Premium Insights and analysis For public servants, the future of the national cabinet means adapting to centralised power and engineering accountability Monday December 7, 2020 By Chris Woods Australian Capital Territory The establishment of the national cabinet as first a crisis, and ultimately permanent, body has presented the most radical change to Australia's intergovernmental cooperation structures…
Premium The Briefing The Briefing: Donald Trump’s stacking of the US public sector is on another level than local efforts, but only just Thursday November 19, 2020 By Chris Woods Editors' Picks While Donald Trump's last-minute effort to stack America's public sector is on its own level of cronyism, it is not wholly distinct from efforts by…
Australia seeing a ‘creep’ in political public service appointments, ex deputy secretary warns Wednesday November 18, 2020 By Shannon Jenkins Federal Stephen Bartos, Lucy Turnbull and Geoff Gallop discussed the key events and issues that have defined 2020 for the final Mandarin Talks event for the…
Premium The Select Committee Is this Australia’s opportunity to reset? – The Select Committee Monday September 28, 2020 By Chris Johnson Economy & Industry With the federal budget almost upon us, we have asked members of our brains trust whether it is time for a reset. What is likely…
Premium The Select Committee Define the public interest – The Select Committee Tuesday September 1, 2020 By Chris Johnson Editors' Picks This instalment of The Select Committee includes comment from our whole brains trust – the entire nine-member panel. And while we were acutely aware of…
Premium The Select Committee Public policy perfection – The Select Committee Tuesday July 21, 2020 By Chris Johnson Thought Leadership Would you accept that there is no such thing as a perfect public policy — or, if not, would you agree with the contention that…
Premium Columnists Randomness still deserves respect Friday July 17, 2020 By Stephen Bartos Community & Social There is an element of randomness to hotspots and lockdowns. If not the Crossroads Hotel, another COVID-19 cluster might have sprung up somewhere else in…
The nine policy experts answering the burning questions facing public sector leaders Tuesday June 16, 2020 By Shannon Jenkins News With nine members from a range of backgrounds, including Lucy Turnbull, Geoff Gallop, and Richard Bolt, the Select Committee provides comment and insight into key…
Premium The Select Committee Introducing The Select Committee – The Mandarin Brains Trust Thursday June 11, 2020 By Chris Johnson Editors' Picks The Mandarin has asked nine highly skilled high achievers to form a panel we are calling The Select Committee. These people are huge contributors to…
Premium Expert briefings An Australian constitution written in the late 1800s doesn’t cope well with modern challenges Thursday April 2, 2020 By Stephen Bartos Communications & Technology Our constitution is a product of its times. It gives the commonwealth responsibilities that mattered nationally in the late 1800s, like “lighthouses, lightships, beacons and…
Census boycott would hurt public policymaking across government Friday August 5, 2016 By Myriam Robin and David Donaldson Editors' Picks Privacy concerns around next Tuesday's Census have led to calls for a boycott. Partial or false data risks interrupting records on everything from inequality to…
Ethics in program evaluation Tuesday October 6, 2015 By Stephen Easton Features Ethics, as it applies to any research involving humans, cannot be ignored by public servants running policy and program evaluations. But if the slow process…
"Fat cats": NSW public sector cuts revealed Tuesday March 24, 2015 By Harley Dennett News Both parties will make deep cuts to the public sector in their path to a budget surplus. Now fully costed, the parties have come clean…
Is it a good time to be a public servant? Young professionals debate Friday August 29, 2014 By Stephen Easton News The dark humour and veiled optimism of the public sector was on display in a no-names-mentioned debate in Canberra last night. It is not, apparently,…
A-G's union demands a partisan play public sector is used to Wednesday July 30, 2014 By Stephen Easton News A search for information on unions could have a negative effect on the relationship between the federal government and a public service already being asked…
