The Engine Room of Government

By Joanne Scott Ross Laurie Bronwyn Stevens Patrick Weller, St Lucia: UQP, 2001, paperback, $30.00. Reviewed by Paul Reynolds in the July 2002 issue.

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By its nature this is a specialist work which deals very thoroughly with the subject addressed. As a piece of administrative history it fills a void in introducing readers to the most powerful department in the Queensland public service. While most observers would be conversant with the work of line departments and many statutory authorities, the Premiers Department remains something of a mystery. As all premiers, irrespective of party, bring their own style and emphasis to their office, so must their department adapt to a new incumbent and serve him or her in accordance with the demands generated by the 'boss'.

In the nature of things, administrative structures change as departments lose and gain sub-departments and offices over time. While this does not generally effect major line departments (eg Education, Health etc), Premiers is almost always subject to these changes, hence its personnel are sensitive to frequent alterations in lines of responsibility and task allocation.

In Queensland, in recent times, Premiers was greatly strengthened when merged with the Coordinator General (of Public Works). Some would argue that the COG was the most powerful public servant of all, even eclipsing the Under Treasurer. Be that as it may when he became DG of Premiers and the principle advisor to the premier, his and his new department's powers were exponentially expanded.

When the Goss government established the Office of Cabinet, Premiers faded somewhat from prominence as the former handled the high profile and important Cabinet work previously undertaken by Premiers. However the Office of Cabinet was not an unqualified success, some argue that it was a failure and that its inadequacies contributed, in no small measure, to the 1995 election result which led to the fall of the Goss government. Certainly the Coalition government saw it as the personification of all that was wrong in contemporary public administration and abolished it. As they had no alternative to replace it, the standard of administration declined alarmingly over their period in Office (1996-1998).

When Labor was returned, Cabinet coordination and oversight of its business was vested in Premiers, now Premier and Cabinet. While this has resolved the coordination role, it has embedded it within the premier's own department and, once more, returned it to centre stage.

The authors have told a comprehensive story which is an admirable introduction both to Queensland's administrative history and to the complexity of government activity as viewed from the apex of the administrative hierarchy. If authors in all other jurisdictions can take their cue from this book, our understanding of the role of such key departments will be greatly enhanced.

Citation

• Paul Reynolds. 'Review: The Engine Room of Government by Joanne Scott Ross Laurie Bronwyn Stevens Patrick Weller' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), July 2002. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 25 May 2013].

Back Cover Blurb

• For 140 years the Premier's department and its predecessors have been at the heart of the government of Queensland. Its activities have been invisible, its influence unrecognised and its officials anonymous, but the department has nevertheless has a substantial impact on the state.
  
  Premiers are the public figures, the heads of the government, but they do not act alone. They need advice on what policy to adopt, and assistance in running the Cabinet and the state. They need that support in times of peace and war and over all areas of policy as they deal with their colleagues, their federal counterparts, and international politicians, public servants and business people.
  
  The Engine Room of Government sheds a bright light on those once anonymous officials who have served the government. From attempted assassination to near mutiny, from running a radio station to organising an air wing, from conservation issues to Expo, this fascinating history tells us what went on behind the scenes and shows how the administration of the state really worked.

Have You Also Read?

• Goodbye Bussamarai: The Mandandanji Land War, Southern Queensland 1842-1852
  
  Patrick Collins, St Lucia: UQP, 2002, 305 Pages, Paperback, $34.00
  Reviewed by Jack Bowers in the August 2002 issue.
  
  The Mandandanji land war occurred across the land of the Barunggan, Mandandanji, Bigambul and Yiman peoples, about 300 kilometres west of Brisbane. From the first white explorations into the area, until a few months after the Yamboucal massacre, Patrick Collins sketches the historical, cultural and political complexities of a decade of what we still feel uncomfortable about calling war. The title, though interesting, is a little misleading. Bussamarai (pronounced bussa-murray) was an influential Mandandanji warrior who led a coalition of different tribes against the white people. Collins asserts that the Aboriginal identities known in documents as Bussamarai, Old Man, Old Billy, Eaglehawk ... read more.