Distrust of the disability services system is not new. It was a significant driver of change from the previous state-based system to the nationally consistent scheme that the National Disability Insurance Scheme aspires to be. Flavio Souza, Gordon Duff, and David Jonas surveyed 239 eligible NDIS participants and carers about the sources of their distrust of the NDIS and its impact on their choices.

When diseases like the recent coronavirus emerge, public administration can make the difference between containment and major outbreak. The divergent experiences of two Canadian provinces during SARS prove just how important different approaches to planning, resourcing and workers' rights can be.

They measure emissions within a municipal area, such as from cooking with natural gas or driving a car, and emissions from activities within that area that produce emissions somewhere else, such as using electricity from a coal-fired power station or sending rubbish to landfill.

Australia today has more than 8000 quangos, and the recent sports rorts scandal has shone a light on the role of them, their board members, and whether they should call out breaches of public integrity.

Somebody very senior in the Australian Public Service needs to spell out explicitly and publicly that it is never okay for ministers to use federal grants as election slush fund and that it must never be ignored or covered up.

While we obviously need to continue recycling for quite some time, putting the emphasis on genuine circular innovations — that is, moving us away from a waste-based model — should be our sole objective.

New research in Science Advances breaks down the policy issues on which political conservatives and liberals think in zero-sum terms — a black-and-white view of the world where there are only winners and losers. Clark Merrefield reports.

Melbourne Water's award-winning makeover of Dandenong Creek not only broke with tradition in 'daylighting' a piped waterway, but made the community a core stakeholder in planning it. Project lead Sarah Watkins on what made it a success — and why you shouldn't be afraid of the public.

The APS Commissioner's speech delivered to the APS-Wide Conference in Canberra in February 2020. 

With the government’s recent announcement of its plan to start rolling out the Cashless Debit Card beyond its trial phase, thousands of people currently struggling to get by on low rates of the Newstart Allowance are poised to have their lives made even harder.

We think of Gough Whitlam’s Government as the most radical in our post-war history, dedicated to its leader’s ‘crash through or crash’ style. (In the end, it crashed.) But Whitlam’s approach to Australian Honours was bold only on the surface. Imperial Honours were scrapped. So today it’s rare for Australia’s worthies to run round town […]

As grief turns to anger, blame quickly follows. Australia's community spirit has shone through this summer’s disastrous fires, but there is also tension in the air, mixing with the toxic smoke. Fingers are being pointed left, right and centre and the recriminations have gone well beyond the usual cut and thrust of politics, activism and legitimate demands for public accountability. 

A new study led be UNSW Canberra is exploring the links between performance and accountability requirements for social policy capacity.

The Iowa caucus gives Australia an excellent case study in how governments — or political parties, as the case may be — can do literally everything wrong as part of a digital transformation, and be saved, if barely, by an independent failsafe. At least that’s the view of Vanessa Teague, Chair of the Cybersecurity and […]

Scott Hamilton & Stewart Kells notate the dismaying events that have dogged Australia and some that have impacted other parts of the world over the past six months. Here is their timeline. 11-13 November 2019: Australian bushfires: After a warm and dry winter and the driest spring on record, the southern continent is a tinderbox. […]