Markus Mannheim
Markus Mannheim edits The Public Sector Informant and writes regularly about government administration and policy.
Your vote actually matters
Markus Mannheim About two in three Canberrans rejected the idea of self-government in the 1978 referendum. I suspect, against my better hopes, that, if we were formally asked today, most of us would again shy away...
Even phantom bullies can hurt
Markus Mannheim The reasons people bully others, or feel that they are bullied, are as complex as people themselves. I doubt there are any universally effective ways to stop workplace harassment.
Public service pensioners should count their blessings
Markus Mannheim Commonwealth and military superannuants already receive pensions most other Australians can only dream of. Yet they demand continual improvements to their quality of life.
How will we ration life?
Markus Mannheim Our governments don’t like to discuss how they intend to ration healthcare, because they know how divisive the issue can be. Yet rationing takes place in most hospitals every day.
Longing for a little disorder
Markus Mannheim It's easy to fall into the nostalgia trap; pining for a way that we were never were. Yet today's parents are clearly far more risk-averse than the generation that raised them.
What do we have to hide?
Markus Mannheim Americans proudly (some would say blindly) resist the ''intrusion'' of government in everyday life. They may take this distrust a little too far, but it's created a comparatively open government and...
If Finance loosens reins, public service spend-up could stop
Markus Mannheim It's a curious paradox: the tighter the government squeezes its belt, the more tempted is the bureaucracy to blow money as quickly as possible.
Spies' secrets in honest budget
Markus Mannheim Government ministers and their flacks do much these days to ''control the public narrative''. They set the daily news agenda, sieve the information that enters the public domain, and, more than...
Escape from the office time sink
Markus Mannheim Hours - and specifically timesheets - aren't a great way to measure journalism. Nor are they much use in assessing the output of most other white-collar jobs.
Climate 'sceptic' secretly believes
Markus Mannheim The newspaper industry has many quirks that amuse me. One is that papers try to avoid naming their rivals.
Markus Mannheim
Racists wearing green clothes
Markus Mannheim Most people crave feedback about their work, and journalists are no different. We want readers to tell us if our news reports are wrong or if they lack context.
Markus Mannheim
This budget won't eliminate waste - it will breed it
Markus Mannheim In truth, we've had a tough budget coming for a while. Canberrans lapped up the many perks that sprang from a decade of public service growth, much of it far more rapid than was sensible.
'Fixing' hospital queues is no cure
Markus Mannheim A scandal is apparently unfolding at The Canberra Hospital, where a senior official allegedly tampered with emergency department waiting-time data.
Oz honours stay secret
Markus Mannheim The secrets behind how Australia Day honours are selected will remain a mystery.
Markus Mannheim
Houses are bad welfare, not kids
Markus Mannheim A disclosure: I'm guilty of receiving ''middle-class welfare'', that great slur of our times. My fellow taxpayers chip in to pay for half of my kids' childcare fees.
Markus Mannheim
The real games aren't on TV
Markus Mannheim I get a little drunk with excitement at this time of year. This weekend, I'll be among more than 2000 Canberra blokes kicking off the men's soccer season, a moment I've waited for all summer.
Watchdog probes Immigration over FOI responses
Markus Mannheim The Immigration department is under investigation for breaching freedom of information law.
Markus Mannheim
Every time you 'dress to impress', you demean yourself.
Markus Mannheim Three decades ago, a Victorian lefty, Labor MP Pete Steedman, rocked up to the House of Representatives wearing jeans and a leather jacket.
Pursuit of surplus on with 1500 bureaucrats to go
Markus Mannheim THE federal bureaucracy is poised to shed more than 1500 staff in coming months, most from Canberra, as it struggles to cope with spending cuts.
Government accused of 'making policy on the run'
Markus Mannheim The public servants' professional association has damned 10 high-profile federal policies as failures, including the national broadband network and the school building scheme.
