The reasons for Treasury’s waxing and waning influence on public policy are embedded in the nature of the relationship between the public service and the government of the day — in the fundamentals of the Westminster system in Australia, writes Paul Tilley.
The federal government sensibly linked its ambitions to boost economic development in northern Australia with its Indigenous affairs policies, but a lot of the details about how this works are hidden behind opaque funding arrangements. The key body that links the two federal policies is the Indigenous Reference Group appointed in August 2017 to advise […]
One thing we know about leadership is the danger of blaming an individual when individuals do not work in isolation. That said, witnessing our PM navigate the treacherousness during the bush fires has been (at times) gob-smacking.
Technology is to blame for the spread of misinformation, and it’s making the creation of misinformation cheaper. However, while technology is a contributor to the rise of misinformation, it is also at the core of how we are fighting it, writes Marc Prosser.
With Australian governments looking at new ways of improving aged care, there is great potential for collaboration with the non-profit sector to make assistive technology easier to access, and in a way that is sustainable, and cost-effective.
Dominic Cummings has remarkably conventional views about the shortcomings of the civil service. His challenge will be to make in-roads on those shortcomings where others have failed and to make himself an ally rather than an enemy of the civil service.
Many of the issues that consume legions of public servants and media management time would be a non-event in the US, argues Craig Dalton.
What skills do different policy shops look for in staff? A public management expert, a think tanker, and a consultant-turned-public servant weigh in.
If we know a great deal about something, we close our minds to alternative pathways, we share our knowledge with people who support our opinion and this, in turn, creates confirmation bias, and our creativity is constricted because we think we know what’s possible and dismiss anything that sounds unrealistic. Lyn Carson shoes how to mitigate these realities of being in governance and oversight positions.
The charitable link between homelessness and Christmas is real. But it’s time we got serious about making lasting change. We need more than a day of goodwill. We need a long-term housing strategy and a commitment from across sectors that this can’t continue on our watch.
Last summer, Scott Hamilton and Stuart Kells wrote that Murray-Darling Basin bipartisanship wasn’t new, or strong. Recent events have confirmed that genuine bipartisanship is over, and so is the Murray Darling Basin Plan. This should be a matter of great regret. The Plan certainly has its limitations, but we will be worse off without it, and the bipartisanship it represented.
The corporate consulting firm reported bogus numbers and flailed in a project at Rikers Island. Today, assaults and other attacks there are up almost 50%. In April 2017, partners from McKinsey & Company sent a confidential final report to the New York City corrections commissioner. They had spent almost three years leading an unusual project […]
Andrew Podger says the final Thodey review has many sensible recommendations, but detail is often missing, analysis is weak, and some recommendations reveal a surprising lack of understanding of the public sector.
Working with public servants is an art, not a science, with exceptions and no obvious rules. If you are tactful you can at once retain their goodwill and carry out your job, but to succeed you have to put into it all the skills you possess.
Allan Hawke wades past the leadership fads and fashions that have not worked in Australia to dive deeply into a few timeless lessons that bring out the best employee-engagement levels in organisational workforces.
