FORMER US president Ronald Reagan had a deep mistrust of the Washington bureaucracy, prompting this assessment:
“Every once in a while somebody has to get the bureaucracy by the neck and shake it loose and say, ‘Stop doing what you’re doing’.
Reagan’s words are particularly relevant to Queensland politics. Make no mistake, the George Street mandarins set the state’s political agenda.
The absurdity of the dredging problem emerged last week when the owner of an $80 million superyacht had to go to Brisbane, rather than Coomera, for $1 million in work.
If the Beattie Government is fair dinkum about turning the Gold Coast into a maritime hub for superyachts, it at least needs to get the fundamentals right and make the waterways navigable and safe.
On bureaucracy, Reagan may well have been right.
After eight years, maybe it is time for a shake-up.