{"id":24711,"date":"2016-02-22T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T19:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=24711"},"modified":"2016-02-19T14:06:20","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T03:06:20","slug":"the-growth-of-the-canberra-minder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-growth-of-the-canberra-minder\/","title":{"rendered":"The growth of the Canberra Minder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New<\/a><\/p>\n

Minder <\/b>(noun): Body guard; staffer working for a politician\/minister. Derived from London West End slang for a muscle man who protects a criminal or shady operator.<\/span><\/p>\n

Minding<\/b> (verb): The act of working as a Minder, to protect, promote, serve or help.<\/span><\/p>\n

When<\/span> created<\/span><\/a> by Gough Whitlam in 1972, they were called ministerial staffers. Or simply staffers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then a decade on, by 1982, the \u2018staffer\u2019 usage was subverted in Canberra.<\/span> Minders<\/span><\/a> they became, and so they have remained.<\/span><\/p>\n

The nomenclature switch was driven by British comedy-drama series,<\/span> Minder<\/span><\/i>,<\/span><\/a> which quickly hit the ABC. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Minder character, Terry, was streetwise but always in thrall to his boss, Arthur Daley. <\/span>Arfur <\/span><\/i>was a wheeler-dealer with one eye on the cops and the other fixed on the next deal, and had a great way with words. Not for Arthur the clich\u00e9 about the world being your oyster: \u2018The world is your lobster, my son!\u2019 Any Oz Minister would understand. Any Oz Minder could merely nod.<\/span><\/p>\n

The TV Minder inhabited a grey area between law and crime, just as the Oz Minder works a shadowy zone where politics meets power and the Parliament meets the Executive. <\/span><\/p>\n

The zone operates as a pressure cooker and clearing house: push policy, run politics, skirt Parliament and ride the public service.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arthur would be amazed at the scope but energised by the bounteous opportunities. And the lack of oversight by anyone outside the executive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having provided the Westminster model for what has become the platypus model of the Australian political system (works only in practice, not theory) London also has naming rights for the Minder as the strongest new creation of Oz politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Created by Whitlam (1972\u201375), the Minder model was cemented in place by Fraser (1975\u201383). Both sides of politics tried the Minder model and found it good.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hawke-Keating governments (1983\u20131996) pumped power into the model and numbers boomed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hawke government formalised the existence of the Minders in 1984 with the<\/span> Members of Parliament Staff Act<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The law enacted what had already been established: Minders serve at the Minister\u2019s (or Member\u2019s) pleasure and can be dismissed in an instant. If the Minister falls from office, the Minder goes over the cliff at the same moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Act created a<\/span> unique legislative framework<\/span><\/a> for staffers and consultants working for Ministers, Members and Senators\u2014giving Minders four notable features:<\/span><\/p>\n