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Thanks for nothing: misfeasance *


It is called malfeasance when an elected Public Officer such as a Minister, a Company Director or a senior Public Servant intentionally does the wrong thing ; if he/she does nothing when something needed to be done, it is called nonfeasance; if he/she makes only a half-hearted attempt, it is called misfeasance.
 
Each of these three conditions are actionable in law, and remedy will be awarded by Court to persons injured or otherwise disadvantaged by such actions or failure to act. Malfeasance in elected public office is difficult to prove, as the officeholder is able to claim that his actions came from good intentions, and that his appointment to office require him to make decisions, the right or wrong of which being evident only in hindsight. 

This page is devoted to showcasing examples of misfeasance and nonfeasance - generally ignored by the media these days - for which we can only say: Thanks for nothing!

* Click on title for definition pop-up
Case 3.
A lot of tummy-rot

Complaints to City of Sydney Council about blatant breaches of Food Health and Hygiene Regulations in many of the food and drink outlets in its area brought the written response to the effect that 'the Council has no responsibility to inspect food and beverage premises to ensure compliance with Health regulations.'

It went on to state that Council was unable to fund such policing, and that it had no responsibility for Public Health. Clicking here will take you to the Council website, which paints quite a different picture, making Clover Moore out to be some sort of a cross between Florence Nightingale and Mother Theresa.

Even the near defunct 'newsrooms' of what used to be newspapers sometimes run a Shame! type story asking why in Australia, with the western world's highest rate of recorded food poisoning cases, the Sydney Council or the State Government or the Food Safety mob don't Name and Shame the operators of the ptomaine mills that abound here, as Council pledged to do.

Thanks for nothing, City of Sydney - you (literally) make me sick.

Case 2
Nazi's in the woodpile

During the 12-year Howard regime, that government abused its office by filling various Public Service positions with its own appointees. (Even though all governments do this, it is nonetheless corrupt and wrong.) These sinecures were distributed both to buy the loyalty and support of the hacks as well as to ensure that that government's ideology would infiltrate the public offices involved. The most offensively blatant example was that of boss of the Workplace Relations Office of the Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) , which wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in overt pro-Howard TV advertising.

After Howard's increasingly overt nazi-ism had been dumped by the massive majority of Australians the Rudd Government permitted these sinecurists to remain in their positions, where they continue to enforce their particular ideologies amongst their staffs. Most evident is again DEEWR, which continues the Howard hate campaign against the unemployed, by today incarcerating persons on Jobstart Allowance, apparently to increase the distress of these unfortunate people to encourage them to get off the unemployed roll.

After all, suicide gets the unemployed numbers down, and it's certainly easier to drive them to that than it is to run any sort of functional Job Seeking Support system or to generate more employment. After all, numbers are all that count.

Post World War II the Allies engaged on a Program of De-Nazification in Germany, precisely because of the situation described above, to oust the entrenched ideologues from their niches of power and influence. Rudd chose to keep his on the payroll. Of course, Rudd admits to being a 'neo-conservative' which is just a different way to spell 'nazi'.

Thanks for nothing, PM Rudd and company - we voted to end Howard's evildoing, and you continue it. Democracy in action, Elmer Rudd style.

Case 1.
Pigeon-brained City of Sydney Councillors

For some years now, global health authorities have been monitoring the highly virulent Avian flu, which spreads like wildfire, carried by birds across national borders and even oceans. This flu kills, quickly and painfully, and existing antidotes are far from fully effective.

Pigeons are ideal vectors of this disease. They already carry lice, fleas and other parasites, and bacterial pathogens, and are the cause of several overly-common skin, pulmonary and eye infections. Their willingness to get closer to humans than do native and other birds facilitates transfer of parasites and pathogens.  

Complaints to the City of Sydney about the plague proportions of pigeons in inner Sydney were met with the following response from an unnamed Health Officer: "Sure, we know the pigeons are dangerous and a pest, but Councillors won't act against them because they are more concerned about the unpopular media coverage of the outcry from bird lovers."
 
Thanks for nothing, Lord Mayor Clover Moore and fellow Councillors. Your brave prioritisation of the health of millions below your re-election chances will be remembered next polling day.

Responsibility for Political Comments herein is assumed by
Peter Gargan, PO Box 457 Glebe 2037, and he authorizes their publication. 

© Community Law Association, Sydney, Australia 2009