Helping ministers make better decisions

As Anthony Jay so well observed it is SIMPLY not possible to help a minister if he listens to advice from those he clones too closely .

Victorian premiers, both present and past, do not yet realise they have done this and it will cost them credibility and public service competence dearly in the long term . No more so than in the loss of credible processes for environmental planning .
The problem is endemic because both the conservatives and the left have fallen for the post modern myth of progress - "whats new is better" when infact western profgress is based on " building on the past "
You can't have you cake and eat it here because there is only so many tentacles you can feed .
Add to that is the dilemma of not having a diversity of opinion - _ if you completely discouarge "the dinasaurs".
No diversity of advice. The feds new water scheme has been dreamed up in a soup of confusion created by trying the ever change technique to change the peasants. I mean, will handouts or pressure teach people to use water wisely????? - 1.5 Bilion dollars worth of careless hype and patronage and mr howard and turnbull can't even see it for what it is - a dogs breakfast of ideas with implementors who DO NOT KNOW how to make it happen !You heard it first from emperors academy