POLITICAL PROBLEM

I find it interesting to note that of the 48 ALP Members of Parliament there are 18 ministers and five assistant ministers.

An analysis of these numbers shows that the electorates of 10 of the ministers are in Brisbane, there are in Logan City, three are in the Moreton Bay region, one is in Townsville (Mundingburra) and one is in Cairns (Barron River).

Ipswich, Gold Coast, Gladstone, Yeppoon and Mackay each have one assistant minister. By my calculations, this means that south-east Queensland east of the Great Dividing Range has 78% of the ministry, Central Queensland has 9% and North Queensland has 13%.

I have a theory that our politicians and bureaucrats suffer from WoW (West of Wacol) and or NoN (North of Nambour) syndrome.

I can accept that a large proportion of our population lives in south-east Queensland and that a significant amount of public (taxpayer) money is needed to service this population.

What I find hard to accept is that in the 21st Century in a First World country, human lives are put in jeopardy because of the location in which a person lives.

Just because a pregnant lady lives west of Wacol or north of Nambour should not mean that she is deprived of proper and timely maternity and obsteNor tric services. should any person of any age, ethnicity or gender be so deprived of any medical, educational or other necessary public service.

Lack of funding/budget cuts are the usual culprits when blame is apportioned.

Unwillingness or inability of appropriately qualified practitioners to move to and live in regional areas is also blamed.

May I suggest that funding could be found if the bureaucratic layers of managers who supervise the managers who manage other managers were to be reduced.

If private enterprise can cull unnecessary and unproductive layers of middle management so that they can be more efficient, surely something similar could be undertaken in the Government.

Increases in the size of the Queensland Public Service over recent years receive regular mention in the news.

What appears to be missing from this news is detail of the actual frontline service provided and how much goes to non-productive “make work” positions.

Patrick Boyce, Toowoomba