Infantile Indulgence Induces Inefficiency
We had a client with a great policy /program idea. It particularly impacted a regional Queensland community which was part of an electorate we all knew was to be targeted by several Parties at the next election.
It was all upside for the incumbent government and the community, and comparatively cheap, but, mysteriously, we could get no traction for the proposal. We later discovered it had languished on the desk of a senior Minister, a gatekeeper in that policy space. It went nowhere. That Minister detested the proponent, we later were told.
Stories abound, too, of Ministerial or staffer refusal to deal with business employees or lobbyists from the other side of the political divide. Sometimes it’s clearly the policy across a government, driven from the top, and sometimes it is a decision of particular Ministers or their offices. Too often, Departmental staff pick up the vibe and implement the ban themselves, even when not instructed to do so.
Public servants operating in this way are, indisputably, acting improperly or corruptly, and a defence of complying with the wishes of their Minister will not save them – only concealment, which introduces another layer of improper behaviour.
I’ve addressed this in more detail in my new book, in a section called Dancing with the one that brung ya (a reference to a quote from Ronald Reagan, BTW), but if any government won’t engage effectively with unknown or outsider stakeholders, and will give preferment to those who are known friends and supporters, it implies business decisions might be made on the basis of preferment rather than good policy, too – and that’s an awful reputation for a government to own.
Not even the most partisan business or NGO lobbyist would say those on the other side of politics are incapable of doing a good job of representing the interest of a client merely because of their political views.
Refusal to consider some business and NGO needs because of their source limits the range of issues government is prepared to consider, and the quality of information brought to bear on decisions. Inevitably, the quality of decisions suffers.
In the GW Bush years, the far right of the US Republican Party was notorious for their ‘K Street Strategy’ of going two steps further, blocking all access to government for any lobbyist considered insufficiently strongly supportive, and actively seeking to block employment of Democratic Party supporters as lobbyists.
No smart government wants the reputation of working only with their supporters, but they’ll certainly – and legitimately – find it less risky to take representations from those whose judgement they already trust. It’s when they begin to exclude the representations of the politically unconnected that they risk becoming a government of cronies.
By all means, dance with the one that brung ya, and save the last dance for them too, but a government must be seen to dance with everyone who won’t mash their instep. And a decent government must go home alone after the dance.