Articles by The Mandarin

• 

  Less talk, more action needed on the Melbourne Declaration

  Wednesday August 7, 2019

  By Zoran Endekov

  • Editors' Picks

  The outcomes of the current review into the Melbourne Declaration requires a roadmap for delivery or it risks another decade of failure to deliver on…

  Read more

• 

  • Premium
  • Insights and analysis

  Peter Costello on the independence of the public service 'view', the future of policy advice, and when Treasury secretaries were treated harshly

  Wednesday August 7, 2019

  By Peter Costello

  • Editors' Picks

  Peter Costello tackles the thorny issue of where, when and how a department of state should be having its own view, and what does that…

  Read more

• 

  • Premium
  • Insights and analysis

  The great Treasury juggle: providing the minister with fearless advice (even if it causes discomfort), while keeping the government's political strategists happy

  Monday August 5, 2019

  By Paul Tilley

  • Features

  Paul Tilley tracks how Treasury’s role has evolved over its history, from the government’s bookkeeper at Federation to the economic policy agency of today. His…

  Read more

• 

  • Premium
  • Insights and analysis

  What’s wrong with best practice? How the quest for certainty affects the agility and innovation needed for organisations to thrive

  Friday August 2, 2019

  By Daniel Thornton

  • Editors' Picks

  We see all around us the evidence that science works. For many years there has been an effort to apply scientific thinking to management. In…

  Read more

• 

  Study what makes you unsuccessful, unhappy, broke, unhealthy, stupid. Then, eliminate those things from your life

  Thursday August 1, 2019

  By Darius Foroux

  • Editors' Picks

  Do you really think you’ll be successful if you simply copy what other people do? If that were the case, success would be easy. Here…

  Read more

• 

  • Premium
  • Expert briefings

  Policy models are powerful decisionmaking tools, but backward-looking bias and lax application mean they can also be seductive and misleading

  Thursday August 1, 2019

  By Claire Craig

  • Communications & Technology

  Dr Claire Craig on the potential and the risks of using models in policymaking.

  Read more

• 

  • Premium
  • Case studies

  AI was supposed to help this city recruit staff for local kindergartens. Denied transparency, parents compared results to understand the automated decisionmaking

  Tuesday July 30, 2019

  By Krzysztof Izdebski

  • Communications & Technology

  Krzysztof Izdebski, Policy Director at Poland's ePanstwo Foundation, says citizens and decisionmaking officials are deprived when only companies creating tools for public institutions have the…

  Read more

• 

  National gongs for digital government open to state, territory, local and federal projects

  Monday July 29, 2019

  By The Mandarin

  • Australian Capital Territory

  The Digital Transformation Agency has opened nominations for this year's Australian Digital Government Awards, which have replaced the federal government's ICT awards that were last…

  Read more

• 

  The shared power movement that is reimagining government in Australia and around the globe

  Monday July 29, 2019

  By Adrian Brown

  • Editors' Picks

  From Australia to Illinois, there is a growing recognition that to achieve the best results, governments should recognise the limits of their knowledge and share…

  Read more

• 

  • Premium
  • Insights and analysis

  What do we want our democracy to look like? Globalisation, means of income, and how we govern for the 21st Century

  Saturday July 27, 2019

  By Luca Belgiorno-Nettis

  • Editors' Picks

  There can be many ways to renew a political structure. ‘Renovating Democracy’ grapples with concrete propositions for making 21st Century democracy fit-for-purpose. Without such input,…

  Read more

• 

  • Premium
  • Trends and research

  Service design for public policymakers. The value and challenges of service design in government, from exploring to creating to delivering

  Thursday July 25, 2019

  By Angelica Quicksey

  • Case studies

  Angelica Quicksey explores the tools of service design, the opportunities and challenges such an approach offers in the public sector, as well as how we…

  Read more

• 

  Politics of the unmentionables, part 2: A brief history of legal drugs in modern Australia

  Thursday July 25, 2019

  By Scott Hamilton & Stuart Kells

  • Case studies

  Like sex and death, drugs and alcohol are historical facts of life that have been zones of hot-blooded political debate, but also of genuine bipartisanship.

  Read more

• 

  The beginning of a new chapter for Australia and Papua New Guinea

  Wednesday July 24, 2019

  By The Mandarin

  • Federal

  On 22 July, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Prime Minister James Marape held the inaugural Papua New Guinea-Australia Leaders’ Dialogue. Prime Minister Marape’s visit to…

  Read more

• 

  Freedom of the press and public servants’ obligations -- a reply to Jacinta Carroll

  Tuesday July 23, 2019

  By Andrew Podger

  • Features

  Andrew Podger, former public service commissioner and head of four separate government departments, replies to Jacinta Collins' recent article on press freedom and national security.

  Read more

• 

  The role of the Census in improving local area population estimates

  Monday July 22, 2019

  By Gene Tunny and Nicholas Gruen and Matt Balmford

  • Features

  Imagine how difficult it would be for local government decisionmakers if they were unable to obtain accurate estimates of their local area populations. Lateral Economics'…

  Read more