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Latest page update: made by ozideas , Feb 14 2008, 6:47 PM EST (about this update About This Update ozideas Edited by ozideas

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Anonymous Reform the structure of ministerial portfolios 0 Aug 4 2009, 4:17 PM EDT by Anonymous
 
Thread started: Aug 4 2009, 4:17 PM EDT  Watch
The current structure of ministerial portfolios is an impediment to good governance as well as to effective, efficient, ethical and easy to deliver (transparent) government and leads to increasing ‘red tape’.

The current structure (see http://www.aph.gov.au/library/parl/42/ministry/ministry.htm) shows that some ministers are overloaded with portfolios and that the portfolios they hold cut across multiple disciplines. This could explain why a number of department heads burn out staff at such a high rate Which is a waste of taxpayers money.

A sound hierarchical structure is required to overcome this problem. The opposition and public service should also have the same structure in order to: reduce misunderstandings brought about by not knowing who to speak to about what policy; Burning out staff by overloading the elected representative and their staff. One of my concerns is the 3 hours sleep the Prime Minister seems to ‘boast’ about. I do not believe that it is in the best interest of the Australian public to have a PM (or indeed any elected representative) who is afflicted by sleep deprivation (even if it is self inflicted).

A better portfolio structure will reduce stress and burn out (by enabling more efficient delegation of duties), save millions of dollars (by reducing redundant activities caused by cross portfolio disciplines, that often lead to ‘red tape’) and improve all our standard of living.
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quagga A method for setting a politicians pay 0 Jun 5 2009, 3:37 AM EDT by quagga
Thread started: Jun 5 2009, 3:37 AM EDT  Watch
This idea presents a fair mechanism for determining a politician's salary.

At election time, a politician offers to supply their skills to perform the job of representing an electorate in parliament and the electorate accepts or rejects the offer by voting. However, the crucial difference between how a politician's renumeration is determined and how ours is, is that they set their own pay at will without having to bargain with their employers-- their employers being us, the voting public.

A solution to this discrepancy is to print on the election ballot-papers, right next to their name, the total amount that they offer to do the job for. Each politician sets their own individual bid. This binding bid is the TOTAL remuneration they receive- it includes their salary, super and any other monetary entitlements. In this way the politicians within an electorate are now competitively bidding against each other. This solution determines a politician’s salary according to a pricing mechanism common to almost all transactions of goods and services in our economy. This is the simplest, cheapest and easiest system to implement that provides a mechanism of negotiation between the politicians and the public.

Since as a society we support the principal of a minimum wage to maintain living standards the proposal is modified to embrace this by imposing a minimum allowed bid. It is set to the average Australian income to provide extra incentive for politicians to increase the financial well being of the public.

It should be pointed that by this system it is possible for politicians to be paid a lot more than current. This is expected to happen, because if the voters think they're worth it they should be paid more.
Its also likely that some are paid less. However, since their salary has been determined by a mechanism common to almost all other wages and salaries in society they have no grounds to complain.
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Anonymous Get rid of the States 9 Oct 1 2008, 7:17 PM EDT by old-bonez
 
Thread started: Feb 22 2008, 1:44 AM EST  Watch
To many levels of Government, duplicating, confusing and costly. Let's ditch the States.
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