Is the public service ready for a new era of big, interventionist government?

Outsourcing has created a learned helplessness that has come back to bite the government in the backside on the vaccine rollout and in aged care, writes Bernard Keane.

The era is here, and is not likely to end any time soon. Look at the budget numbers: spending this financial year of more than 32% of GDP, the highest in the modern era. Spending in the coming financial year of 27.6% of GDP. In 2025, when spending is forecast to fall to a mere 26.2%