Richard Ackland on Hatzistergos

Although part of this has appeared on my blog I have added in some things here.

As the saga over John Hatzistergos' war of words with Nicholas Cowdery ensues ... I want to say:

A million thank-yous to Richard Ackland! He has had the guts to tell it like it is about John Hatzistergos' war against Nicholas Cowdery and the DPP. Ackland spells out the truth about the alleged wasted funds by the prosecutors who attended a conference in Brisbane. He points out how the numbers of prosecutors are down, how junior solicitors are carrying grunt work (when they should not), and that the District Courts are in a mess because of fewer employees.

All of these gaps in human and financial resources reflects on John Hatzistergos and his director general Laurie Glanfield. It is not too difficult to infer that they are failing to provide good policy and good administration. The NSW Attorney General's Department is in a mess and these two men are in charge.

Ackland describes Hatzistergos and his media effort to discredit Cowdery as the thorn-in-the-flesh:"Hatzistergos represents a haunted, closed, suspicious, micro-managing sort of politics. And to leak against your public servants is, frankly, the pits."

The extract from Beverley Kingston's essay that is in today's SMH just cements the point about the problems of public administration in NSW generally.

I feel that the efforts of Mr Hatzistergos and Mr Glanfield are way past it in terms of usefulness to the people of NSW. I think it is high time that both Hatzistergos and Glanfield resigned.