Closing the gap in the Indigenous business sector
In the past, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been excluded from the mainstream economy. But today, Indigenous people are choosing business as a… Read More
Jurisdiction
Australia ranks fifth on public service effectiveness
The Australian Public Service is the fifth-most effective civil service in the world, according to an index of 38 countries. Read More
A guide to setting up a What Works evidence centre and surmounting its challenges
As What Works centres mature and grow in the UK, and the movement spreads internationally, there will be more lessons to be learned and shared. Jonathan Breckon and Dr Robyn Mildon outline some common issues for anybody setting up a new evidence centre. Read More
Victorian public sector wages policy draws anger from one union, silence from another
The Victorian government’s somewhat confusing new public sector wages policy, which came into effect last Wednesday, has met an angry response from the Australian Services… Read More
The perils of caretaker period: alleged breach by DAWR used to justify judicial inquest
The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources is now in line for extra scrutiny along with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, if there is a change of government, after intervening in the politically charged controversy over a certain $79 million water buy-back during caretaker period. Read More
Psychedelics to treat mental illness? Australian researchers are giving it a go
Australia needs a paradigm shift in the way we treat mental illness. Scientific research is increasingly pointing to psychedelic drugs like psilocybin and MDMA (commonly known as Ecstasy) as viable options. Read More
Ocean waves and winds are getting higher and stronger
New measurements show that global average wave conditions are increasing but, more importantly, extreme wave conditions are increasing even more rapidly with the largest increases occurring in the Southern Ocean. Read More
House prices and demographics make death duties an idea whose time has come
It’s hard to tell what’s happening to the distribution of wealth in Australia. Since death duties went, Australian income inequality has climbed, with the standard measure (known as the Gini coefficient) climbing from 0.27 to 0.32 between 1982 and 2016 on a scale where a result of zero would mean income was equally shared and a result of 1 would mean one person earned all the income. Read More
Lawyers, guns, money – and politics, part 1
The first article in a three-part series on the formulation of Australia’s firearms policy; Australia finds itself at a gun-law crossroads after the Port Arthur mass murder. Read More
New leaders for WA Conservation Commission
Professor Chris Doepel PSM has been appointed chair of Western Australia's Conservation and Parks Commission. Read More
Labor argues federal flood-recovery agency a needless layer of bureaucracy
Shadow agriculture minister Joel Fitzgibbon says the federal government's North Queensland flood-recovery office is a needless "layer of time-eating bureaucracy" and the salary of its head, former Liberal Party federal president Shane Stone, would be better spent directly by the state government. Read More
The Centre for Strategy and Governance shares its views (succinctly and politely) on the APS Review
What do former mandarins think about the Australian Public Service Review so far? Quite a lot, and not all of it is flattering. Read More
Shrinking middle class threatening social stability, warns OECD
The middle class across the developed world is shrinking as incomes fail to keep up with housing and other costs of living, says the OECD. Read More
Katarina Carroll named Queensland’s first female police commissioner
Katarina Carroll will take over as Queensland’s new police commissioner from Ian Stewart. Read More
Is your child lonely at school?
Emerging research suggests that we are now facing a global loneliness epidemic among our young people. In fact, young people are now reporting feelings of loneliness more frequently than those of their parents or grandparents. Read More