Climate Change and the Failure of Bureaucracy

PPP(Public Private Partnership)

I've always been quick in my opinion about bureaucracies. They are slow to act, they lack the capacity to make decisions and when they do, they wrap themselves in legalese and ignore logic and common sense.
It is depressing to read about the biggest fuck up imaginable that has been dumped on citizens of my state of Victoria as a result of our state government's decision to venture into a PPP such as the desalination plant at Wonthaggi.
A government that is slow to act is as terrible as it is common. Such is the case where more than thirty years of procrastination and indecision, largely influenced by the greens lobby group has prevented our government from building new dams to supply water to a rapidly increasing population.
Compounding this problem has been a lengthy drought that has spurned our government into an unusual state of panic and hasty decision making. The result being a commitment to a costly white elephant, the cost being borne by us tax paying citizens, to a desalination plant. 

In the two years of building at Wonthaggi - 2010 and 2011 - rainfall has been about 20 per cent above the long-term average, according to Bureau of Meteorology data. But these two years are still well below the record year of 1995, which was about 20 per cent higher again

It brings into question the wisdom of a PPP. READ you(private enterprise) build it and we(the government) will guarantee revenue to you.


But this isn't the only example of a government mismanagement.
In our neighbour state up north, Queensland, the state government there is embroiled in a subsequent inquiry that follows the initial inquiry into the disaster of the Wivenhoe dam. The dam that was mismanaged to such an extent that in a state of panic, water was released from the dam on such a massive scale that it caused devastating floods in the city of Brisbane. The new inquiry is about the cover-up, the passing the buck as to who was responsible for the disaster, and whether the Premier, Anna Bligh was directly involved.

Ms Bligh was forced to commit to an election date after the floods inquiry was recalled over revelations in The Australian that flood preparations last year may have been botched.

It is symptomatic to know that both cases described have to a large extent been prompted by the Climate Change paradigm. 
The desalination plant was encouraged by the thinking that it will never rain again because of Climate change.
The Wivenhoe dam disaster encouraged by the thinking that a dam full at 100% capacity was good because it wouldn't rain again because of Climate change.