Credentials vs Capabilities Part II - A Case study of Andrew Leigh

Some of you may recall the post I wrote recently about distinguishing between credentials and capabilities.

For the millionth time, there is a vast difference between someone having credentials and someone having capability.

And if I may offer a case study. A highly illustrative example of someone who is exceptionally well credentialed but utterly useless and incapable - the Hon. Dr Andrew Leigh MP.

People like Leigh usually populate the humanties departments of universities but sometimes they escape. When they escape, it is often into the public service, but more dangerously they sometimes escape into Parliaments.

So who is Andrew Leigh? From his parliamentary profile:

• PhD (Harvard University).

• BA(Hons) (University of Sydney).

• LLB(Hons) (University of Sydney).

• MPA (Harvard University).

A lawyer. An “economist”. And to boot, a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Sydney Uni. Harvard. 4 University degrees.

Leigh is currently aged around 53. He has been in parliamnet since 2010, around aged 38.

His tertiary education must account for, perhaps, 10-15 years of study. Assuming he finished highschool around 18, that means he has spent somewhere around 5 to 10 years outside of study and politics. Not that much experience.

Add in a political advisor for 2 years and a “Professor” of economics for 6.

Clearly well credentialed. But USELESS.

Leigh is the MORON who wrote that 5 banks owned a majority of ASX listed equity failing to understand that these banks were acting as custodians for various funds. But yet, with such insight and understanding, he has been appointed to various Treasury portfolio roles.

Perhaps this is also a commentary on the economic dead wood floating in the Labor caucus. Afterall, Jim Chalmers is Treasurer.

But in a highlighy relevant demonstration of his lack of capability, he wrote an oped for the AFR these past few days:

What’s holding us back from a better housing, transport and clean energy future

Ripping off, albeit attributing, the ideas of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their book Abundance, he yabbered on about:

Underlying all this is a deeper theme, captured in Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s recent book Abundance. Their argument: a truly progressive society must not only have good goals – it must have the capacity to deliver them. From housing to transport to clean energy, we don’t lack for ideas. We lack institutions that can follow through.

Ah yes. Government capacity. Right.

This is not an argument for deregulation. It’s a case for redesign. For institutions that focus on throughput, not just oversight. That align planning and delivery. That reduce friction and build confidence.

Redesign? That sounds like a Chalmerism from his idiotic new age communism essay from a few years ago.

But Leigh lays all the problems are the feet of State and Local governments. Fair enough. They are garbage too. But what about the Commonwealth? Snowy 2.0. NBN.

He can’t resist a political dig of course:

The same risks apply to clean energy. Australia has more sun than a Bondi Beach towel and more wind than a CPAC conference. But realising that potential means building fast – not just generation, but storage and transmission too. Too many renewable projects are held up in state tribunals, tangled in planning appeals, or waiting months for grid connections.

Too many projects are held up not because of bureaucracy but because the locals don’t want them. You know that thing about democracy and property rights.

This man is a fool, an execeptionall well credentialed fool with no capability. And yet he has been sworn in as a minister, assistant minister, of the Crown.