What Rough Beast?

¹Donald Trump will be re-elected in November because the US Democratic leadership are all Neville Chamberlain and his inbred courtiers, with nary a Churchill in sight.  Complacent, lacking empathy, and myopic, they don’t grasp what’s coming or why … they lack the clarity and courage to do what the times demand of them.

As his victory draws closer, Trump is more overtly using the language, logic, and supporters, of fascism, to drive his campaign forward. He’s intent on electing a compliant Congress, and already owns the Supreme Court. With the Presidency in his hands he will have obliterated the checks and balances supposedly built into the US system of Government, and neutered the constitutional constraints on his powers.

1933 saw the last arguably democratic election in Weimar Germany before World War 2, and 2024 is likely the last arguably democratic election in the US before … what?

Trump doesn’t really have a program. Insofar as he promises to do anything, it’s all about enabling Putin’s brutal imperialism, shutting down those who disagree with him, misusing the levers of government for personal enrichment and to stay in power, giving Christo-fascist and xenophobic ideologues free reign to control whatever and whoever they want, and abrogating international US leadership.

Can Australians do anything to change this? Probably not much, but what might help is using any and all connections to the Democratic Party leadership, to urge them to change candidates, to communicate successes relentlessly, and to implement programs which truly acknowledge and address the pain and distress of working-class and middle-class USA. They need a real champion, not the current pretenders.  They need to see the system working for them, not against them.

What will be the Australian reaction to a re-elected Trump? How will we be impacted? What will we do?

Democracy is at a low ebb internationally, and with the US abandoning any claim to moral leadership or benevolent democracy, the society we take for granted will less and less have thoroughgoing support. The expansion of Trumpian politics and advocacy across Australia, particularly inside the Liberal and National Parties, will continue to grow, with consequent attacks on rationality and democratic norms. In the absence of any achievements by Trump, “See,” they will say, “how great are the achievements of a different kind of leader! How good would Australia be with leadership like that?”

Trump is ascendant in the US because those in the Republican Party whose focus is more on power than enhancing democracy first gave him a foothold, thought to use him for power, then were themselves used, while the Democrats dithered.  The Trumpian project in Australia, a proto-fascist movement, is already well underway, and will succeed if the Liberal National Party leadership continue the delusion of thinking it is theirs to control.

Nationally, the LNP leadership are already making the same mistakes as the US Republican Party leadership. Their ruthless pursuit of power by any and all means, intolerance of diversity, and pandering to prejudice rather than needs, will lead to an Australian Trump. Tolerating and facilitating mad-right conspiracy theories helps undermine an incumbent government, sure, but it also undermines support for and viability of democratic institutions. Such damage lasts.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_(poem) ↩︎

Ministers Can’t Do Everything

Too¹ many people, from uninvolved citizens to the captains of industry and everywhere in between, think that Ministers in governments can do anything, and everything.

As is discussed in other posts to this blog, to make progress on an issue you need to identify the right government(s), and the right department(s) or portfolio(s) in that/those government(s), responsible for your issue.

It’s also useful to understand some of things which can and can’t be done by Ministers².

They have no buckets of money into which they can dip, to fund your pet program. Every cent of government money is allocated or hoarded through the annual budget process. If they want to fund something, they must work with their department or Treasury department to find the money from an existing allocation.

They’re members of the Cabinet³ so obliged to adhere to the universal Westminster-like Cabinet principles of

• Confidentiality – no discussion, ever, about in-Cabinet conversations and debates, outside Cabinet
• Solidarity – adherence to, endorsement of, and implementation of, all Cabinet decisions, without hinting at lack of enthusiasm
• Consensus⁴.

There are many rules and codes which govern the way Ministers must operate. These include such things as

• Cabinet handbook⁵
• Ministerial handbook⁶
• Ministerial codes of practice⁷
• Public Service Act – or whatever it might be called in the relevant jurisdiction.

One of the significant areas of focus in many of those documents is the interaction between Ministers or Ministerial staff, and the public servants in the associated departments. Ministers and their staff are “small-p” public servants of a sort, but are not usually “capital-p” Public Servants, and there are significant constraints in the relations between them. In some jurisdictions, there’s even a specific directive for Ministerial staff which addresses these relationships.

Shocking though it may be to many, this is a good summary of the relations between Ministers and public servants:

Ministers should respect the independence and impartiality of the public service,
and should not seek to direct public servants in the day-to-day administration of their duties,
except where legislation or government policy expressly provides for such direction.⁸

Who tells public servants what to do and ensures they are delivering on the government’s priorities? The Chief Executive of the relevant department, and the managers to whom the Chief Executive has delegated their powers.

So what can Ministers do? What’s the point in seeking their support for anything, if they are so constrained?

They can ask important questions of their Director-General/Secretary/Chief Executive, like:

• “I don’t think this program is delivering what it promised. Can you please get some proposals to me about how we can change it right away to get better results?”
• “Why has this result come out of that process? It seems unfair to me. Can you get the appropriate officer to brief me about whether the process is fair and changes which could be made?”
• “This proposal seems inconsistent with what’s going on in that other portfolio. Can you tell me how I persuade the other Minister that we’re heading in the same direction?”
• “I think this is a really good idea. Are you able to find the funds to get it moving before we go to the next budget?”

… and express opinions in a similar vein, which a responsible public servant would consider, even if disagreeing.

And, of course, the proposals which go to Cabinet for programs, policies, and the departmental budget, are all ultimately the Minister’s proposals – the Minister supports and proposes the big picture agenda, the major projects and policies pursued by the agencies in their portfolio, and is the most prominent public defender and advocate for those agencies.

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1. I’ve reviewed all of the “how-to-lobby” posts in this blog, and, as well as many being a bit dated, and a few embedded links not working, there’s a few gaps which I propose to fill with further posts over the next few weeks. ↩︎
2. Ministerial staff are given no powers other than to do things on behalf of a Minister, so anything a Minister can’t do, neither can their advisors, and the advisors must do only the things the Minister wants. ↩︎
3. Some governments sometimes operate with an inner and outer Ministry, and a Minister might not always be a cabinet minister, but these principles still apply. ↩︎
4. Most Westminster-like Cabinets operate consensually most of the time, and quite often a contentious proposal will be sent away for redrafting to iron out differences, where they can be resolved. ↩︎
5. E.g. https://www.pmc.gov.au/government/administration/cabinet-handbook-15th-edition or https://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/publications/categories/policies-and-codes/handbooks/cabinet-handbook.aspx ↩︎
6. For example https://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/publications/categories/policies-and-codes/handbooks/ministerial-handbook.aspx ↩︎
7. In some jurisdictions, Ministerial staff have their own, separate, codes of practice. ↩︎
8. ChatGPT wrote this paragraph for me, and lied about its provenance. It’s a good summary nonetheless. ↩︎

When is Australia’s next Federal Election?

That’s a harder question than it seems.  The complex interaction between laws relating to double dissolution elections, half Senate elections, House of Representatives elections, State elections (coming up in New South Wales and Victoria), and the timing of football finals and more, mean the earliest reasonably possible date is 4 August 2018, for which the election would have to be called by 2 July – only two months away – and the latest reasonably possible date would be May 18, 2019.

Making a judgement about which Saturday, between those dates, might be Election Day was complicated enough, and we were going to post this article which credibly suggests 20 October 2018: http://beginrant.wordpress.com/2018/05/07/begin-rant-why-ive-got-my-money-on-october-20/.

Until the events of Wednesday 9 May 2018 made it much more complicated, that is!  Four ineligible “Members” of the House of Representatives flagged or delivered their resignations, to join Tim Hammond who recently resigned because of the impact of frequent travel on his young family: www.news.com.au/national/politics/labor-senator-katy-gallagher-ineligible-to-serve-in-federal-parliament/news-story/868c92e0d0a6f8a1cc0de14abd01a5a2.  All four (plus Mr Hammond) are non-Government MPs.

We’ve now got 5 by-elections across 4 states, and as Paula Matthewson notes in her newsletter* Despatches on 9 May:

“Somewhat surprisingly, the AEC website advises that “there are no constitutional or statutory requirement that writs … be issued within any prescribed period”.

“Interestingly there’s precedent for a Speaker to decline to issue a writ when a federal election is ‘pending’ to avoid having two elections in close proximity.”

This opens up the possibility of the Prime Minister (OK, notionally the Speaker of the House of Representatives, but let’s be real) waiting until 2 July or a couple of days before, and an early Australian general election would then be called for 4 August.

As Matthewson further noted:

“If opinion polls show that voters have responded favourably to the Budget, would this be a path that Turnbull would take to an ‘early’ election? The option would have to be tempting given it’s expensive to participate in a by-election, and the Coalition isn’t exactly cashed up when compared with the combined election war-chest that has been created by Labor and the union movement.”

Other things which might push Prime Minister Turnbull towards one Election Day or another include:

• Voters can get cranky if they are sent to the polls too frequently or too early: with whom would the voters of the five by-election seats get angry, if required to vote in a general election shortly after a by-election? Maybe Labor, whose MPs/processes have caused four of the five by-elections, or maybe the Prime Minister who chose the schedule for both.
• Four of those 5 seats are on a knife-edge, and campaigners in Liberal HQ will be urging the Prime Minister to do nothing which might alienate the voters.  Don’t forget he’s governing with a one-seat majority, and the prospect of doubling or tripling that margin must be appealing.
• As noted by Ms Matthewson above, the Federal Budget has just been brought down, and no-one knows how the electorate is reacting: one thing for sure is that much of the media for the next day or two, at least, will be consumed with discussion of the resignations and by-elections rather than the budget.
• The by-elections are a real opportunity to thoroughly test how well the parties campaign, and whether the budget is an electoral plus or minus.
• If the timing of the by-elections means the general election needs to be further away, not calling that general election on 4 August means the general election might have to be called at time at which the political landscape is somewhat unknown and unpredictable: for example, when polling is less propitious for the Liberal-National Party Coalition, and fewer election date options are available, as Ms Crosby lays out in her Begin Rant article linked above.
• Does Labor want an election now or next year? While it isn’t up to them to decide, they can put the Prime Minister under a lot of pressure over many of the choices he might make – and there will be concerns within the Coalition at their capacity to withstand sustained populist pressure.
• The media – and some in the Australian Labor Party – are characterising these by-elections as a test of Labor Opposition Bill Shorten’s leadership: the incumbent Government would probably prefer to face Mr Shorten in a general election rather than a new Labor leader enjoying a honeymoon with the electorate.

So, our best bet:

Prime Minister Turnbull is most likely to wait and see how well his budget is received in the community over the next week, and then choose both by-election and general election dates.

Which ones? On balance, probably by-elections now (say, June) which maintains some flexibility to call a general election for late October, May 18 2019, or February 28 2019, or less likely another date in 2019 albeit identified in Ms Crosby’s article as somewhat unfavourable … but if by-election dates aren’t announced in the next couple of weeks, get ready for a general election on 4 August 2018.

 

PS … Thanks to everyone who has been debating these options on Facebook et al – the discussion has provided plenty of food for thought!

 

 

* You should subscribe, via this page www.linkedin.com/pulse/have-you-signed-up-your-daily-despatches-paula-matthewson/

 

 

 

New Federal Ministry for Christmas

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has today announced a reshuffled Ministry, with several retirements/replacements, and new faces.  Amongst the biggest or most surprising changes:

• Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce becomes Infrastructure and Transport Minister and his Agriculture portfolio goes to first-term Queensland Liberal National Party MP David Littleproud;
• George Brandis retires from Attorney General and will become Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK;
• Arthur Sinodinos has resigned from the Ministry as he battles cancer;
• Daren Chester has been dumped from the Ministry;
• Christian Porter will become Attorney General, losing Social Services to Dan Tehan;
• New Deputy Leader of the Nationals Bridget McKenzie becomes Minister for Sport, Rural Health and Regional Communications;
• Queenslander Senator Matt Canavan returns to his Resources and Northern Australia portfolios;
• Queensland Member of Parliament John McVeigh picks up the Regional Development, Territories and Local Government portfolios;
• Michaelia Cash picks up Innovation, loses Women to Kelly’ODwyer, and sheds her industrial relations responsibilities to new Minister for Small and Family Business, Workplaces and Deregulation Craig Laundy;
• Michael Keenan loses the Justice portfolio but joins Cabinet as Minister for Human Services, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister in Digital Transformations.

The full list is:

Cabinet

• Prime Minister – Malcolm Turnbull
• Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure and Transport Minister – Barnaby Joyce
• Treasurer – Scott Morrison
• Foreign Minister – Julie Bishop
• Attorney-General – Christian Porter
• Home Affairs Minister – Peter Dutton
• Sport, Rural Health and Regional Communications Minister – Bridget McKenzie
• Human Services Minister and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister in Digital Transformations – Michael Keenan
• Social Services Minister – Dan Tehan
• Agriculture and Water Minister – David Littleproud
• Regional Development, Territories and Local Government Minister – John McVeigh
• Indigenous Affairs Minister – Nigel Scullion
• Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister – Steve Ciobo
• Finance Minister and Special Minister of State – Mathias Cormann
• Revenue and Financial Services Minister and Minister for Women – Kelly O’Dwyer
• Defence Industry Minister – Christopher Pyne
• Defence Minister – Marise Payne
• Resources and Northern Australia Minister – Matt Canavan
• Energy and Environment Minister – Josh Frydenberg
• Health Minister – Greg Hunt
• Communications and Arts Minister – Mitch Fifield
• Jobs and Innovation Minister – Michaelia Cash
• Education and Training Minister – Simon Birmingham

 

Outer Ministry

• Minister for Urban Infrastructure – Paul Fletcher
• Minister for International Development and the Pacific – Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
• Minister for Small and Family Business, Workplaces and Deregulation – Craig Laundy
• Minister for Law Enforcement and Cyber Security – Angus Taylor
• Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs – Alan Tudge
• Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Defence Personnel – Michael McCormack
• Aged Care and Indigenous Health Minister – Ken Wyatt

 

Assistant Ministers

• Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister – James McGrath
• Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister – Damian Drum
• Assistant Minister to the Treasurer – Michael Sukkar
• Assistant Minister for Finance – David Coleman
• Assistant Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment – Luke Hartsuyker
• Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs – Zed Seselja
• Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources – Anne Ruston
• Assistant Minister for Vocational Skills and Training – Karen Andrews
• Assistant Minister for Children and Families – David Gillespie
• Assistant Minister for Immigration – Alex Hawke
• Assistant Minister for Social Services and Disability Services – Jane Prentice
• Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation – Zed Seselja
• Assistant Minister for Environment – Melissa Price

 

 

 

How to Lobby – Updated

Note – this post is from late 2017, and some content is a little outdated! There’s a revision being prepared now (August 2023).

A great resource if you want something from Government – our updated* directory of How To Lobby articles**, published since 2013, indexed by topics, and entirely free!

Click one of these links to take you to that topic/heading:

1. 1. 1. Why
      2. Who Does It?
      3. Reality Bites
      4. Strategy
      5. The Basics
      6. Targeting
      7. Policy Processes – What You MUST Know
      8. Getting Ready
      9. The Meeting
      10. What To Ask For
      11. How To Ask For It
      12. When To Ask
      13. Specialties

Why

Why Lobby? http://wp.me/p4xOhB-r

“Why Lobby?” Encore http://wp.me/p4xOhB-A

Take me back to the top of this article!

Who Does It

Who’s a Lobbyist? http://wp.me/p4xOhB-N

Who’s Your Best Lobbyist? http://wp.me/p4xOhB-23

Take me back to the top of this article!

Reality Bites

Lobbying: The Dirty Truth https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/lobbying-the-dirty-truth/

Myths & Legends of Lobbying https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/myths-lobbying/

Regulating Lobbyists: Hardly https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/regulating-lobbyists-hardly/

Australian Lobbying: Credibility Fail https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/australian-lobbying-credibility-fail/

Take me back to the top of this article!

Strategy

Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There! https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/dont-just-do-something/

Strategy & Delusion https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/strategy-delusion/

DON’T Increase Awareness https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/dont-increase-awareness/

When to “go political” or be partisan https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/lobbying-when-political/

Take me back to the top of this article!

The Basics

Lobbying: 6 Things to Know https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/6-lobbying-things/

Lobbyists Do WHAT? https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/lobbyists-do-what/

Lobbying is Marketing https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/lobbying-is-marketing/

Take me back to the top of this article!

Targeting

“Get Me The Premier!” https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/get-me-the-premier/

Who’s the Decision-Maker? https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/who-decision-maker/

Take me back to the top of this article!

Policy Processes – What You MUST Know

Mysterious & Mysteriouser: How Did THAT Happen?  https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/mysterious-mysteriouser/

“So When WILL They Decide???” https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/when-will-they-decide/

From Althaus, Bridgman and Davis

How’s Your Rat King? https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/rat-king/

The Uber-Rat-King https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/the-uber-rat-king/

What IS A “Policy Instrument,” Anyway? https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/what-is-policy-instrument/

Sax vs. Cymbals https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/sax-vs-cymbals/

Take me back to the top of this article!

Getting Ready To Lobby

Lobbying Labor’s Queensland Government: How? https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/lobbying-labors-queensland-government-how/

Take me back to the top of this article!

The Meeting

How to Get That Meeting https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/how-to-get-that-meeting/

What if You Can’t Connect with the Decision-Maker? https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/cant-reach-decision-makers/

When you meet the Minister … https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/03/18/when-you-meet-the-minister/

Take me back to the top of this article!

What To Ask For

Persuading Government: What You Say  https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/persuading-government-what-you-say/

What Makes A Policy Good? https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/05/28/policy-good/

Make Your “Ask” Feasible https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/make-your-ask-feasible/

Take me back to the top of this article!

How To Ask For It

Connecting with Decision-Makers https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/connect-decision-makers/

Tell Government a Story!  https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/story-to-government/

Motivating & Persuading https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/motivating-persuading/

Persuading Government: How To Say It  https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/persuading-government-how-to-say-it/

The Talking Dead: Say This & Your Project Dies  https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/the-talking-dead/

Take me back to the top of this article!

When To Ask

Election Time: Early Birds Get Worms!  https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/elections-lobbying-early-birds/

What it means when Government is in “caretaker mode” https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2017/11/02/qld-govt-caretaker-2017/

Take me back to the top of this article!

Specialties

Crisis Management 101 https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/crisis-management-101/

And now, over to you:

What other topics would you like to see covered?  What have you struggled with in the past, when looking for decisions from Government?

* With more content than previous versions!

** There will be more!

Take me back to the top of this article!

Queensland Election 2017 – Sunday’s Status

Labor seems likely to secure 48 seats (out of 93) in Queensland’s Legislative Assembly, plus or minus one – which is a small but clear majority.

But, be cautious – there’s only 72.2% of the votes counted so far, and the notional two-candidate count in some seats has counted the wrong two candidates!

Ben Rau from the Tallyroom has an excellent summary of the current status of counting as at Sunday 26 November 2017, including seats likely won and lost for each of One Nation, the LNP, Katter Party and Greens.  You can access his summary here http://www.tallyroom.com.au/32465.

 

“Can you Chair the Meeting, Please?” III

Points of order, machinery issues/motions, and rulings: this third article helps inexperienced Chairs of formal or semi-formal meetings understand them, and concludes our series.

In our first article we briefly covered the formal or semi-formal nature of meetings, and what that means, and what it means that the Chair is in charge.  You can have a look at it here https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2017/10/26/chair-meeting-1/

In our second article we covered the five basics of an efficient meeting: an agenda, reports, proposals, discussion, decisions. It’s available here https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/chair-meeting-2/

In this article we’re covering Topics Four and Five: points of order and machinery issues/motions, and rulings.

Fourth, understand points of order and machinery issues/motions.

There are plenty of decisions made in meetings which are called “machinery” or procedural, because they are (allegedly, sometimes …) about making the meeting run smoothly.  These include motions like:

• “That the speaker be allowed an extension of time of 5 minutes”
• “That debate be ended, and the motion be now put”
• “That owing to the meeting running late, item 6 on the agenda be dealt with last and item 10 on the agenda be dealt with now”
• “That the meeting dissent from the Chair’s ruling that Kevin Rudd is eligible to vote”.

The standing orders of many organisations require machinery motions to go to a vote with very restricted debate, or with no debate.

If a dissent motion is moved, the Chair probably needs to vacate the Chair and hand it over to someone else until the dissent motion is dealt with, at which time you resume Chairing.  If a motion to dissent is carried, the Chair must make an alternative ruling (sometimes making no ruling is an alternative).

Sometimes, the Chair can propose a machinery or process actions to the meeting, and members may be comfortable to accept it without a vote – in most cases you would call this a ruling.  You might express it something like this: “As we are running out of time, I propose we deal with item 11 on the agenda now, and adjourn the other items to the next meeting.  If no-one has a better suggestion, I’ll rule this way.”  You would only do this sort of thing if you were confident it was necessary and would be approved.  If you are not sure it would be approved, you could say this instead: “As we are running out of time, I propose we deal with item 11 on the agenda now, and adjourn the other items to the next meeting.  Would someone like to move that?”

Points of order are process/machinery suggestions from attendees other than the Chair.  People will say things like:

• “This speaker is off topic and you should rule her out of order”
• “Bob has spoken already in this debate – if he wants to speak twice then I want to speak twice”
• “Julie isn’t debating the issue, she’s just being nasty about people”
• “We’ve already decided this – we shouldn’t discuss it again and again and again”.

Points or Order are sometimes very helpful, pointing out things the Chair hasn’t noticed.  The Chair must make a ruling on every point of order, and debate stops until you make your ruling, but a Chair needs to be alert to sneaky debaters who sometimes try to make a debating point rather than a procedural point; for example:

• “Point of order!  The speaker is talking rubbish” or
• “Point of information … the facts are …”

are not points of order at all – they are debating arguments which should be made during debate.

You don’t have to agree with the point of order when you rule on it – you are allowed to say, and should say when appropriate “There’s no such thing as a ‘point of information’ – please sit down” or “That isn’t a point of order” or “I reject your point of order because Bob hasn’t spoken previously – that was a point of order he made earlier, which doesn’t count as speaking in the debate.”

(From Amazon website)

Fifth, understand the rulings you can make.

Rulings are decisions the Chair makes, about how the meeting should run.  You mightn’t realise it, but you are making implied rulings from the Chair all the time: who is eligible to speak, who speaks next, whether there have been enough speakers on a motion, calling an uncontroversial motion carried, and so on – the meeting just flows around this kind of ruling.  Sometimes, though, when the meeting is going astray, you need to make a formal ruling, to get it back on track.  Some examples:

• “I rule you are going off topic and need to refocus or finish speaking”
• “No, you can’t speak again – you’ve already spoken in this debate”
• “Your language is offensive to others present and I’m ruling you out of order.  Sit down.”
• “We dealt with the issue you’re talking about last meeting.  If you want to overturn a past decision, you need to move a rescission motion, and now isn’t the right time.”

Make rulings sparingly, and only when necessary or very desirable – if you make them too often, people will start to worry you’re suppressing democracy!

 

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These are very basic rules about Chairing – there are whole books on the topic – so if you are going to Chair more often, you might want to think about more formal training.

A few final tips:

• If your meeting is a teleconference or video conference, check this out for some useful ideas, too: https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2017/08/08/teleconference-blues/.
• These documents have some useful general pointers and go into more detail on some topics:
  http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/rural/facts/96-009.htm
  http://www.pcansw.org.au/docs/general/82/committee_meeting_formal_procedures.pdf

 

You can download the whole of these three articles in one file, here http://bit.ly/2yeRE1y.

 

 

 

Queensland Government is in “Caretaker Mode”

Now the State election has been called – see https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2017/10/29/queensland-state-election-basics/ – the Government moves into what is called “Caretaker Mode”.

Caretaker Mode is all about both maintaining public sector impartiality, and ensuring no decisions or commitments are made which will bind a new, possibly unwilling Government, post-election.

Many public servants interpret this incredibly widely – far more so than is intended or appropriate, and this can be a real nuisance for anyone trying to do business with the State Government.

Official guidelines for the conventions which apply during the caretaker period are set out in the Cabinet Handbook, section 9, here https://www.premiers.qld.gov.au/publications/categories/policies-and-codes/handbooks/cabinet-handbook/caretaker-conventions.aspx.

In summary:

• Caretaker conventions are merely conventions and not binding at law – but are nearly always adhered to;
• Caretaker period starts the moment the election is called and lasts until either te result is clear or a new Government appointed;
• Things to avoid during the caretaker period: appointments of significance, implementing new policies, entering into major contracts or undertakings;
• Normal Departmental operations are to continue, but with care to ensure there’s no presumption about who will win the election;
• Departments should not at Ministerial request develop new policy initiatives;
• Opposition access to public servants is through requests to the Minister and any such discussions are confidential, but public servants may not discuss the merits of policy options with the Opposition and should keep no official notes;
• Departments prepare two sets of briefing documents for the incoming Government: one for a returned Government, and the other for a new Government;
• All Cabinet documents are readied for destruction;
• All Bills in Parliament lapse and must start again from scratch after the election, and any Acts not yet proclaimed by the Governor must await the intentions of the incoming Government.  In some circumstances subordinate legislation may be approved;
• The Premier will determine whether Government advertising campaigns continue – anything highlighting the role of Ministers or covering matters of political controversy are usually stopped;
• Ministers generally don’t go to Council of Australian Governments meetings which occur during the caretaker period.

In detail:

Here’s a downloadable PDF file for your reading pleasure, courtesy of Ethical Consulting Services! http://bit.ly/2hnbr4p

 

 

 

“Can you Chair the Meeting, Please?” II

Are you new to chairing very formal or semi-formal meetings?   This article will give you the basics on agendas, reports, motions, debates and decisions – it is the second of a three-part series.

In our previous first-time-chairing article, we laid out the formal or semi-formal nature of meetings, and what that means (Topic One), as well as setting out what it means that the Chair is in charge (Topic Two) – check it out here https://ethicalconsultingservices.wordpress.com/2017/10/26/chair-meeting-1/.

We also identified Topic Three – the five basics of an efficient meeting:

• an agenda,
• reports,
• proposals,
• discussion, and
• decisions.

Those 5 cover pretty much everything, and they’re the subject of this article.

We’re going to cover Topic Four (points of order and machinery issues/motions) and Topic Five (rulings) in the third and final article in the series, next week.

The Agenda

… is the list of things to be discussed – it should reflect what’s important.

If there’s no agenda, make it the first meaty bit of business you deal with: ask the meeting “what does this meeting need to deal with?” and once you’ve got a few suggestions you can ask “which are the ones we should deal with first?”  If there is an agenda, and you don’t like it, you can ask the meeting if there are any additions or changes proposed to the agenda.  If there’s no agenda at meeting after meeting, that’s a big flashing billboard saying, “These meetings are inefficient – the Chair and Secretary must together provide agendas for future meetings”.

If anyone tries to raise issues not covered by the agenda, you need to be alert to the interests of those who couldn’t get there: if the issue is contentious or impacts on those missing, you might want to say, “We shouldn’t be making a decision about this since missing members didn’t get notice of it and it is important they have their say – can we refer this item to the next meeting for decision, so everyone knows it is coming up?”

There is nearly always a decision (or several decisions) made at each and every every agenda item – for example, to note a report.  A good Chair will encourage a decision at each item, if no-one in the meeting initiates a proposal

Reports

… provide information to guide the meeting on decisions they might need to make.

They are usually flagged in the agenda e.g. “Item 6(a) … Report from the Finance Committee” and there should normally be someone there to talk about it.  One big meeting destroyer is over-long reports, usually under-prepared.  When you call on someone to deliver a report (By saying “We’re up to the Finance Committee report on the agenda – who will deliver this report?”) you can also say something like “We’ve got a lot of business to get through – can you speak for 5 minutes and we will have time for questions afterwards?”

Good reports include proposals to the meeting, arising from the report.  Poor reports don’t have any concrete outcomes and sometimes do no more than provide information.

Proposals

… usually called motions, proposals are about action – a motion without an action component should be immediately suspect – if there is no action why bother?

Almost every agenda item should result in a proposal and if something happens in the meeting and no-one moves a motion in consequence, the Chair should initiate a proposal by asking a question: “Would anyone like to move that we adopt the recommendation?” or “What should we do about this report?  Does anyone want to propose anything?” or similar.

As Chair, you can ask for motions to be redrafted for clarity or to add missing bits, but you would normally only do so if the meeting seemed to need it – you should always ask for motions to be written down if they are more than a single, short sentence, to make it easier for a proper record of decisions to be kept, and to make sure there is no ambiguity in what is being proposed.  Every motion requires someone to propose it – the “mover” and someone additional to support it – the “seconder”.

Once someone moves a motion and exercises their right to speak, the Chair then always asks for a seconder and names them.  Motions without a seconder present at the meeting don’t get discussed any further – if the mover’s speech hasn’t won over a seconder, it means they motion has little support, so the meeting shouldn’t spend time on it.

Once motions have been moved, seconded and debated, they must be put to the vote – see “decisions” below.

Controversial or important motions normally appear on the meeting notice and agenda, so people with an interest in the issue can make sure to attend.

The Discussion

… is supposed to help the meeting understand enough about an issue to make an informed decision.  Discussion is often the biggest destroyer of effective meetings, because so many participants don’t understand discussion should happen in only three circumstances:

• a question and answer after a report;
• debating whether to accept, reject or amend the motion; and
• the meeting decides to suspend the rule (suspend standing orders) to have a free-for-all discussion.

For informal meetings you or the meeting may choose to relax some of those rules, but if you do then let people know you’ll go back to more formal rules if things bog down or go in circles or degenerate.

Many participants don’t understand they only get to speak once, never get to speak over others (except when making a point of order or procedural motion – see below) go way off-topic, or would talk forever.  When people are doing any of these things, you must pull them up.  If the meeting might run over time, you can suggest, or ask the meeting to impose time limits on speakers, thus: “We’re in danger of going over time, so I suggest we limit speakers to five minutes only – is everyone OK with that or should I put the time limit to a vote?” or similar.

Most times, discussion involves debating a motion.  All standing orders have important things to say about the rules of debating, and these are very common requirements:

• Mover and seconder get to speak first, then you must invite speakers against the motion;
• If there is no opposition, go straight to a decision;
• If anyone wants to speak against, up to two speakers against go next;
• After the first two speakers against, it’s one speaker for, followed by one against, and repeat;
• As soon as one “side” or the other runs out of speakers, the mover always gets a right of reply to what’s been said in debate; and
• After the “right of reply” speech, no-one else gets to speak, and you must get the meeting to make a decision.

Decisions

… are the whole point of a meeting; they are supposed to be well-informed, and about things which are clear – it’s the Chair’s job to make sure of that, and it’s why most motions should be written down, and why we have discussion.  Meetings often decide these sort of things:

• to admit new members,
• to accept the minutes of a previous meeting as being true and accurate,
• to accept inward correspondence and endorse outward correspondence,
• to reject a recommendation to increase Board sitting fees, and
• to set the date and time for the Annual General Meeting.

All decisions happen through the Chair asking the meeting to vote.  The Chair says, “all those in favour say ‘aye’”, calls out how many have voted yes, then says “all those against say ‘nay’” and calls out how many have voted no.  Sometimes the Chair might need to ask, “are there any abstentions” and calls out the number of abstentions, when issues have been controversial.  The Chair always announces the result this way: “I declare the motion lost [or carried]”.  So many inexperienced Chairs forget to call for those against and declare it carried or lost!

If you are lucky, your standing orders set out a way to resolve tied votes.  Usually, a tied vote is declared lost.  Sometimes, the Chair has what’s called a casting vote, to be exercised only when a motion is tied, as a way to break the deadlock.  In this case, depending on your standing orders, the Chair gets a second vote.  Some rules say that the Chair can’t vote on anything at all except to use a casting vote.  You need to know which way your standing orders go!

All decisions must be recorded in the minutes of the meeting, similarly to this example below, although you usually don’t need to record numbers for and against:

Moved: Mike Smith/Seconded: Stephen Robertson

That the Treasurer’s report be received, and that the proposed budget for next financial year be approved.

Lost with 3 for, 4 against, and 3 abstentions.

 

 

In the next and final first-time chairing article, we’ll cover Topics Four and Five: points of order and machinery issues/motions, and rulings.  That’ll be out next week.

Please offer any thoughts you’ve got, about what needs to be added or changed!

 

 

 

 

Queensland State Election 2017 Basics

The Queensland State Election was called on Sunday 29 October, and Election Day will be Saturday 25 November 2017.

Here are three reasons it’s historic:

• it is the last time the Government gets to pick the Election Day – after this one, Queensland moves to a fixed, four-year election term;
• it is the first time preferences will be compulsory since 1992, when they were made optional*; and
• the number of seats has been increased from 89 to 93, which means to win Government a party or coalition needs 47 or more seats.

New or updated enrolments close on 3 November, and nominations of candidates close on 7 November.  If you need to update your enrolment the best place to do it is via the links on this page: www.ecq.qld.gov.au/voters-and-voting/enrolment.

Because the number of seats has increased, electoral boundaries have been changed all over the place.  Here’s a table of changes driven by new boundaries, from psephologist Antony Green www.abc.net.au/news/elections/qld-redistribution-2017/#ChangeTable.

Green’s analysis of the political impact is here www.abc.net.au/news/elections/qld-redistribution-2017/#PoliticalImpact, and his new electoral pendulum is here www.abc.net.au/news/elections/qld-redistribution-2017/#Pendulum.

You can access his overall guide to the election here http://www.abc.net.au/news/qld-election-2017/.

… and here’s a link to the latest polling  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_state_election,_2017#Opinion_polling.

 

 

* Corrected – thanks to Cameron Milliner for noticing the error!