[Kharon]

Bus stop games.

Good catch P2.

While some are lining up the victims to be thrown under the bus; there are others who are arranging the time table and driving the bus.   You have, even grudgingly, to admire the Merdek style, the un challenged master of the art of lining them up.  No messing about with the Houstoblame one at a time system; no way.  Mike lines up the whole department, arranges for the pushers and then drives the bus.  He’s good, you have to allow it; on the wrong team; but good.

Look at the daisy chain – forewarned of the impending PGPA and very much aware of ‘unhappy’ Senators; smooth as silk, well in advance, MM is there helping to draft the SoE for ‘his’ agencies, all three of ‘em; then, a little time and distance is put in place.

In March 2015, from Mandarin by Steve Easton (legend) – HERE -

By evaluative thinking, what I really mean is we need to regularly question and test our assumptions; listen to our stakeholders; fundamentally know what we’re trying to achieve and how we’re performing against that objective; and we have to have the evidence and rationale to support good policy, program and regulatory design options,” he explained.

His key point was evaluation must be part of any new program right from the initial planning phase and, importantly, that means working out where the data to be evaluated will come from. When Mrdak first took the lead, he worried the department often had “a set-and-forget approach” to its regulatory activities and program delivery and didn’t spend enough time on initial design work.

All too often, he said, those managing the programs conflated evaluation with external auditing and saw it as a threat. One key defining feature of evaluation, he said, is that the teams being evaluated learn more in the process: “If the teams aren’t doing it, they’re not actually learning. Evaluation by external parties is of no real value to the areas, in my view."

With the barriers all in place; it’s MM who is the clear winner; he can now drive the bus and for any department which steps over the SoE guidelines, it’s good night Vienna with full Ministerial blessing and a great argument to foil awkward Senate questions.  Off the hook? Oh yes.

I’d call that a win-win, for the Mandarin’s mandarin.  He’s good, an anathema of snake, eel and ferret, but he’s very, very good at what he do and tough to beat.

Toot toot..