Idea - Ministry vs Department

It's long bothered me how, at every invokation of government or cabinet reshuffle, the powers that be see fit to rebrand every department - DEVETIR becomes DITR becomes DETIR becomes DEVTR becomes ... as the mix of Departments keeps changing.

But why? Why do we waste thousands on new logo's, new letter head, new everything just to reflect a new political expediency?

My suggestion - why not leave the departments unchanged unless there really is going to be a true amalgumation. So leave them at their bear minimums. The Department of:

• Employment
• Training
• Education
• Main Roads
• Police
• etc

And then simply create political ministries that link them together:

• Ministry of Employment, Training & Industrial Relations
• Ministry of Police & Corrective Services

That way only the politicial paperwork changes but the Departmental stuff doesn't have to. From a business or citizen perspective, we don't care if the government of the day sees fit to amalgumate functions, we still want to deal with the Department.

Yes, it may not always be the case and there may be good reason for joining functions - but if that's the case then perhaps the belong together - but I think it could save us a small fortune in renaming costs.

Prediction - The Disguise of the 99-Year Lease

A quick one - these 99-year leases the libs are touting as the solution to all of Aboriginal Australia's problems.

The argument goes that by allowing 99-year leases, suddenly banks will borrow money to people living on the Dole so they can build a house.

Who are they kidding?

My guess - it's all about land rights and tenure to the land. I reckon they've had legal opinion that if the traditional owners relinguish the land via a lease, then they'll end up loosing their land rights.

Just my prediction anyhow...