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Reform Fatigue Following the Fitzgerald Report?

The creation of the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission (EARC) was recommended in the Fitzgerald Report. Like the Criminal Justice Commission, it was recommended to be a ‘permanent’ body. The legislation establishing the EARC gave it a mandate to examine the relevant Fitzgerald recommendations, but also made it possible for the government or the parliament (through the Parliamentary Committee) to request it to undertake other reviews. However, the Goss government rapidly came to see the EARC as being limited to inquiring into the Fitzgerald matters, and moved, through the Parliamentary Committee, to have it wound up after just four years. This paper examines the way in which the EARC’s recommendations were dealt with by the government and looks at the interaction between the EARC, the Parliamentary Committee and the government. It looks at the reasons advanced by the Parliamentary Committee for recommending the abolition of the EARC and at the possibility that ‘reform fatigue’ contributed to the government’s decision to ensure the EARC ceased to exist after it had completed its Fitzgerald agenda, as well as the reluctance of the government to have an independent body, resourced by it, telling it what it should be doing. The paper looks at alternative ways in which governments can use external reform bodies and finally jumps ahead to the advent of the Bligh government and the Premier’s use of two independent review panels (concerning FOI and the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal) to advance reforms she wanted, subjects both originally dealt with by EARC.