12:46 pm
It sure does. My employer has to implement daily temperature checks for us to commence work. An elaborate procedure which costs about ten minutes of work time per person, plus two full-timers who have to be diverted at the start of the shift to do the checks and record the result.
We have to turn up, be checked and if we fail (after three tries) we are sent home with no work until we have our GP’s clearance. The next stage is having us sign in via a program/app to record answers to a health questionnaire. Again, if we fail, we are off the shift until we have a GP’s clearance, AND we have travelled to work fruitlessly. Try putting that travel cost into your tax return – there was no income earned!
I have the utmost sympathy for my employers, who treat us pretty well but have to go through this stupid rigmarole to protect their essential business from this malevolent Premier and his crazy Chief Health Officer. Mr Andrews claims he is working as hard as he can to stop the virus killing people – EXCEPT pressuring the TGA to lift the ban on HCQ.
A reminder from MASH about the Rules of War:
Rule #1: In war, people die
Rule #2: Doctors can’t change Rule #1.
And there is some good rationale for not “punishing” people for making mistakes because they and their organisations usually learn from them
A load of tosh. No discipline and they make more mistakes and incompetence becomes embedded. Like raising children, they need discipline and boundaries or they will go off the rails.
Premier Berejiklian just wants the support of colleagues and public servants to ensure the next election is in the bag for her.
Never mind that people died because of blatant mistakes of her regime. Just vote me in again, is her philosophy.
Obviously they couldn’t find anyone low enough in the PS to take the blame. Same with the security of the quarantine hotels in Melb. They found them, but they were the wrong type of scapegoat.
Archivist
#3550771, posted on August 18, 2020 at 7:54 am
And there is some good rationale for not “punishing” people for making mistakes because they and their organisations usually learn from them.
bullshit.
If there are no consequences for poor decisions, there’s no reason to avoid making poor decisions.
Exactly! Bullshit!
I wonder just how many of us they get to kill before it becomes a bad decision and punishable. Milo give me strength!
Interesting contrast with the Rapid River theme park accident in the private sector – which resulted in much fewer deaths.
My observation of Gladys is that she is too dependant on the judgement of her team – whether bureaucrats or political allies. Not enough independent analysis after receiving data – which, after all – is the job for which she is paid.
In any other environment, heads would roll for the mistakes made which, in the words of Bret Walker, were both inexcusable and inexplicable. Can a judgment be more damning? Oh yes – he concluded that no other recommendation could be made, other than for them “to do their job”!!!
Yeah, nah. Sorry, partly disagree this time. Someone needs to go or be pushed. I think Des eloquently sums exactly what I think in his first post. This is bigger than just a mistake, the last premier resigned over a mistake. Well as a culmination of a number but I digress. Not one person has done the honourable thing and fell on their swords and this dwarfs that as well as other scandals. Ditto in Victoria.
Hazzard needs to go and that bint who cried the crocodile tears. That’s at a minimum, reckon there should be more.
“…will look forward to similar sentiments from Patrick’s AFR colleagues when it comes to “wrong calls” made by Australian businesses and business leaders.”
Indeed – but some businesses (particularly those which are run by the people who started them) make the profound mistake of having lines of authority/accountability which are far too short and clear, so unlike the bureaucratic monstrosities which are so common in the public sector, it is much harder for them to muddy the waters when things go wrong.
The no sackings/resignations approach in the public sector – which is often about mutual arse-covering – is as old as the hills, as several episodes of Yes Minister, and Yes, Prime Minister remind us.
It was a very Peter Beattie apology. And it seems the journos gave her a pass.
In order for signalling to be meaningful, those signals must also be costly.
A hollow apology is worth nothing. Sorry but Liberals are going last this time around … even if that does mean getting a kick in the bum from yet more corrupt ALP governments. My signal to them must also be costly.
Maybe it was our fault? Maybe if we had little loved the public service A little more ? Maybe if we had paid them a lot more ? Maybe if we stopped holding them accountable…. they’d stop killing us?
But hey it’s the public service, it’s not just a job, it’s for life!
FS, I think you have Melbourne Syndrome.