The Orphan Issue

On the Subject of Leadership · Nov 2, 2026 · 12m

Victoria spent some $60 million on private security guards to enforce hotel quarantine in 2020, yet no one could tell the inquiry who had decided on them, and multiple submissions called the decision ‘an orphan’. In this article, released in audio format, I open a new series, The Two Agendas, with the issue that belongs to no one’s portfolio: why institutions neglect it, why success makes the neglect worse, and why the usual explanation of fear does not reach it.

In this article:

Two inquiries, one into a bank and one into a government, heard the same word for the same failure.

Accountability…