As I reported a few days ago we are in the twice yearly process of Senate Estimates Committee hearings.
This is an opportunity for Senators to ask bureaucrats and responsible Ministers probing questions on just what is going on behind the scenes in their Department and to try and winkle out some information and accountability.
Both NEHTA and the E-Health Team from DoHA attend and are questioned for about 1 hour. It is likely this will be happening in the sessions between Monday 28 May to Thursday, 31 May 2012.
It would be fair to say that my experience of having watched the live feeds of the last few years of these Q & A sessions suggests the bureaucrats are really first cousins of Sir Humphrey Appleby of ‘Yes Minister’ in terms of their capabilities to talk for the hour and say essentially nothing despite the best efforts of those asking the questions to have some light shone in the dark internal holes of the Department.
From this I have concluded that what is needed are precise questions that require a specific number or a simple yes or no answer to gain the maximal information for the listeners and readers of the Hansard transcript.
You challenge is to provide me with some questions for DoHA or NEHTA which are well informed and which will actually elicit some information we would all like to know.
Obviously your suggestions will be available for use by the Opposition and the Greens both of whom find to some degree they struggle to actually get answers that are useful from these Committee hearings.
I will be able to pass any suggestions on to both teams for consideration as well as providing a copy to the committee Chair representing the Government via the blog.
Thinking caps on - well informed questions that might flush out hidden abuse, fraud or malfeasance are especially welcome.
Thanks in advance.
David.