Dear Editor,



David C Sanderson of Humpty Doo, (NT News Letters 22nd March, 2010) writing about the new Police Commissioner’s “ideas” on curbing drunkenness at the NTFL Grand Final concludes his very valid letter by urging the Commissioner and his officers to use the existing laws to deal with drunken idiots. In other words – enforce the law as it stands.


It seems to me that problems, or in many cases perceived problems are rarely tackled head-on by governments - using existing resources and laws. Instead, we see governments making more and more unnecessary laws and hiring more and more people – all mostly to no avail.


The NT Police have more officers per head of population than any other jurisdiction in Australia, yet crime figures in the NT are the Nation’s worst.


Similarly, with just about every other NT Government Department, there has been a huge increase in the number of employees. But can anyone who was here in the early days of Self Government honestly say the efficiency of the “services” offered has improved?


In my view, service delivery across most NT Government Departments has gone backwards. Especially since 2001, when the Martin/Henderson Labor Government came to power. Whether in health, education, child protection, policing or any area of general administrative services, the results are very poor.


And this is despite at least 5,000 extra public servants on the government’s payroll, at cost to taxpayer’s of at least half a billion dollars per year.


More laws and more personnel are always a cop-out (no pun intended) for hard decisions by real managers.


Do we have any REAL managers employed anywhere within the NT Government, including the police? Managers who could be successful in the REAL world – in the marketplace?


If so please speak up. We would love to hear from you.


Of course, in the mean time your political masters in the pathetically incompetent Henderson Labor Government will continue with spin, spin and more spin. And that, as we all know, never solves anything.


Yours truly,


Dave Wane


22nd March, 2010