It’s time to call a spade a spade. We no longer live in the democratic Commonwealth of Australia but in a federation of socialist states.

This federation is run by nearly two-and-a-half million unelected bureaucrats who intrude into every aspect of our daily lives. If you know what’s good for you, you will obey them and keep your opinions to yourself. After all, governments know best and better that you become dependent on them rather than take personal responsibility for your misfortunes and disappointments.

Without the public realising it, bureaucrats have successfully inverted the democratic system. They now set the policy agenda while left-leaning, elected representatives, from all sides, do their bidding.

Form over substance is a self-serving public servant’s stock-in-trade. They are driven by woke causes, internal politics and enhanced authority. The bigger the department, the more they are paid. As well as handsome remuneration they enjoy some of the most generous work-from-home rights in the country.

Woke activism has become a particular preoccupation. Climate change, Aboriginal causes, LGBTQIA+ observances and diversity, equity and inclusion are central to policy formulation.

Women now comprise 50 per cent of the total federal senior executive service cohort. It is unknown how many of these appointments were appointed on merit and how many are there to fill quotas.

Privileged employment conditions usually carry superior performance obligations. However, that remains a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Take the head of the Defence Department, Greg Moriarty. Previously the chief of staff to prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, he received $1,006,474 last year for presiding over a department which deemed it unnecessary to inform the government of a $100 million cost over-run on a $50 million classified programme; where eight years is considered acceptable to assess urgently needed armed drones. And where, according to the Auditor-General, a $423 million cost blowout on a frigate project was due to lack of focus during the tender process.

Recasting military culture into a gentler, more caring cohort is driving out traditional warriors. Uniformed numbers shrank by 1,161 last year leaving the ADF 3,400 under strength.

The first object of the Australian Public Service, set out in Section 3 of the Public Service Act 1999, is, ‘to establish an apolitical public service that is efficient and effective in serving the Government, the Parliament and the Australian public’. A noble objective to be sure, but in practice there continues to be an unrelenting decline in efficiency, transparency and neutrality. For example, the Grattan Institute found since 2016, of 22 large federal government projects, just six had a business case.

It is no coincidence that the government’s Productivity Commission reports that over the past decade growth in GDP and income per person have slipped to their slowest rates in 60 years. While not all of this is due to growth in government, it is a major factor.

Not only does government not conform on efficiency, it also fails the apolitical test.

Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts chief, Jim Betts, who earns $928,340 a year, wore a t-shirt featuring the Aboriginal flag and a fist at Senate Estimates during the Voice referendum campaign.

While not federal, many local governments lowered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to half-mast following the referendum defeat. Some fly the Palestinian flag; hardly demonstrations of political neutrality.

Indeed, post-modern activism is observable throughout the public service. In education, politically motivated curricula have been developed to subtly indoctrinate children as young as five. State universities are intolerant of views which run counter to their post-modern orthodoxy. The government broadcaster, the ABC, is a shameless activist for socialist causes. The one million dollars a day Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s modelling and forecasting faithfully follows a global ‘boiling’ narrative.

Socialism is also deeply imbedded in Australia’s failing ‘public’ health system. Epitomised by the NDIS, it is the result of a ‘know better’ authoritarian culture and a disdain for the laws of economics.

Meanwhile, as bureaucratic red, green and black tape proliferate, criminal sanctions feature with increasing regularity. This year it is estimated the number of federal employees engaged in regulatory roles will increase nine per cent overall with some agencies upping the number by 30 per cent. Since 2005, 97 per cent of new regulations have avoided parliamentary process. No wonder. Coercive powers enhance bureaucratic authority and give reasons for expansion. Political interference is unwelcome.

The enormous cost burdens now borne by business from ever increasing environmental and workplace laws seem to matter little. After all, fewer businesses are easier to control. Australia has become a net exporter of capital, meaning investors see better opportunities overseas.

Yet corporate Australia meekly surrenders and is now a standard-bearer for bigger government and post-modernism. Reminiscent of 1933 Germany, business leaders accept that when their organisation’s future is inexorably linked to being on one political side, they must pay close attention to the new doctrine. Crony capitalism has attractions, at least for a while.

Although authority now resides within Marxist-Leninist bureaucracies, headline announcements are left to elected representatives. They are mainly theatre and used for election purposes. The execution is left to unaccountable public servants. Meanwhile, the ballot box has just become a place for voters to register protests.

Where to from here?

Buoyed by booming exports, Australian governments have bet the shop on the minerals boom continuing. It’s a dangerous bet, made more so by environmental laws which generously gift Australia’s competitors significant cost advantages. Regulatory obsession has also resulted in a massive decline in Australia’s manufacturing sector. It seems national security is the last thing on government minds.

Unless and until a political leader with the courage and support of its party takes on the public service like Javier Milei has done in Argentina, the will of the people will not be represented, nor prevail.

Hopefully Australia takes action sooner than Argentina did.