Peter Costello Memoirs

When I first head about Peter Costello's Memoirs, a number of journalists predicted that they would be political attacks on colleagues and opponents. But they were way off the track. I eventually read the book and was pleasantly surprised. He was certainly frank about his long term in office as Australia's Treasurer and the issues he faced, but he was just as frank about his ethical position as a practising Christian and how that affected his decision making.

I can highly recommend the book as a valuable insight into the workings of a national government. And now that the change in government has passed, the book can be obtained much cheaper than the original price.

Forms for Rudd Government new projects

I see from the weekend edition of the Australian Financial Review that the new Rudd Government is starting to introduce new projects such as the Dementia Services Pathways Project.

Like all such projects, it will have business forms as part of the services it provides, especially in this case as it involves not just people with dementia, but their carers and service providers.

Given the huge number of errors that occur in data collected on government forms as a result of poor design methodology, my hope is that the Department of Health and Ageing and the company that undertakes the project will consider the needs of the end users.

As I've said numerous times, there is no need for forms that collect bad data.