[Peetwo]

Public Service Dipshit Stakes


( luv it.. ..Heff ) From off the Airports thread...

The letter.

I am reliably informed that on the Ray Hadley morning show - (Radio 2GB) – there was a discussion involving a letter; purporting to be scribed by although unsigned from a very senior public servant to the inestimable Bill Heffernan.  Apparently, the constant asking of questions about aerodromes by Senators and parliamentarians is getting on the wires of some, irritating and upsetting 'em.   Unsubstantiated rumour has it that Heff nailed the letter to his front door to mark the place where the hide of whoever penned the missive is destined to be hung, once found.

I will try and find the part of the RH show which carried to the article, got to be good for a laugh at the very least.  

Courtesy of the Mandarin 25 May 2015:

Public servant rips into Heffernan over Senate Estimates chairmanship

---

by
The Mandarin
25.05.2015



An anonymous public servant lambasted Senator Bill Heffernan’s chairing ability in a letter the committee chair read out at Senate Estimates this morning.

Senator Bill Heffernan is a “shithouse chair” says a senior public servant, who wrote to the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee chair in an anonymous letter.

Heffernan read the letter into Hansard at Senate Estimates on Monday morning before proceeding to discuss the issue of alterations made to Hansard last year by the office of Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, a debacle that ultimately led to the resignation of Department of Agriculture secretary Paul Grimes. The letter read:

“Dear Senator Heffernan, I was one of the many senior public servants waiting around in the witness room to appear before you in committee on Tuesday night’ — this is in February,” the letter read.
“We waited and waited. Three hours went by as we all sat round twiddling our thumbs, watching you and your dipshit colleagues trying to score political points off each other.
“You are a shithouse chair, and clearly have no ability to stick to an agenda.
“No wonder everyone wants to boot you out, and God help the animals on your farm if you run the farm like you run the Senate committee.”

Heffernan said he wished the author of the letter had provided their name so he could contact them to discuss the issue.

“Historically, anyone who tells me to go and get knotted, which is what this is doing, I usually ring them — I’ve never sent an email in my life — and say, ‘I’m so happy you’ve had the opportunity to go and tell me to get knotted. Now what can I do to help'” he said at Estimates.

“We recognise that the system now, which has changed in recent months, isn’t working in the way in which it was intended, so we are working towards trying to fix that, and we regret that there were a lot of people who’d come from a long way who didn’t get to be witnesses because there was no control on the time.

“I’m asking people on this committee to bear that in mind.”

And this was the Ferryman's - somewhat inevitable - response:
 

Bill and the pipe bomb.  Love the picture, Heff looking at the assembled minions, sizing up a suitable orifice to park a pipe bomb; bloody good idea Bill.  

Aunty Pru has made mention before that 'savvy' Senators, fully briefed with penetrating question and rock solid answers are demanding 'real answers' in real time.  

“We recognise that the system now, which has changed in recent months, isn’t working in the way in which it was intended, so we are working towards trying to fix that, and we regret that there were a lot of people who’d come from a long way who didn’t get to be witnesses because there was no control on the time.

“I’m asking people on this committee to bear that in mind.”

Then there is the breathtaking arrogance of a PS (dip-stick) who believes that 'his' time is worth more than the other 100 odd folk collective 'person hours' required to be at estimates.

Is Conroy the root of all evil? – "Well we can sit here all night, if you like" (paraphrased).

Go get 'em Bill, we can make plenty more of those uniquely shaped, close fitting bung blasters.

So ..  ...  .....

For those who prefer pictures...

 

Now before we narrow down the field - for the Public Service Dipshit Stakes - I just thought I'd have a quick review of that particular Estimates day in question, because I do remember some shuffling of the timetable but I can't remember there being any major (3hr) delay to the day's proceedings...

Ok here was the original timetable:



Okay so what is it that actually happened on the day in question, well the best record is Hansard. Here is a link for the HTML version of the Hansard - Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee - 24/02/2015 - Estimates - INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT PORTFOLIO

You will see that down the LH side there is an index that records the order that various department sections, agencies & individual witnesses/Senators appeared on that day. The  most obvious differences to the agenda timetable is the earlier appearance of CASA and then AirServices. The ASA session also took an hour longer due to intense questioning from firstly Senator Wong & then NX.

Next - with the possible exception of the National Capital Authority - from my rudimentary calculations the knock on effect of these changes only added a maximum of 1.5 hrs to any individual agency or department section. And the agency that copped the greatest - waiting - penalty was the ATSB.

So does that help with the tote board "K"??

MTF...P2   

Ps Have to object "K" to the Senator Conroy inference, he hardly featured at last Estimates. Although a couple of Estimates before he did make full use of amended Senate Estimates standing orders, where if a Senator is not happy with the answer they can ask for the PS to provide a more comprehensive answer prior to the close of that day's Estimates hearing.