Ministerial staff: a need for transparency and accountability?

In this submission to the Senate inquiry into the staff of members of parliament, Anne Tiernan and Patrick Weller identify five core problems with the ministerial staff system as it has evolved. They argue that the system has outgrown the arrangements designed to support and control it; that it is premised on a number of myths and assumptions that have become redundant as the staffing institution has evolved; that the roles and responsibilities of ministerial staff and the public service are ill-defined, undermining the quality of advice and support to ministers; that there is too little public information about the operations of the staffing system.
· Ministerial staffing system lacks transparency [Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, Griffith University: PDF via APO::http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/fapa_ctte/mops/submissions/sub04.doc]