Is it too early to acknowledge the timely 'death' of the targets culture?

With the Daily Telegraph on the case perhaps it is not!

'Why were targets introduced? The Government [UK, Labour] would have you believe it was to drive up standards; but in reality they were a means of showing that Labour "cared". They were a political device. Whenever ministers were challenged about high levels of offending or poor levels of literacy they could say: "But we have a target to reduce it/increase it/scrap it, so we must be good." Targets were ostensibly introduced to hold the Government to account, but were used as a means of deflecting criticism.'

What about in Australia though?