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81["The State Steamships" (Editorial), The Western Mail (Perth, WA), Friday 29 August 1913, page 35]

The State Steamships

From first to last the history of the State steamships almost suggests that the Government is bent on a demonstration of how a public enterprise should not be conducted. However this may be, it is certainly a fact that the steamships venture has been characterised by a series of blunders so egregious as to be calculated to wreck any project no matter how intrinsically sound in itself. Every step taken so far has been demonstrably the wrong step, and each act of policy more fatal than its predecessor. To begin with the unwisdom of State intrusion into a business of such a speculative and debatable character by the Government of a country where so many avenues of legitimate public enterprise were already open, must be obvious to every man whose mind is not clouded by utopian theories of State collectivism. Of all countries in the world, this State of magnicent[sic] distances especially demands that a collectivist propaganda should be confined to such necessary public undertakings as private enterprise for one reason or another either fights shy of or is in the nature of things incapable of taking in hand. Money is not so plentiful or so cheap as to justify any Government embarking on fancy Socialist experiments which at best are attended by grave financial risks. When the last mile of developmental railways has been constructed, when the best and most economic facilities for transporting the country's produce to the seaboard are provided, and when the great South-West has been wholly opened up for settlement and actually settled, would have been time enough for the State to try its prentice hand on ocean conquests such as that to which we now stand prematurely committed. The State's essay as shipowner, involving as it will increasing capital expenditure from year to year, must inevitably tend not only to limit the country's borrowing operations for public works of a less doubtful character, but, as our loans flow from sources furnished by private enterprise, prejudice more or less the money market against us. These, however, are considerations which a short-sighted administration appear never seriously to have taken into account. On the contrary, the Scaddan Government seems to have plunged precipitately into the steamship owning business, and, as might have been expected in the circumstances, proceeded with just as little forethought in the conduct of the enterprise as in its original conception. The Australian mercantile marine is one of the finest in the world. The half dozen or so wealthy corporations concerned in its control and management are constantly renewing and improving their magnificent fleets. With such competition to face it might have been thought that the Government once having come to the decision to add another fleet unit to the services already established, would have taken particular care to be at least abreast of the times.

Considerations of party policy might have suggested, as they apparently, did, the expediency of rushing the business and of providing a fleet of secondhand vessels. Had regard for national interests actuated Ministers, a fleet of new ships would assuredly have been procured. This might have entailed some months delay, but if there is wisdom sometimes in making haste slowly, here surely was an occasion where prudence dictated a policy of walking warily. Throughout, however, every phase of the Administration's conduct of this ship-owning business has been marked by rash experiments. Instead of placing their State-owned fleet at the outset under the management of a gentleman experienced in all branches of the shipping business--a man who would be acknowledged the peer of the most successful of the managers of the privately-owned shipping lines, the Government saw fit to place the management in the hands of a mere tyro at the game, with what unhappy results the public is now too familiar. Attention was first publicly drawn to the mismanagement of the State shipping business by a contributor to the "West Australian" in a series of articles which excited widespread concern. "Observer's" animadversions on the way this new State-owned concern was being conducted were at first met by Ministerial denials and repudiations as emphatic as they were unconvincing. When, however, a well-known business man of Fremantle, entered the arena and by a chapter and verse indictment of the State management, confirmed and more than confirmed "Observer's" strictures, the public demand for a full and searching inquiry became so persistent that the responsible Minister found it expedient to adopt a yielding attitude. A Royal Commission was called into existence. After a few sittings, however, during which most damnatory evidence, was submitted and published, the manager, whose reputation was at stake, resigned and, to the astonishment of the public, the Commission was officially discharged and informed that it need not submit any report. But the bungling and maladroitness of the Government was not to end here. The latest development is in keeping with all that has gone before. The late manager is retained in the service in a minor capacity and the managerial responsibility has been assumed, or is about to be assumed, by Mr. Stevens, the secretary of the Harbour Trust. This course, as the country was informed a day or so ago, had first commended itself to thc Colonial Secretary, and had later secured the endorsement of Cabinet.

Now, what can be said of such an appointment other than this: that, to put it mildly, it is the crowning mistake of a whole procession of grave administrative errors. It assumes, to begin with, that neither the Harbour Trust nor the State steamship enterprise makes of itself sufficient exactions on the time and capacities of one executive officer. Is such an assumption warranted by the facts? Mr. Sudholz, who, to do him justice, had had some considerable experience in steamship management, proved nevertheless unequal to the task of running the State fleet successfully. To say that he failed and failed lamentably is not to put too fine a point on it. What right then have Ministers to expect Mr. Stevens, who has had no experience in steamship management, whose duties as secretary of the Harbour Trust are already onerous enough and must become more and more onerous in that capacity as the business of the port extends, to perform in addition the at least equally exacting duties to be imposed on him as manager or acting-manager of the State steam- ships? Is not such an experiment calculated still further to jeopardise the success of the present Government's most radical departure in State Socialism? In all human probability such an appointment will make confusion worse confounded, and unless Mr. Stevens is a born genius, with a Herculean capacity for work, this can hardly fail to be its inevitable result. But there are other objections to this dual appointment which must occur to discriminating minds. Mr. Stevens as secretary to the Harbour Trust is responsible to that body, while as manager of the State steamships his responsibility is to the Minister. Here we have an invidious position indeed. It is not merely conceivable, it is tolerably certain that occasions will frequently arise when Mr. Stevens' duties to the Harbour Trust will conflict with his duties to his Minister, and when such occasions do arise, who is to decide the issue? Pooh Bas are all very well, and are very amusing personalities in comic opera, but they do not make for efficiency in the conduct of the Public Service. But there is yet another and not less convincing objection to this astounding appointment. As the chief executive officer of thc Harbour Trust, Mr. Stevens will be under the temptation to which no civil servant should be exposed, that of favouring the interests of a department in whose success he is officially concerned at the expense of the private shipping firms having business relations with the Harbour. If the Government, as shipowners, are determined to enter upon a competitive fight with rival shipping firms, that is surely no reason why they should resort to loaded dice. A fair game is a bonny game, and in this matter, as in every other Government enterprise, the State motto might well be--a fair field and no favour. Mr. Stevens, be he ever so disposed to deal equitably as between the State steamships and private steamships, cannot be expected to free himself from an unconscious bias in his own favour. To expect otherwise is to credit him with being more than a mere human. But it is not necessary to stress the hundred and one objections to this officer's occupancy of the two positions. His appointment to the management of the State steamships is to be condemned mainly on the grounds of his lack of experience and the risk it involves on that account of financial disaster. If the policy of sea trading by the State is to be persisted in, then in Heaven's name let a salary be provided for the chief managerial office that will tempt a truly capable and experienced officer for the post, and let Australia, or, if need be, countries outside Australia, be diligently searched for the right man.