Considerable evidence of deafness to the concerns voiced repeatedly by a variety of stakeholders…

A culture that ignores criticism and is unduly defensive, process motivated and unwilling to question itself.

Clear ‘disconnect’ between policy development and management in Canberra and operational requirement…\”

seem to have created an environment in which people are unwilling to accept ownership of matters beyond their immediate responsibility, regardless of the importance of the matter…

heavy emphasis on procedural compliance, with little attention given to the achievement of outcomes…

executive management has sent to staff a clear message that process is paramount and should not be questioned. Achieving sensible and effective outcomes has become of secondary importance.

Some of the Migration Series Instructions seem to be unnecessarily complex, or written by lawyers for lawyers, and are difficult to understand

nor is there any planned approach to induction or in-service training of sufficient quality to identify skill gaps and to prepare people for the work they are expected to do.

DIMIA’s IT systems are flawed, are not effectively networked, and do not have any relational database capability.

DIMIA staff generally have a poor understanding…of departmental systems and how to search for and obtain information

consistent evidence of reluctance at middle management and senior executive management levels to accept responsibility and acknowledge fault

DIMIA officers are authorised to exercise exceptional…powers. That they should be permitted and expected to do so without adequate training, without proper management and oversight, with poor information systems and with no genuine checks and balances on the exercise of these powers is of great concern.