Despite tourism being one of the economy's growth industries, Tourism Australia, the main arm for promoting Australia overseas, was without a chairman and deputy since June. only in the last few days has Anthony South, who was acting in the job, been confirmed as chairman. The board, which guides Australia's premier tourism research organisation, Tourism Research Australia, has stopped functioning altogether, after all but one of its board vacancies went unfilled.
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These are just two of the many boards that are either below strength or have been effectively left inoperable by the Coalition government under Tony Abbott.
The Abbott government came to power with a promise to reduce the size of government by both cutting the public service and rationalising agencies and advisory bodies. Cuts to boards and bodies have been announced in the past two budgets as part of the Smaller Government program. Some 167 governing or advisory boards have been scrapped, resulting in 1587 board positions going. Total savings from the smaller government program are $1.4 billion, according to the Department of Finance.
"Government bodies play a vital role in advising the government, delivering public services and enforcing the law," a spokeswoman for Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said. "However across the government we inherited too many inefficient, complex and outdated structures, which created avoidable costs", she said.
The most high-profile bodies to go have been environmental agencies such as the Climate Change Commission, which was set up under Labor to provide independent advice to the government on the science of climate change. Agencies the Coalition regarded as too "nanny state", such as the Australian National Preventative Health Agency, established by the previous government to lead the national fight against obesity, alcohol abuse and tobacco use, have also gone.
But other cuts are happening behind the scenes.
A review of the AusGov site reveals significant numbers of vacancies, particularly on boards set up to provide the government with input on policy matters as diverse as securing the safety of the blood supply to advising on consumer affairs.
The government has promised that more boards will be scrapped in the 2015-16 mid-year economic statement, which may in part explain why some boards have been run down.
But there also appears to be further cost cutting being achieved by saving on appointments to boards or there is inertia which has led to the boards running down.
The tourism boards are a case in point.
"The Minister is currently in the process of selecting new appointees, and an acting chair is in place while this occurs, a spokesman said of Tourism Australia.The board met on Thursday, August 20, 2015, and is functioning normally while the appointment process continues," a spokesman for Austrade said.
The advisory board of Tourism Research Australia has not met since May 2014.
A spokesman for Austrade said the organisation "had undergone a strategic review of its operations and functions, including how it engaged with stakeholders," and the future role of the board was "being considered".
He said the organisation was consulting "elsewhere" with industry, government and academia about its research program.
There are vacancies on almost every arts body, including the Arts Council board.
The Bundanon Trust, which runs the Shoalhaven property left to the nation by artist Arthur Boyd, was unable to hold meetings for several months because it was without a quorum. New appointments to the board have since been made.
The National Film and Sound archive was also without appointments for some time, though former National MP Paul Neville who chairs the organisation, has recently been joined by a group of new directors.
Even though Liberal senators supported restoration of the Law Reform Commission's budget in a 2011 senate committee report, the organisation is still hamstrung by funding cuts and depleted numbers.
It has been reduced to just one full-time president, two judges who serve part-time on top of their judicial roles and an inquiry specific part-time commissioner, Suri Ratnapala, who was appointed to the only current inquiry -- the so-called Freedoms inquiry -- which is now preparing its final report.
Under the previous government, there were up to four full-time commissioners plus part-time inquiry specific commissioners. Generally the commission was running at least two inquiries at once, and at times up to four.
The future of the National Blood Authority board, a group of experts and stakeholder representatives which advises the authority on the safety and security of the national blood supply, is uncertain. It currently has just two board members and no chairman, after the previous appointments, all made by Labor, lapsed in May.
The government announced plans to merge it with the Organ and Tissue Authority by July 1, but so far nothing has happened. Despite repeated approaches, a departmental spokesman was unable to provide any comment.
The Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council (CCAAC), which provides independent advice to the Minister for Small Business, has not met since March 14, 2014.
The Financial Sector Advisory Council is also completely vacant, according to the Ausgov website. Set up in 1998, it was supposed to "have an ongoing role in providing advice to the government on proposed initiatives to position Australia as a leading financial services centre" and to provide advice on the security of the banking system.
"The government's recent Financial System Inquiry has provided advice to the government with regards to this area of policy and as such, the Financial Sector Advisory Council has not met pending the conclusion of the Financial System Inquiry," a Treasury spokesman said. The government will announce the response to the Financial System Inquiry in due course," he said.
