As a member of the press I am all for a good story, but as a realist I highly recommend you think long & hard about the ramifications of going public with a complaint. Such events rarely work out well for the whistleblower, and my experience is that often more good is done by good people within a system working than by good people outside a system, yelling.
Except for being totally UNemployed.
So, don’t quit your job. Be the best damn theoretical bunny rehomer you can be! Develop a Bunny Rehome Rapid Response Team plan for when you are finally allowed to use it. Make sure it has a cool vehicle, the latest technology like GPS guided capture nets, and a bunch of Tasers! You don’t want the riffraff interfering with your rehoming efforts.
Also, you might want to look for another job.
Alternatively, start working on that book idea. Not too many people can write a book on someone else’s dime.
For Og’s sake, woman, keep your job. Just find something constructive to do with your job. As others have said, lobby for the legalization of bunny rehoming, assist bunny NGOs in their charitable efforts, publicize the plight of the homeless bunny, write a re-visioning of Watership Down and address the new, modern problems bunnies face.
You have a gov’t job, which automatically means decent pay, health insurance, and good benefits. If you absolutely can’t stand it, see if you can transfer to a different department, but don’t quit!
(I speak as someone unemployed or underemployed for the last two years. I’m going back to school to pick up new skills since it looks like even when the economy does recover, my chosen profession never will.)
I agree with those who suggest you keep this job and start looking for a new one. It’s not your fault that the bunnyrehoming legislation isn’t in place, and a pay-cheque is a pay-cheque. At the same time, it’s not a good long term situation for you personally, so use your time to find a better spot.
You don’t get hired to do a job. You’re not paid to do a job. You don’t come in to work to do a job. In reality, you’re trading your time for money. You’re sitting in the chair, right? Then you’re putting in your time. If your bosses opt not to utilize that time wisely, then it’s nobody’s fault but theirs. It’s not your place to criticize the way they manage things; it’s their superiors’ jobs. Just sit there, do what you’re told, and cash the check.
Also, there are many, many government programs that prepare for contingencies. The U.S., for instance, has war plans drawn up for every country in the world just in case we have to invade them for some reason. Do you think those people at the DoD are whining because they’ve spent all this time on Chilean invasion plans and we haven’t invaded yet? No! The point isn’t to invade Chile…it’s to be prepared if/when we do. The point of your program isn’t to rehome bunnies…it’s to be prepared if they ever need to.
Again, sit there, log your time, cash the check, and quit yer bitchin’.
Actively search for a new job, but keep your current job until you find something else you’d be happy doing. You certainly don’t have any ethical obligation to resign until you have something else lined up - it’s not your fault that you can’t do the job you were hired to do.
I doubt your bosses would be terribly upset, given current circumstances, if you were to occupy a good deal of your working hours with the job hunt. Or surfing the Dope, or playing World of Warcraft, or writing the Great [del]American[/del] Australian Novel.
So look for something better, but in the meantime, take full advantage of your situation.
I would not recommend looking for a new job during working hours, unless you’re looking at internal transfers and only if it’s OK with your manager.
For some of us, staring blankly at a wall is the highlight of our day.
I’m with those that say “keep this job, but look for other positions you might be interested in.”
Ethically, whether you have to resign or not is up to you, really. I’d say not - there are things I would quit a job over, points of principle and policies that I would fundamentally disagree with and be totally unhappy implementing, but it doesn’t sound like you have an objection to bunny rehoming, per se. The contrary, in fact!
My understanding is that it is not uncommon to work on projects in government that never actually go anywhere - legislative time is limited, after all. But priorities do change, and bunny rehoming might become a Government priority, which means the necessary legislation may magically be passed. At which time, the work you and your colleagues are doing will be invaluable - does it help to think of it as prep work to support a future implementation team?
I don’t think whistleblowing to the press is a good idea. At all. Not least because your contract probably requires confidentiality, and I would assume there are internal ways of raising issues that might be worth exploring before going to the press. Do you have the equivalent of the Civil Service Commissioners in Australia? They’re the ultimate arbitration for government employee complaints in the UK, though the complaint normally has to have already gone through the internal complaints procedures before they’ll hear it. But similar bodies and procedures presumably exist in Australia, and if you’re really ethically conflicted over this project, it might be worth looking at them.
Personally, I’d look at it as getting work experience - even if the project itself will never be implemented because of legislative issues, you’re still learning a lot about bunny rehoming and developing the practical skills necessary to do the role you’re currently doing, which will be transferable. If you’re inside an organisation, it’s almost always easier to find roles than if you’re outside looking, and I’d suggest staying in and looking around for similar roles on other projects that aren’t stalled by lack of legislative support…
This stuff is usually blocked by the government’s firewall.
… What?
You forgot to add the obligatory, “I heard…” 
The arguments along the lines of “if it wasn’t me, it would be someone else” … are sort of fairly childish when considering why I feel bad about being there … I’ve never really felt it was a justification for a lot of actions (ie. if I don’t steal the cash out of the wallet, someone else will)!!
I do agree that going to the press is not worthwhile (it is nothing as clear and simple as rehoming (or not) bunnies!) … it would hardly rate a mention and it wouldn’t be of much interest to the public (other than a couple of million dollars being wasted - but the waste really isn’t as clear as I’ve made out).
Chessic Sense interesting point about the exchange of time for money … but I do feel my obligation as a human being goes a bit beyond that!
I just wish I had the inclination to write a novel … now would be the time!
Precisely. I do occasional Saturday shifts as a sub-editor. Ten or eleven hours, usually. Some weeks, in all that time I might edit two or three stories, and spend the rest of the time playing games, reading, whatever. I mentioned this to colleagues and they said what you said: you’re not getting paid to work, you’re getting paid for being here.
Honestly, there are far worse problems than having too little to do at work!
True, but normally once you’re in government, you do have access to possible internal transfers - nothing wrong with keeping an eye out for possible new postings, that don’t involve bunny rehoming (futility thereof), and applying for them through the normal internal channels.
Ever wanted to write a novel? Get a (another/higher) degree? Study something just for the sake of studying something? Good god man, now’s your chance! I’d definitely be looking for more gainful employment, but if you’re stuck with lots of ‘downtime’, put it to good use!
A long time ago, my company at the time was in prolonged discussions with another firm about a merger. The merger fell through, a large front-office team left en masse to a rival firm, and it became very clear that the branch was doomed. The entire wind-down exercise took months. I found another job, but the new company said that instead of buying out my potential bonus/package, they were fine waiting a few months for me to join. So I basically had a 3-month on-the-job holiday. Spent it studying for a major exam. Passed. Got a juicy package when the branch shut down, and walked across the street to my new job.
Win!
I just want to offer sympathy. I work for the government too. My situation’s different from yours, because I do have a lot of work to do. However, the system is just so heartbreakingly inefficient. My agency employs so many thousands of people, to do things that could be done with far, far fewer people. But inertia and politics keeps us wasting thousands, maybe millions of hours and probably billions of dollars. It’s very demoralizing.
I’m looking for another job too.
Sure but looking for a new job outside the government while at work would be unethical. And I was posting in response to this suggestion to conduct the job hunt while at work.
Well I have talked myself out of my job. Speaking with my manager who had no work for me I had to say to her that it was her obligation to employ suitable people for the job and that there was work available to them. It didn’t matter that we liked each other or thought we could work together … if there is nothing to do … then I shouldn’t be there.
sniff bye bye the best paid job I’ll probably ever have!
I know this existential hell quite well. I sit and literally do nothing work related for 7.95 hours of my work day. Hence why most of my posts are in the middle of the night whilst at work.
This doesn’t bother anyone else? The government is paying, not just the OP, but an entire department to do nothing at all, and everyone is happy about the situation? The department should be disbanded and the funding returned to the coffers for other purposes. This is the bullshit that governments get away with and why our tax dollars are wasted. If a privately owned company could gut an entire department that has zero effect on its operations, it would.
How did you even get hired? “We have an opening for someone to sit on their ass all day, because our department isn’t legally able to do anything, but we have this money burning a hole in our budget, so we have to pay it to someone?”