Power Without Responsibility: Ministerial Staffers in Australian Governments from Whitlam to Howard

Front Cover
UNSW Press, 2007 - History - 283 pages
A raft of recent political scandals in Australia has generated widespread media and public interest in the role and accountability of ministerial staffers, and their impact on relations between ministers and their public service advisers. Such scandals include the notorious 'Children Overboard' affair and the more recent AWB imbroglio. In Power Without Responsibility Anne Tiernan describes the contemporary working environment of political staffers, their formal and less formal roles, the challenges they face, and the forces that have escalated the growth in their numbers and influence.
 

Contents

Ministerial staffing system overview
19
Ministerial staffing system establishment
39
Developments under Labor 198396
52
The Howard agenda
84
Staffing the Howard ministry
123
Travel Rorts affair
151
Children Overboard affair
171
Power without responsibility?
209
Reforming the staffing system
233
Bibliography
260
Index
275
Copyright

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