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Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Griffiths / In defence of the human cogs

“HMS Duke of York” in 1942 during an Arctic convoy.
“HMS Duke of York” in 1942 during an Arctic convoy.
THE Public Service has been getting a right old kicking recently.

Savage cuts are still shaking out through the system, it is much and oft maligned in the Murdoch media and, this past week, we’ve again been treated to suggestions that departments should be death marched to far-flung regions in a manner not seen since Pol Pot’s Year Zero in Cambodia.

Part of the problem is there are few heroic narratives about the hard graft of getting things done reliably in a complex world.

We like the idea of the perspicacious bold leader taking charge; “just follow that person and we won’t have to think! Or be afraid!”

Sadly, history is replete with the corpses of people who followed charismatic leaders into the teeth of well-organised but boring organisations.

Cast back to Boxing Day, 1943, off the North Cape of Norway when the German “Scharnhorst” met the British “HMS Duke of York” in a howling blizzard and heaving seas.

A finely built ship with a brave and talented captain and crew the “Scharnhorst” couldn’t hope to win that day for very boring reasons.

Her radar system was lost early in the engagement and the British had switched to using flashless powder to fire their guns.

Losing radar meant the German battleship couldn’t see her enemy in the driving snow, and she couldn’t make out the muzzle flash of the guns.

On the other hand, the British had multiple radars and could see the Germans every time they fired.

Afterwards, the victorious Admiral Fraser told his officers: “I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ship as gallantly as ‘Scharnhorst’ was commanded today”. Which would have been cold comfort to the German widows.

Much better to have sat through the meetings, developed the protocols, set out the guidelines and won the battle before casting off from the jetty.

The business of government is dreary because it is so important.

It can’t be left to brilliant individual talents because its work has to be completed even if the brilliant talent has called in sick that day.

It’s said that the most dangerous people in an organisation are “enthusiastic idiots”.

Australia, in my opinion, has never seen one more enthusiastic than Kevin Rudd and it’s worth remembering his plans for a public service of brilliant high flyers.

Similarly, current schemes to distribute departments may make for good politics, but as policy it would deprive the bureaucracy of its talent pool in Canberra.

A talent pool not necessarily of brilliant individual talents (although some undoubtedly are), but people who know the rules, know how to work within the machine and, all importantly, know how to get the job done. Whether preparing their men for trading shells with Germans in the Arctic Sea or making sure disability pensions are paid on time.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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