I’m in Cairns, Queensland for the Inaugural Family Relationship Services Australia (FRSA) conference. Allow me to relay the essence of a number of presentations made by civil servants here this week.

Just so I don’t get any more abuse for being a “flamin’ Gallah” (a rather irritating Australian parrot; I’m assuming this was an insult from the tone in which it was delivered, but I rather take it as a compliment; it has a certain phoenix-ical quality to it), these pearls could easily have been cast by any civil servant in any country, during some period of legislative, system or policy change.

And think yourself lucky - this should take you only about a minute to read - I had to sit through a few hours more than that.

“We need more strategic thinking about moving from silos to systems. We need to break down the barriers between agencies and move towards joined-up, interdisciplinary working. This will result in more streamlined services for children. To get here we need a new road map; a road map for change forging linkages between silos, cutting through the red tape leading to joined-up services and integrated systems.

“But each existing agency needs their own road-map for change drawn in collaboration via strong linkages with other agencies. How will individual agencies forge more streamlined and inter-agency relationships? This needs strategic thinking. The next challenge is to then stitch together each of these individual road-maps into one coherent, strategic and holistic road-map for systemic change. Forming such a joined-up road map for change will help us cut through red tape to get us to our final destination which is…. “
Um … Bugger, what was I talking about?