The Public Inquiry in Victoria

Sir Henry Bland and the Fraser Government's Administrative Review Committee: Another Chapter in the Statutory Authority Wars?

“…As with the other Australian states, Victoria's move into self‐government and eventual statehood was gradual, with an older colonial administration extending many of its forms forward in ways that challenged Westminster orthodoxies (see discussion in Wettenhall 1986). That may not have been all bad: as another analyst suggested, the statutory bodies so disliked by the Bland board of inquiry, each facing its own clientele group in a fairly direct manner and probably having that group represented on its board, may well have allowed a greater degree of public participation in management than the ministerial/departmental system, and it had long been seen in Victoria as providing a high degree of legitimacy to the political process (Holmes 1976:40‐43; also Holmes 1975). Moreover, though they were to fall into disfavour in the privatising years of the late 20 th century, the big statutory corporations like the State Electricity Commission of Victoria and the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission had operated well enough over half a century or more to promote the economic development of Victoria (Eggleston 1933, 1953:10‐11) 11…”