The balance of power over knowledge about citizens has undoubtedly shifted from government to business. It's now private organisations such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, and not governments, who hold the lion’s share of information on private people. Audrey Lobo-Pulo discusses the policy implications of this 21st century reality.

Andrew McAfee's new book, More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources — and What Happens Next, offers a thoroughly analytical, brightly optimistic take on technology’s impact on humanity — and a hopeful vision for what lies ahead, writes Vanessa Bates Ramirez.

After a tumultuous Christmas and New Year period, here’s how the government and its returning public servants can expect the new reality to play out.

Having been dubbed through mainstream media one of the most dangerous communities in the world, a collaborative community effort led by Alistair Ferguson has made remarkable progress in reducing Bourke's crime and incarceration rates, creating better-coordinated support for its vulnerable families and children, and reducing the number of its Aboriginal families experiencing high levels of social disadvantage.

Buck-passing is all too easy within a bureaucracy — indeed, in a large organisation governed by rules it is often difficult to fault anyone in particular. Yet when things go really wrong and people’s lives are seriously affected, it’s not enough just to say “it’s complicated”. The community wants to know their complaints have been […]

When it comes to social services, we’re quick to invest in tertiary and emergency responses  but often overlook community-based services that work with people and families to build their resilience and address health and wellbeing issues before a crisis emerges.

The government’s defence of Bridget McKenzie and the prime minister’s call for advice from the head of his department reveal a remarkable misunderstanding (or, less surprisingly, a remarkable misrepresentation) of the respective roles of ministers and administrators. In defending the actions of his deputy, Bridget McKenzie, National Party leader Michael McCormack said: if we only […]

Our big country is full of big things. The Big Banana. The Big Pineapple. The Big Prawn. Big grants programs with large whiteboards, colourful spreadsheets and giant cheques. February 28, 1994 was a big day in Australian politics. Minister Ros Kelly was forced to resign from Paul Keating’s cabinet over the ‘big whiteboard’ sports rorts […]

Some of the most common feedback practices are ineffective — and can even be counter-productive. Management expert Belinda Allen gives her tips on how to take the anxiety out of workplace feedback.

If, as I think, academia has gone from being inefficient but effective to being efficient but ineffective (a proposition I won’t defend here), the mechanism for making the switch was going from embodied cognition to abstract Cartesian cognition, or to be more precise from a rich to a shallow and superficial form of embodied cognition. […]

It is disappointing that the Brits are doing the wrong thing on 5G, having not exhausted other possibilities. Instead they have doubled down on a flawed and outdated cybersecurity model to convince themselves that they can manage the risk that Chinese intelligence services could use Huawei’s access to UK telco networks to insert bad code. […]

Public transport plays a vital role in cities around the world, connecting people to their jobs, schools and communities. The best systems are fast, clean, comfortable and efficient, reliably moving millions of people from home to work and back again every day. But in many developing regions, inadequate public transport depends heavily on ageing fleets […]

2020 is shaping up as a dismal year for the economy, with no progress on many of the key measures that matter for Australians. Unemployment will stay above 5% and probably rise rather than fall. Economic growth will continue to have a “1” in front of it, instead of the “2” or “3” that used […]

Australia Day has been plagued by controversies in recent years, and 2020 has been no different. Contentious issues include whether it is appropriate to celebrate on the day of mourning for our First Nation’s peoples and whether a dress code should be imposed on those attending citizenship ceremonies. The latest controversy centres on who should […]

A key question facing us all after Australia’s unprecedented bushfires is how will we do reconstruction differently? We need to ensure our rebuilding and recovery efforts make us safer, protect our environment and improve our ability to cope with future disasters. Australia could learn from the innovative approach India adopted in 2001 after the nation’s […]