Premium

The essential resource for effective public sector leaders

Insights and analysis

How to tell the difference between persuasion and manipulation (hint: intention is everything)

Culture

Calling someone manipulative is a criticism of that person’s character. Saying that you have been manipulated is a complaint about having been treated badly. Manipulation…

Interviews

Mary Ann O’Loughlin: how I fell in love with policy-making, and figured out what works and the evil problems that don’t

By Martin Stewart-Weeks

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

Time to flip our thinking on mental health reform — or are we too jaded for that? Angus Clelland on the progress of mental health services

By Angus Clelland

Editors' Picks

Interviews

Simon Cooper on the new public sector skills needed to match the speed, scale, and intensity of Australia’s digital transformation

By Peter Debus

Communications & Technology

Columnists

The mega department is back, and with it age-forgotten challenges. Executives must learn to manage division synergies, multiple ministers and diverging agendas

By Bernard Keane

Editors' Picks

Interviews

Federal public servants will soon have a ‘responsibility to share’ data for public benefit, but they need to lean on the experts and be careful not to overreach

By Stephen Easton

Federal

Insights and analysis

Cross-government collaboration by civil servants, for civil servants. Tips and tricks from collaborators that will help you turn visions into reality

By Thea Snow

Features

Expert briefings

‘Magic’ policy transformation happens at the intersection of traditional sectors and digitalisation, and is why on-the-ground procurement behaviours differ between Australia and the UK

By Elizabeth Vega

Economy & Industry

Insights and analysis

Are we wise enough (smart enough) to survive our own success? If so, how can we all get along better? Practicing tolerance in the Age of Stupid

By Richard Hames

Culture

Interviews

Miriam Vogel delivered implicit bias training for Obama. Now she guides AI developers: ‘Many more lives are impacted by the bias of that black box’

By David Donaldson

Communications & Technology

Trends and research

An ableist public service? How to shift the underemployment of people with disability in the Australian Public Sector

By Paul Williamson

Editors' Picks

Trends and research

Why a 7% disability employment target for the APS really means a greater sense of inclusion and psychological safety

By Stephen Easton

Community & Social

Columnists

What contribution can an ad hoc inquiry make, anyway? Something to ponder while ‘Waiting for Thodey’

By J.R. Nethercote

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

David Kalisch needed to transform ABS’s leadership, strategy and delivery. How the organisation learned to continuously improve and maintain focus in a maelstrom of misunderstandings

By David Kalisch

Editors' Picks

Case studies

Case study: how not to hire a public service leader from the private sector (or: How a highly respected CEO of a venerable NGO learned about politics the hard way)

By Stephen Easton

Health

Insights and analysis

Australians don’t want to blow up their democracy, they want to save it. Commonwealth, state and local government working together is key to repairing the democratic vessel

By Terry Moran

Editors' Picks

Interviews

Bringing Islamic State survivors to the UN: Obama’s ambassador Samantha Power on breaking out of bureaucratic isolation

By David Donaldson

Features

Expert briefings

Magic concepts in policymaking — beware the appeal of ‘fix all’ ideas, and spend time on the details

By David Donaldson

Features

Columnists

APS State of the Service: a welcome return to a quality report despite some pre-Thodey verbal gymnastics

By Verona Burgess

Editors' Picks

Case studies

Project leaders need to deal with a little messiness. What to expect when designing (or redesigning) a digital service

By David Donaldson

Communications & Technology

Insights and analysis

Ancient perspectives, modern policy: why we need more Indigenous senior public servants, and how strong political leadership could make it happen

By Stephen Easton

Community & Social

Case studies

How community engagement can bring together citizens and policymakers to urgently address climate change

By Sally Hussey

Case studies

Interviews

‘Technology is the easy part’: innovation needs workplace cultures where smart people can ask dumb questions, says Sam Hannah-Rankin

By David Donaldson

Features

Insights and analysis

Space Agency chief Dr Megan Clark on providing influential advice to government: tell them what the public really thinks

By Stephen Easton

Features

Insights and analysis

Are you ready for the challenge of a post-growth world? How overconsumption and low growth will impact future public policy and decide society’s well-being

By Martin Hensher

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

Powerless to prevent catastrophic bushfires? No, we’re not. We can stop bushfires from occurring with community involvement

By Paul Read

Australian Capital Territory

Insights and analysis

Taking the sting out of health infrastructure and reform. How investing in soft infrastructure supports front-line innovation into cost-effective, affordable healthcare

By Andrew Searles

Features

Interviews

Understand the context and motivations behind the minister’s request, recommends Gillard CoS Ben Hubbard — and don’t be an ‘adviser denier’

By David Donaldson

Features

Columnists

Standing between politicians and barrels of pork: why strong and sound processes are a must

By Verona Burgess

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

The ‘dominant, powerful, charismatic individual who breaks the rules’: corrupt senior executives — why do they do it?

By David Donaldson

Features

Interviews

Mike Pratt on everything it takes to make customer service and satisfaction a central part of government — especially the need to be authentic

By Martin Stewart-Weeks

Features

Trends and research

Progress and adoption of AI governance across the world is varied. An Office for AI could help Australia harness artificial intelligence

By Mike Erskine

Communications & Technology

Expert briefings

In the driver’s seat, with an outdated map: pre-empting how consumers use vehicle automation would be a mistake, but so would be waiting too long

By Sean Innis & Ryan Young

Features

Interviews

Are ministerial staff untamable? Peter Hughes’ creative solution allowing political advisers to do their politics while respecting neutrality of public servants

By Peter Debus

Features

Interviews

From rules and manuals, to Better Public Services and a spirit of service: you say you want a revolution, but maybe evolution is better

By Peter Debus

Features

Case studies

Information is power and it’s time to share: from exploring the human genome to managing Sydney’s congested roads, cloud-computing is helping democratise data and its analysis

By Stephen Easton

Case studies

Expert briefings

Strategies on anti-money laundering have failed. Here’s how well meaning policies of conscience and coercion locked in systematic failure of anti-laundering laws

By Ronald F Pol

Economy & Industry

Case studies

Innovating for customers: putting senior staff in front of citizens brings unexpected discoveries and undercuts silos

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Case studies

From mountains of paper to fully online case management: what the Victorian Supreme Court’s digital transformation taught Justice James Elliott about leading IT projects

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Insights and analysis

‘We’ve hollowed out policy advice’: Glyn Davis weighs in on pending Thodey report and planning for an unpredictable future in the public service

By Shannon Jenkins

Editors' Picks

Case studies

Rebecca Brown reflects on WA’s health system reform: invest time in stakeholders, and call in systems thinkers

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Trends and research

From government policy to algorithms to medical research focus — where are the women? A review of Caroline Criado Perez’s ‘Invisible Women’

By Felicity Neale

Community & Social

Expert briefings

How to change the world with HR: tips on taking people management to the next level from the new APS head of profession and her corporate-affairs counterparts

By Stephen Easton

Features

Columnists

The good, the bad, and the ugly ways of explaining oneself in a Senate estimates committee; Wong on song

By Verona Burgess

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

Innovation: a little less conversation, a little more action. How to make innovation something we do, not just something we talk about

By Brenton Caffin

Editors' Picks

Case studies

How regulators are responding to water theft — and even watching irrigators from space

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Insights and analysis

Good money after bad: six reasons why governments ignore evidence of service failure — and how to do better

By David Donaldson

Features

Expert briefings

What improving IT procurement in the public sector looks like: navigating, balancing, and initiating procurement conversations to avoid sprinting off cliffs

By Pia Andrews

Features

Columnists

When you’ve got a case of policy-based evidence rather than evidence-based policy — and other service-delivery challenges

By Verona Burgess

Editors' Picks

Case studies

Following America’s own robodebt scandal, New Mexico took a different path to tackling welfare fraud. It was just the ticket

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Expert briefings

Facts aren’t cure-alls, but they still matter. The new skills needed for dealing with a hugely changed flow of information and its impact on perception

By Bobby Duffy

Community & Social

Case studies

How the award winning YourSAy platform works to better engage South Australians. By realising scale efficiencies it helps agencies reach wide

By Victoria Draudins

Case studies

Expert briefings

Open data is fine, but sharing more data won’t solve all problems. What you need to do data properly

By Pia Andrews

Communications & Technology

Interviews

Collaboration, consultation and civility: what Verity Firth learnt about contending with commercial lobbying when trying to deliver public health policy

By Becky Freeman

Features

Insights and analysis

If you can bridge the gap in government silos, you might be a boundary spanner. Here are the seven skills you need to collaborate in government

By Thea Snow

Features

Case studies

How Victoria’s award-winning prescription monitoring system SafeScript is fighting overdose — and won over the AMA

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Insights and analysis

Most social media platforms weren’t designed for public engagement on policy. How to create media platforms that can ride democracy’s digital highway

By Audrey Lobo-Pulo

Communications & Technology

Interviews

Peter Shergold was the accidental public servant. Apprenticed to a titan at the age of 40, he learned to lead through listening. His own legacy is the reimagining of public impact

By Martin Stewart-Weeks

Editors' Picks

Case studies

Data analytics that sits on a shelf isn’t useful to anyone. How Brad Petry used ‘lighthouse’ projects, based on front-line needs, to make an impact and demonstrate value

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Columnists

Transforming public policy for the 21st century: how the NSW Government Policy Lab learned to use modern design methods to create more user-friendly solutions

By Pia Andrews

Editors' Picks

Columnists

Cans of worms and what the Auditor-General is thinking of digging up next. The hints are there for the taking

By Verona Burgess

Features

Interviews

Practice saying no and stop under-rating implementation, says Fran Thorn. Then, learn how to convince everyone your idea is not entirely stupid

By David Donaldson

Features

Case studies

Regulatory capture: did we need a royal commission to bust it wide open? Adele Ferguson says you can bank on it

By Felicity Neale

Economy & Industry

Insights and analysis

When we code the rules on which our society runs, we can create better results and new opportunities for the public and regulators, and companies looking to make compliance easier

By Tim de Sousa & Pia Andrews

Communications & Technology

Insights and analysis

Speaking truth to power: Shergold’s final speech touts importance of professional public servants in a world of weakened democracy

By Peter Shergold

Features

Columnists

Deep links between the private sector and Defence have been to the nation’s benefit. But it’s complicated. The department has expanded its toolbox to manage this ‘revolving door’

By Bernard Keane

Defence

Expert briefings

Garran Oration 2019: Mick Dodson has seen the public service struggle with change and Indigenous decision-making, but there’s no need to be afraid

By Mick Dodson

Culture

Insights and analysis

What’s the most effective way to motivate staff? Performance pay schemes are trending again, but Allan Hawke saw distorted results

By Allan Hawke

Australian Capital Territory

Insights and analysis

Public servants tell harrowing tales of harassment after a mention in an FOI release. Their leaders want to shield them from the trolls, but anonymity comes with a price

By Stephen Easton

Features

Columnists

Is long-term policymaking dead? Drop the nostalgia and get your hands dirty with detailed dialogue and design. This is the new advisory model of public service

By Richard Bolt

Education

Expert briefings

Integrate chatbots into your other systems to make them useful for customers, and don’t assume they’ll replace humans

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Insights and analysis

Transform support functions for the digital age. Capitalising on the potential for faster, leaner reporting means letting go of the old ways and welcoming the new

By Olaf Rehse

Communications & Technology

Interviews

Setting up a social impact bond requires thinking through many barriers around data and measuring success. Amy Auster is stewarding two rollouts with an eye to early intervention

By David Donaldson

Features

Columnists

The successful ACT senior secondary colleges have reached an evolutionary crossroads that may lead to their demise. Can they be revitalised – or will they face a ‘gale of creative destruction’?

By Verona Burgess

Australian Capital Territory

Insights and analysis

Learn to live with uncertainty, and other tips on public sector governance and leadership. Sometimes you have to push back and take a stand for due process, but it’s getting harder

By Stephen Easton

Features

Interviews

Emily Phillips leads a highly distributed, highly visible agency. Finding the breathing space for innovation has taken contemporary leadership, strategy and partners

By David Donaldson

Features

Insights and analysis

Departmental media staff have an important job to do, but have been muzzled. Inside the public service, information spinners have stopped. Here’s how it happened

By Bernard Keane & Jennine Khalik

Engagement

Expert briefings

“I have read and agree to the (long, boring and incomprehensible) terms and conditions”. How to get people to read and understand the privacy notices you coerce them into signing

By Ravi Dutta-Powell

Communications & Technology

Case studies

Reentry to work is a challenge, but sponsors and preparation make it easier. How Victorian public servants are returning after parental leave

By Shannon Jenkins

Case studies

Expert briefings

More collaborative workplaces have come at a price: knowledge workers who can’t think in the buzz of an open-plan office. Researchers are pinpointing the ideal level of noise to stay focused

By Stephen Easton

Features

Interviews

The ABS’s chief methodologist on the common pitfalls of using data and why fishing makes him better at work

By David Donaldson

Features

Interviews

What exactly does a chief resilience officer do? Bringing stakeholders together to address the stresses and crises faced by our cities

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Expert briefings

Mental health tends to be something organisations sweep under the rug. Here are three questions to ask to gauge how mentally healthy your workplace is

By Camille Wilson

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

The media loves a good bureaucrat beat-up. Don’t be a victim: these are the mistakes public servants make with journalists

By Harley Dennett

Engagement

Expert briefings

Design thinking is about creating repeatable processes for harnessing human creativity. How to write and communicate a spot-on mission statement for government

By Benjamin Teed

Editors' Picks

Insights and analysis

Geoff Gallop on learning from how Australia advanced its thinking on First Peoples in the past, and can maybe learn how to do reform again

By Geoff Gallop

Editors' Picks

Insights and analysis

Data sharing reforms are taking shape and federal agencies need to get up to speed. Expect new powers, new responsibilities and cultural change

By Stephen Easton

Communications & Technology

Expert briefings

To ensure nobody was left behind, Steven Kennedy opened his department doors to dozens of partner organisations. Digital services alone couldn’t reach all in need

By Stephen Easton

Community & Social

Insights and analysis

We have a collective responsibility to build environments in which children thrive. Here are five ways to work differently with families to help keep kids safe

By Annette Michaux

Australian Capital Territory

Columnists

Without a holistic architecture of service delivery, citizens miss out on coordinated and suitable responses to their particular welfare needs

By Verona Burgess

Australian Capital Territory

Case studies

How to avoid your dream job turning out to be a nightmare ⁠— know what you want at work beyond the fancy title

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Interviews

Early career advice: maintain your work connections and play 'the mind game' if you want to get your ideas in front of senior staff

By David Donaldson

Features

Case studies

Transitioning into government, advisers behaving badly and other dangers of public sector work, in Michael Lewis' 'The Fifth Risk'

By Peter Debus

Case studies

Interviews

Sarah Pearson on leadership: how to inculcate innovation into the public sector, take risks, create impact, and remain an optimist

By Martin Stewart-Weeks

Editors' Picks

Insights and analysis

How to navigate transformation and disruption in the public sector. Leave an enduring legacy of improvement by knowing your audience

By Shannon Jenkins

Features

Interviews

Private sector recruits don't have 'mystical powers', and have actually been responsible for many policy disasters. Why Simon Phemister still believes in 'frank and fearless'

By David Donaldson

Features

Insights and analysis

Accountability in the age of the artificial: seven ways data analytics undermines it, and 10 ways to maintain it

By Fiona McLeod

Features

Insights and analysis

Accountability in the age of the artificial: how can we make sure AI is our saviour, and not the enemy of the people?

By Fiona McLeod

Features

Expert briefings

The gap between assumptions and reality is a policymaker’s risk. To bridge it, you need a research goal and the right questions to ask

By Charles Lambdin

Features

Case studies

Advancing gender equality in Victoria Police took asking the right questions to unearth the surprising barriers holding back progress

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Insights and analysis

What to do when your minister’s policy range is less than what’s demanded of the role. Engage with them at every opportunity to build trust and create an echo chamber

By Shannon Jenkins

Features

Expert briefings

R&D is in the DNA of every policy person, not just a specialised few. Critics of using human-centred design for policy are missing a golden opportunity

By Kirsty Elderton

Editors' Picks

Insights and analysis

New in government, you are? Succeed and make an impact by mastering perspective before skill. Think, observe — only then, do

By Joseph Maltby

Editors' Picks

Case studies

Jay Weatherill on where the SA nuclear citizens’ jury went wrong — what were the lessons from this innovative consultation process?

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Expert briefings

You’ve stuffed up, now what? How owning and admitting to mistakes can return you to power and strength

By Sue Parker

Editors' Picks

Columnists

Doyens of the Canberra bubble gather to hear Prime Minister ScoMo give the APS its orders, while Yarralumla fills with sunshine

By Verona Burgess

Features

Insights and analysis

The tale of the bold Belgian bureaucrat: how to create preferred workplaces and a loyal workforce by rejecting old school management styles

By Stephen Easton

Features

Insights and analysis

The policy futurist’s reading list. How speculative fiction can inform better public policy as our society changes and grows in response to new tech

By Tim de Sousa

Communications & Technology

Case studies

Disability applicants to the Victorian Public Service graduate program quadrupled this year. Here's how they did it

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Case studies

New Zealand's wellbeing budget has attracted plenty of attention. Is it a new paradigm or just clever marketing?

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Expert briefings

Opening up data has transformed service delivery. It lets us reframe the conversation about how services could be delivered simply through better access to information

By Allan Barger

Communications & Technology

Insights and analysis

Ethical AI and government: how guiding machine learning projects with principles will help prevent tech solutions turning into unintended problems

By Harley Dennett

Features

Columnists

You cannot administer government policy and relentlessly criticise it online. Governments, whatever you think of them, have to be able to trust public servants

By Bernard Keane

Features

Insights and analysis

For genuine collaboration with Indigenous communities on policy, government must change how it regards Indigenous public servants, representation, control and mutual learning

By Catherine Althaus

Culture

Case studies

The UK’s Policy Lab is using co-design and games to rethink both the solutions and problems of government — without a budget

By David Donaldson

Case studies

Insights and analysis

Grappling with customer-centricity, the energy sector is recalibrating how it consults with stakeholders. Regulators can facilitate choices efficiently by aligning conflicting interests

By Victoria Draudins

Economy & Industry

Columnists

Auditors take your seats! Old money becomes new money when it’s time to pay out election promises

By Verona Burgess

Economy & Industry

Interviews

Richard Di Natale: cooperating on policy. You won't get anywhere if you assume you can't have open and frank conversation with people. I haven’t been burnt yet

By Scott Hamilton & Stuart Kells

Editors' Picks

Insights and analysis

Peter Costello on the independence of the public service 'view', the future of policy advice, and when Treasury secretaries were treated harshly

By Peter Costello

Editors' Picks

Columnists

Richard Bolt on dealing with corruption when it's in your own executive. Why it happens, and what he learned about the duty to protect the agency

By Richard Bolt

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

Writing a form sounds simple, but isn't. Public servants must balance readability and logic with the needs of complex policy and legislation

By Stephen Easton

Communications & Technology

Insights and analysis

The great Treasury juggle: providing the minister with fearless advice (even if it causes discomfort), while keeping the government's political strategists happy

By Paul Tilley

Features

Insights and analysis

Government-stored data can pose a threat to human rights. Educating the public about their own 'data hygiene' is a first step, while legislation catches up

By Shannon Jenkins

Communications & Technology

Insights and analysis

What’s wrong with best practice? How the quest for certainty affects the agility and innovation needed for organisations to thrive

By Daniel Thornton

Editors' Picks

Columnists

The APS needs to radically and quickly overhaul what 'service delivery' means to them. That should start with genuinely listening to their front-line people

By Verona Burgess

Features

Expert briefings

Policy models are powerful decisionmaking tools, but backward-looking bias and lax application mean they can also be seductive and misleading

By Claire Craig

Communications & Technology

Interviews

Government and startups don't speak the same language. Kate Cornick helps them help each other, improving services and keeping jobs local

By David Donaldson

Communications & Technology

Case studies

AI was supposed to help this city recruit staff for local kindergartens. Denied transparency, parents compared results to understand the automated decisionmaking

By Krzysztof Izdebski

Communications & Technology

Interviews

Craig Ritchie sees the mistakes public servants make working with Indigenous communities. How he finds policy and delivery success in 'me knowing you and you knowing me'

By David Donaldson

Features

Insights and analysis

What do we want our democracy to look like? Globalisation, means of income, and how we govern for the 21st Century

By Luca Belgiorno-Nettis

Editors' Picks

Insights and analysis

Trust makes the world go round. As a business asset, rebuild it with competence, care and 'a little bit of good each day'

By Bob McMullan & Sean Innis

Community & Social

Trends and research

Service design for public policymakers. The value and challenges of service design in government, from exploring to creating to delivering

By Angelica Quicksey

Case studies

Expert briefings

The pitfalls you'll face in regulatory startups. Finding staff; ministerial panic; evaluation ... 'IT is simultaneously a minefield and a black hole'

By David Donaldson

Features

Columnists

The key to coexisting peacefully and effectively with political staffers is simple: each of you should understand the other's role

By Bernard Keane

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

Are you investing as much into psychological safety as physical safety? If you don’t know, it might be time to start

By Camille Wilson

People & Capability

Interviews

'Licensed to operate differently' ― How Adrian Turner achieves large-scale digital innovation with porous boundaries and multi-disciplinary teams

By Stephen Easton

Features

Expert briefings

Economics influences policy ― but only when the numbers make sense. Jenny Wilkinson has three key tips that are often overlooked

By David Donaldson

Career Matters

Interviews

Steve Hodgkinson is banning 'stupid digital stuff'. Relentless incrementalism, empowered staff and reusable platforms allow for cheap, fast 'micro services' that users love

By David Donaldson

Communications & Technology

Expert briefings

A digital government twin can model effects of change over time. It could teach us what structures worked and what didn't, optimising machinery of government

By Allan Barger

Communications & Technology

Interviews

Underperformance in the public sector is difficult and painful: Linda Waugh talks about how to guide and advise a way through it

By Verona Burgess

Features

Trends and research

They break the rules, disrupt norms, can't promise ROI. Why risk an innovation project? Here's how to know when you've added value

By Harley Dennett

Features

Expert briefings

Effective public servants need nuanced understanding of politics, what drives their minister and government. Geoff Gallop offers eleven theses on Australian politics in practice

By Geoff Gallop

Editors' Picks

Case studies

It was an unfortunate mishap. Things went badly wrong. Here's how an Incident Command System can prevent nasty events happening again

By Joshua Sharfstein

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

How Collective Impact is helping solve our most pernicious problems: breaking down the isolated agendas of stakeholders and realigning incentives

By Victoria Draudins

Community & Social

Expert briefings

In Argentina, public servants get promoted for learning how to innovate. For every class taken, a public servant earns points towards a pay rise

By Jennifer Guay

Editors' Picks

Expert briefings

You can start anywhere, you can end anywhere. Elanor Huntington is rethinking career journeys, skills and attributes to beat global challenges

By Stephen Easton

Economy & Industry

Case studies

In the trenches, winning the battle to reduce violence against women is a daily, brick-by-brick process

By Stephen Easton

Case studies

Expert briefings

Genuine mental health case ... or not? If you think an employee is lying, here's what you need to ask yourself first

By Camille Wilson

Features

Expert briefings

Most people don’t have enough time in their lives. Here's how government can help them get some of it back

By Lyndall Strazdins & Sean Innis

Features

Expert briefings

Your ethical reputation is your most valuable professional asset. So how do you build the right muscles to protect it?

By Attracta Lagan

Features

Trends and research

Toxic leaders and how to get over them once they’re gone … innovation labs and design thinking ... making services that work for people ...

By Harley Dennett

News

Interviews

Gill Callister on ethics, female leadership and how to manage a department through a messy public corruption scandal

By David Donaldson

Education

Columnists

Ministers are powerful and important, but they need support to do their jobs better. Trust in our democracy demands it

By Bob McMullan & Sean Innis

Features

Expert briefings

Using 'challenge prizes' to develop great innovation policy. It's not about the winners, but diverse solutions to a well-defined problem

By Tris Dyson and Oliver Cansdell

Features

Interviews

Blending in wasn't going to work for Carmel McGregor. Now she mentors those with vision, not just personal ambition

By Verona Burgess

Editors' Picks

Columnists

Announcing an ambitious new addition to The Mandarin

By Zoe Dattner

News

Trends and research

How citizens value their own data ... why Facebook gets away with privacy controls ... the value of enterprise architecture … where power lies ...

By Harley Dennett

News

Columnists

How do you handle a crisis in government? Start with contingency planning, then get ready to take your blinkers off

By Richard Bolt

Editors' Picks

Case studies

Australia's top librarian tells how the National Library fosters a culture of in-house innovation. In two words: 'radical incrementalism'

By Stephen Easton

Editors' Picks

Latest Articles

Thodey report: capability reviews coming, ASL cap scrap rejected

By Shannon Jenkins

WA public servant charged with corruption

By Shannon Jenkins

Vic gov offers counselling, recompense for police staff who’ve faced sexual harassment

By Shannon Jenkins

The federal government’s response to the ACCC’s Digital Platforms Inquiry is a let down

By The Conversation

Culture is defined by the actions of managers — or lack thereof

By Colin Ellis

Premium

The essential resource for effective public sector leaders

How to tell the difference between persuasion and manipulation (hint: intention is everything)

Categories

Mary Ann O’Loughlin: how I fell in love with policy-making, and figured out what works and the evil problems that don’t

The essential resource for effective public sector leaders

Time to flip our thinking on mental health reform — or are we too jaded for that? Angus Clelland on the progress of mental health services

Simon Cooper on the new public sector skills needed to match the speed, scale, and intensity of Australia’s digital transformation

The mega department is back, and with it age-forgotten challenges. Executives must learn to manage division synergies, multiple ministers and diverging agendas

Federal public servants will soon have a ‘responsibility to share’ data for public benefit, but they need to lean on the experts and be careful not to overreach

Cross-government collaboration by civil servants, for civil servants. Tips and tricks from collaborators that will help you turn visions into reality

‘Magic’ policy transformation happens at the intersection of traditional sectors and digitalisation, and is why on-the-ground procurement behaviours differ between Australia and the UK

Are we wise enough (smart enough) to survive our own success? If so, how can we all get along better? Practicing tolerance in the Age of Stupid

Miriam Vogel delivered implicit bias training for Obama. Now she guides AI developers: ‘Many more lives are impacted by the bias of that black box’

An ableist public service? How to shift the underemployment of people with disability in the Australian Public Sector

Why a 7% disability employment target for the APS really means a greater sense of inclusion and psychological safety

What contribution can an ad hoc inquiry make, anyway? Something to ponder while ‘Waiting for Thodey’

David Kalisch needed to transform ABS’s leadership, strategy and delivery. How the organisation learned to continuously improve and maintain focus in a maelstrom of misunderstandings

Case study: how not to hire a public service leader from the private sector (or: How a highly respected CEO of a venerable NGO learned about politics the hard way)

Australians don’t want to blow up their democracy, they want to save it. Commonwealth, state and local government working together is key to repairing the democratic vessel

Bringing Islamic State survivors to the UN: Obama’s ambassador Samantha Power on breaking out of bureaucratic isolation

Magic concepts in policymaking — beware the appeal of ‘fix all’ ideas, and spend time on the details

APS State of the Service: a welcome return to a quality report despite some pre-Thodey verbal gymnastics

Project leaders need to deal with a little messiness. What to expect when designing (or redesigning) a digital service

Ancient perspectives, modern policy: why we need more Indigenous senior public servants, and how strong political leadership could make it happen

How community engagement can bring together citizens and policymakers to urgently address climate change

‘Technology is the easy part’: innovation needs workplace cultures where smart people can ask dumb questions, says Sam Hannah-Rankin

Space Agency chief Dr Megan Clark on providing influential advice to government: tell them what the public really thinks

Are you ready for the challenge of a post-growth world? How overconsumption and low growth will impact future public policy and decide society’s well-being

Powerless to prevent catastrophic bushfires? No, we’re not. We can stop bushfires from occurring with community involvement

Taking the sting out of health infrastructure and reform. How investing in soft infrastructure supports front-line innovation into cost-effective, affordable healthcare

Understand the context and motivations behind the minister’s request, recommends Gillard CoS Ben Hubbard — and don’t be an ‘adviser denier’

Standing between politicians and barrels of pork: why strong and sound processes are a must

The ‘dominant, powerful, charismatic individual who breaks the rules’: corrupt senior executives — why do they do it?

Mike Pratt on everything it takes to make customer service and satisfaction a central part of government — especially the need to be authentic

Progress and adoption of AI governance across the world is varied. An Office for AI could help Australia harness artificial intelligence

In the driver’s seat, with an outdated map: pre-empting how consumers use vehicle automation would be a mistake, but so would be waiting too long

Are ministerial staff untamable? Peter Hughes’ creative solution allowing political advisers to do their politics while respecting neutrality of public servants

From rules and manuals, to Better Public Services and a spirit of service: you say you want a revolution, but maybe evolution is better

Information is power and it’s time to share: from exploring the human genome to managing Sydney’s congested roads, cloud-computing is helping democratise data and its analysis

Strategies on anti-money laundering have failed. Here’s how well meaning policies of conscience and coercion locked in systematic failure of anti-laundering laws

Innovating for customers: putting senior staff in front of citizens brings unexpected discoveries and undercuts silos

From mountains of paper to fully online case management: what the Victorian Supreme Court’s digital transformation taught Justice James Elliott about leading IT projects

‘We’ve hollowed out policy advice’: Glyn Davis weighs in on pending Thodey report and planning for an unpredictable future in the public service

Rebecca Brown reflects on WA’s health system reform: invest time in stakeholders, and call in systems thinkers

From government policy to algorithms to medical research focus — where are the women? A review of Caroline Criado Perez’s ‘Invisible Women’

How to change the world with HR: tips on taking people management to the next level from the new APS head of profession and her corporate-affairs counterparts

The good, the bad, and the ugly ways of explaining oneself in a Senate estimates committee; Wong on song

Innovation: a little less conversation, a little more action. How to make innovation something we do, not just something we talk about

How regulators are responding to water theft — and even watching irrigators from space

Good money after bad: six reasons why governments ignore evidence of service failure — and how to do better

What improving IT procurement in the public sector looks like: navigating, balancing, and initiating procurement conversations to avoid sprinting off cliffs

When you’ve got a case of policy-based evidence rather than evidence-based policy — and other service-delivery challenges

Following America’s own robodebt scandal, New Mexico took a different path to tackling welfare fraud. It was just the ticket

Facts aren’t cure-alls, but they still matter. The new skills needed for dealing with a hugely changed flow of information and its impact on perception

How the award winning YourSAy platform works to better engage South Australians. By realising scale efficiencies it helps agencies reach wide

Open data is fine, but sharing more data won’t solve all problems. What you need to do data properly

Collaboration, consultation and civility: what Verity Firth learnt about contending with commercial lobbying when trying to deliver public health policy

If you can bridge the gap in government silos, you might be a boundary spanner. Here are the seven skills you need to collaborate in government

How Victoria’s award-winning prescription monitoring system SafeScript is fighting overdose — and won over the AMA

Most social media platforms weren’t designed for public engagement on policy. How to create media platforms that can ride democracy’s digital highway

Peter Shergold was the accidental public servant. Apprenticed to a titan at the age of 40, he learned to lead through listening. His own legacy is the reimagining of public impact

Data analytics that sits on a shelf isn’t useful to anyone. How Brad Petry used ‘lighthouse’ projects, based on front-line needs, to make an impact and demonstrate value

Transforming public policy for the 21st century: how the NSW Government Policy Lab learned to use modern design methods to create more user-friendly solutions

Cans of worms and what the Auditor-General is thinking of digging up next. The hints are there for the taking

Practice saying no and stop under-rating implementation, says Fran Thorn. Then, learn how to convince everyone your idea is not entirely stupid

Regulatory capture: did we need a royal commission to bust it wide open? Adele Ferguson says you can bank on it

When we code the rules on which our society runs, we can create better results and new opportunities for the public and regulators, and companies looking to make compliance easier

Speaking truth to power: Shergold’s final speech touts importance of professional public servants in a world of weakened democracy

Deep links between the private sector and Defence have been to the nation’s benefit. But it’s complicated. The department has expanded its toolbox to manage this ‘revolving door’

Garran Oration 2019: Mick Dodson has seen the public service struggle with change and Indigenous decision-making, but there’s no need to be afraid

What’s the most effective way to motivate staff? Performance pay schemes are trending again, but Allan Hawke saw distorted results

Public servants tell harrowing tales of harassment after a mention in an FOI release. Their leaders want to shield them from the trolls, but anonymity comes with a price

Is long-term policymaking dead? Drop the nostalgia and get your hands dirty with detailed dialogue and design. This is the new advisory model of public service

Integrate chatbots into your other systems to make them useful for customers, and don’t assume they’ll replace humans

Transform support functions for the digital age. Capitalising on the potential for faster, leaner reporting means letting go of the old ways and welcoming the new

Setting up a social impact bond requires thinking through many barriers around data and measuring success. Amy Auster is stewarding two rollouts with an eye to early intervention

The successful ACT senior secondary colleges have reached an evolutionary crossroads that may lead to their demise. Can they be revitalised – or will they face a ‘gale of creative destruction’?

Learn to live with uncertainty, and other tips on public sector governance and leadership. Sometimes you have to push back and take a stand for due process, but it’s getting harder

Emily Phillips leads a highly distributed, highly visible agency. Finding the breathing space for innovation has taken contemporary leadership, strategy and partners