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Special Feature

Urban forests: how trees can fight heatwaves and poor health

by David Donaldson

Climate change and urban development are heating up Australia's cities. Planting trees is one solution being tried by local councils.

Special Feature

Confidence is a long game

by Peter Debus

There will be a brief moment of bad headlines for the government that will soon fade away. But the underlying dynamics don’t change: the slow bleeding of the government’s authority.

Special Feature

What could go wrong when a top public servant moves to the big end of town?

by Verona Burgess

Ken Henry's fall from pedestal to bed of nails was not even cushioned by the sterling contribution he previously made to the public service, says Verona Burgess.

Special Feature

Indigenous evaluation findings: delayed publishing prevented contest of policy

by Stephen Easton

The federal government has finally published a long-awaited evaluation report on the special work-for-the-dole scheme for remote communities, but it’s unclear where it fits into the policy process.

Special Feature

How the Productivity Commission undermines scientific literacy in policy

by Geoffrey Edwards

The absence of a scientific foundation in the PC reports explains why the Australian government itself seems impervious to scientific warnings about the impending collapse of our natural systems.

Special Feature

Is it really a myth that our data isn’t safe?

by The University of Melbourne

New legislation aims to expose the communications of serious criminals, but it might undermine our security too.

Special Feature

The world is run by those who show up

by The University of Melbourne

In this edited extract of the new book The Change Makers, Professor Marcia Langton tells author Shaun Carney that when you do the right thing at the right time, people will later call you a leader. What kind of leader am I, if I’m a leader at all? I am…

Special Feature

Defence mechanisms: why NAB chairman Ken Henry lost his job

by The Conversation

Defensive, some say arrogant, behaviour just cost Ken Henry his job. Between 2001 and 2011 Henry was the highly regarded head of the federal Treasury. He steered Australia through the global financial crisis, led the Henry Tax Review, gave birth to the goods and services tax and the mining tax,…

Special Feature

Is social housing essential infrastructure? How we think about it does matter

by Carlos Monteiro

If we recognised social housing as infrastructure as essential as transport links, schools and hospitals, not properly investing in it could become unthinkable.

Special Feature

What TV comedy The Good Place tells us about why banks and other corporations are in a bad place

by The Conversation

American fantasy-comedy The Good Place has covered some surprisingly similar ground to Australia's banking royal commission.

Special Feature

Black Saturday: bushfire planning as our population grows

by The University of Melbourne

Bushfire planning around our expanding urban environments is crucial for dealing with Australia’s increasing bushfire risk.

Special Feature

Royal commission recommendations: processes to ensure they are implemented

by The Mandarin

How realistic are the prospects of the Hayne Royal Commission’s 76 recommendations being implemented, ask Peter Wilkins and John Phillimore.

Special Feature

OECD: how policymakers can respond to digital transformation’s seven trends

by David Donaldson

A new OECD paper breaks down the policy problems posed by digital transformation and offers a checklist for policymakers coming to grips with it.

Special Feature

Hayne’s failure to tackle bank structure spells another royal commission in a decade or so

by The Conversation

While many of Kenneth Hayne's recommendations are laudable and absolutely necessary, they are not sufficient to end the regular cycle of appalling misconduct and inquiries.

Special Feature

Murray-Darling plan a failure of evidence-based policy and co-operative federalism

by Stephen Easton

Public servants are in the firing line of a caustic final report from the South Australian royal commission into the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, which found the federal agency at the centre of the agreement has acted unlawfully, on “dubious” advice from the Australian Government Solicitor.