NSW DPP Under The Gun: Right Question, Wrong Target

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is under the gun in a Sydney Morning Herald article. The NSW Attorney General John Hatzistergos is apparently unhappy with the DPP. One reason is probably because Nicholas Cowdery speaks his mind and he frequently embarrasses Mr Hatzistergos' administration.

The SMH reports:

"there was great pressure on the Crown prosecutor and the judge to ensure cases were resolved quickly yet this expediency was often at the expense of those affected by the crime."

What the SMH reporter has not followed up on in that observation is where does the "great pressure" emanate from? It is certainly not Mr Cowdery.

The tap-root source of the problem lies in the public administration policy at the Attorney General's Department that has emerged in recent years. It is reflected in the abstract and often fatuous "performance indicators" used to measure "efficiency" throughout the entire Attorney General's Department and all the agencies that have been swallowed up into its Napoleonic belly.Performance indicators are so artificial and usually yield statistics that have no context. Ever heard of the sad case of the statistician who drowned while trying to cross a river that had an average depth of only three feet?

It is reflected in the "shared corporate services" policy where functions have been stripped off agencies and handed over to under-resourced and over-worked small units at the Parramatta Justice Precinct. The "great pressure" can be traced to Senior Executives who have to justify their own existence in having their contracts renewed: so every once in a while some blinding flash of light occurs - presto I have an idea to justify my existence and another layer of red-tape is created.

If the money spent by the Attorney General's Department on corporate consultants each year was applied to employing new staff and supporting infrastructure well things would be much better.

So the "great pressure" to clear up court cases quickly has a lot to do with the public administration policies in the whole department. Who leads and drives the policy is easy to identify: it is the Director General of the department. Pity the SMH journalist failed to chase the Director General Mr Glanfield to question his public administration strategies!