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

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. Content......Page 6 Foreword......Page 7 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Table of Acronyms......Page 12 One - New actors, new politics, new problems......Page 14 Two - Ministerial staffing system overview......Page 32 Three - Ministerial staffing system establishment......Page 52 Four - Developments under Labor 1983–96......Page 65 Five - The Howard agenda......Page 97 Six - Staffing the Howard ministry......Page 136 Seven - Travel Rorts affair......Page 164 Eight - Children Overboard affair......Page 184 Nine - Power without responsibility?......Page 222 Ten - Reforming the staffing system......Page 246 Appendix......Page 256 Notes......Page 258 Bibliography......Page 273 Index......Page 288