Every pollie wins a prize

It was great to hear Premier Anna Bligh announce that in these hard times, proposed salary increases of Queensland's 89 politicians were being frozen and that the public service was being asked to find “savings”.

Why stop there, Premier? How about slicing Queensland's bloated executive government? Since the 2006 state election, when premier Peter Beattie increased the number of parliamentary secretaries from eight to 11 (combined with 18 Cabinet ministers), Queensland has had 29 members serving in executive government roles.

That means that about one in three - 32 per cent - of our state parliamentarians hold executive government positions.

During the 1960s, the comparable figure was 16 per cent, and it was 20 per cent for most of the 1980s.

Queensland has more politicians as a proportion of its elected representatives serving in executive government than at any time in its history. More than that, Queensland has a greater proportion of its parliamentarians in executive government than any other state or even the Federal Government. Only the Northern Territory has more, and there are special reasons for that.

Comparable figures to Queensland's 32 per cent of parliamentarians in executive government are: Victoria 27 per cent; New South Wales 23.7 per cent; Western Australia 24 percent, South Australia 24.6 per cent; and Tasmania 25 per cent. In Canberra, under the Howard and Rudd governments, the proportion has remained at 18.5 per cent.

Indeed, Queensland with 29 ministers and parliamentary secretaries, has only three fewer members in executive government roles than NSW - a state that has about two million people more than Queensland.

There are several serious implications of this growth in executive government.

It costs the taxpayers more in higher wages. Ministers earn $78,000 more over their base backbench salary. Parliamentary secretaries receive an additional $22,000.

There are also the extra costs for staff, offices and cars.

A larger executive government means fewer backbenchers to scrutinise government, yet with more executive government members there is additional activity to assess.

A larger executive government allows a premier to practise more patronage for party members. In Queensland, almost 50 per cent of the present Government members hold executive positions. Almost everyone in government gets an executive government prize these days.

This may pacify backbenchers, but is it good government in terms of the talent pool available?

Most importantly, this growth of executive numbers undermines the separation of powers between executive government and parliament. Independent parliamentary scrutiny of government is undermined when such a large proportion of parliament has jobs in executive government.

Some argue that as Queensland is a growth state it needs more ministers and parliamentary secretaries.

While between 1990 and 2007 the size of Queensland's executive government grew by 60 per cent, our population increase was 44 per cent. In Western Australia, another growth state, the comparable increase in executive government numbers was less than 10 per cent.

It would be refreshing to hear the Premier - and more particularly, the Opposition Leader - commit to reducing executive government and rationalising departmental numbers. At the most, we need 12 ministers heading a reduced number of departments.

Fewer departments could be achieved by amalgamating the existing ramshackle administrative arrangements into a more functional clustering and jettisoning activities that could be better performed by the private sector. This would reduce duplication between departments, improve service delivery, cut costs and stimulate the private sector and jobs.

These 12 ministers could be assisted by six parliamentary secretaries who would support the most important senior portfolios.

A smaller executive government would also allow premiers to be more selective in their ministerial choices and make it more competitive to be a member of executive government.

And just think of the administrative savings to be achieved with fewer government departments.