Features

Special Feature

How we are transforming for peak performance

by The Mandarin

The public service is not immune to the pressures that exist for all businesses and organisations as we enter into an increasingly complex and digital world. We can’t deny that the future is digital and we need to be ready for that.

Special Feature

Car-free cities: are Australians ready to take back the streets?

by David Donaldson

Australian cities are becoming bigger, noisier and more congested. Would restrictions on cars improve our health and stress levels?

Special Feature

The OECD’s 14 principles for a successful public service

by David Donaldson

The OECD has set out its vision for a well-functioning public service, focusing on three areas: values-driven leadership, skilled and effective public servants, and responsive and adaptive public service employment systems.

Special Feature

The automation, data linkage and digital governance problems facing government agencies

by Peter Leonard

Unaccountable algorithms and out-of-control AI are popular topics of discussion. The more immediate issue, however, is how government agencies will set appropriate boundaries for the sharing and release of the public’s personal data. Government agencies’ handling of sensitive data is rightly the subject of significant concern, most recently fuelled by…

Special Feature

Protecting the world from the threat of pandemics

by The Mandarin

With the increase of global travel and trade, new infections can spread rapidly across countries and continents. The need to prepare pandemic response plans that are both flexible and scalable is an urgent challenge for policy-makers and practitioners.

Special Feature

A digital-ready public service: learning from Canada

by David Donaldson

Governments around the world face problems attracting and retaining staff with digital skills. A Canadian report provides some ideas.

Special Feature

Michael Pezzullo’s seven gathering storms: national security in the 2020s

by Michael Pezzullo

Top Home Affairs official, Michael Pezzullo, says he has seen "a dark kaleidoscope of future stormy possibilities" which threaten a great cost on the nation, but Australia has seen and dealt with these types of challenges before.

Special Feature

No more long knives: bring back permanent secretaries, argues 1980s Treasury dep sec

by Stephen Easton

Former Westpac chief executive and Hawke-era Treasury deputy secretary David Morgan has added his voice to those who argue the Australian Public Service needs leaders who don’t fear the axe.

Special Feature

Guy Debelle: climate change and the economy

by The Mandarin

The Reserve Bank will now factor climate change is as a "key policy concern" in monetary policy deliberations, says Deputy Governor Guy Debelle.

Special Feature

Advice from the information security giants: employee awareness is the best weapon

by Stephen Easton

When data breaches and cyber attacks hit the news, the focus is usually on who is behind them, but it is often basic security mistakes made within organisations that allow them to happen.

Special Feature

Handling the ‘pariah’ policy of climate change

by Verona Burgess

Many agencies integrate disaster and climate “resilience” into their policies, programs and asset management. But that doesn’t mean Australia is any closer to deciding on let alone committing to a long-term policy for handling climate change, says Verona Burgess.

Special Feature