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Nearly a decade ago, the Australian Federal Government introduced a Digital Service Standard (DSS) for new and redesigned government services. This was an opportunity to encourage digital services and disruptive innovations to help the government improve citizens outcomes, and indeed there was a significant uptake in the digital services assessments offered by the program with key government agencies across health, human services, taxation, and education on board. However, by the 2020s the number of publicly visible assessments had significantly reduced. The initial broad adoption and recent reduction in numbers present an opportunity to explore the effectiveness of this government innovation management program that was ahead of its time. This paper reviews the impact of the DSS in fostering public service innovation and presents lessons learnt from the program. To perform this analysis, this research evaluates to what extent the DSS applied common private sector innovation management approaches of Innovation Process Management and Innovation Portfolio Management in the public sector. It also looks at the impact of these programs in encouraging specific types of modern digital innovations. The analysis draws on DSS assessments from 2015 to 2021 and considers how the program demonstrated public sector innovation leadership. This paper proposes a framework to improve the DSS by tailoring its approach for new and existing services, adopting specific standards to encourage incremental and disruptive innovations, and promoting more transparent reporting and funding of innovation management programs. This evaluation found that the DSS exemplifies Innovation Process Management in its use of stages and gates, and Innovation Portfolio Management in its use of targeted assessment criteria across innovation portfolios of various government agencies. The analysis also identified design limitations in the DSS as a whole of government innovation management approach due to its limited uptake in multiple large agencies and lack of specific standards to encourage different types of innovation. The impact of this research is to increase the adoption of the DSS and increase the innovation outcomes delivered by this government program. We conclude by reflecting some of the unique considerations in applying private sector innovation management practices in the public sector. Points for practitioners: Innovation management techniques are emerging but remain immature in the public sector.Australia has shown leadership in Government Innovation Process and Portfolio Management.Government must remain committed to innovation management programs and sharing the outputs of these programs.Government Innovation Management Programs should build in flexibility to encourage different types of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following Symposium on Australia's national integrity systems, drawn from an Australian Research Council-funded project conducted in 2002-2004 by researchers from Griffith University, Charles Sturt University, University of Sydney, RMIT University, Monash University and the Australian National University, together with Transparency International Australia. The first three papers examine the public integrity regimes at federal, state (NSW) and local levels. The remaining four papers develop three themes as a framework for assessing strengths and weaknesses in Australia's major integrity regimes: consequences, capacity and coherence. The papers were originally presented in sessions of the Australasian Political Studies Association (University of Adelaide, September 2004) and the 5th National Investigation Symposium (NSW Ombudsman, Independent Commission Against Corruption and Institute of Public Administration Australia NSW, Sydney, November 2004). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of networks has gained interest in public administration and management. They address concerns such as the coordination of multiple actors within the policy process. Networks take both formal and informal forms. As the integration of formal and informal networks in public service delivery is gaining traction, this paper uses the example of diabetes care in Australia and India to provide an analytical framework to examine one of the ways such integration of networks take place. Diabetes, a chronic long‐term disease, poses to be a global problem with a high rate of diagnosis with implications for public health expenditure. A multi‐disciplinary team, which comprises both formal and informal categories, is required to manage diabetes. This paper highlights the integration of networks in diabetes care in different institutional and cultural settings. For such form of integration of networks to work, collaboration among the various actors is important. Lessons learnt from diabetes care will be relevant for other long‐term chronic conditions to help reduce the human resource and financial burden. The analytical framework developed based on the example of diabetes care will provide useful lessons for examining the mechanics and dynamics of the integration between formal and informal networks in the field of public administration and management. The concept of networks is gaining prominence as a useful model. This paper supports the existing literature on the need for both formal and informal networks using the example of diabetes care. It develops an analytical framework to examine the interactions of formal and informal networks, which will be relevant for similar studies related to other long‐term chronic conditions and for public administration and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its origins in the study of the European Union, the concept of multi-level governance (MLG) can contribute to understanding the capacity for, and barriers to, dynamism and innovation in the Australian federation. By placing the quality of the interactions between different jurisdictions at different spatial scales at the centre of analysis, the concept helps to underpin the argument that constitutional change in formal roles and responsibilities is not sufficient, and may not even be necessary, for reform of Australian federalism. The following steps are made in the paper. The first defines the main elements of MLG and its advantages for extra-constitutional analysis of multi-level policy coordination. The characteristics of MLG observed in contemporary Australian federalism are set out next. The final section presents a critique of the current Reform of the Federation White Paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments frequently develop policies that are strategic in nature. Strategic issues at the national level are those requiring long timeframes for impact, coordinated approaches across multiple tiers of government, are cross-sectoral, and require systemic approaches to design and implementation. Yet the process of how national strategic polices are developed and implemented in Australia is unclear, and largely unattended in the literature. This paper provides a foundation to understanding the characteristics of strategic polices and approaches to their development. Five national policies are compared (National Competition Policy, National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development, the Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure, Australia in the Asian Century, and the National Food Plan) and discussed. An analytical framework is constructed and key attributes of strategic policy identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper provides a knowledge‐based perspective to understanding public value management (PVM). As distinct from other approaches to public administration, PVM focuses on collaborative capacity building for the creation of public value. To develop the notion of PVM further, we explore the role of a knowledge‐based strategy in a case study of change implementation in 18 disability service organisations in Western Australia. Our findings show important inter‐relationships between knowledge management strategy, adopting a person‐centred approach to service provision, and sustainability of change implementation. We discuss the implications of the study for disability sector change management and for the further exploration of the strategic role of knowledge management capabilities in the study and practice of PVM in public sector administration. The paper explores the relationship between an organisation's knowledge capture and sharing systems and processes and its ability to implement change in a way that generates long‐term benefits for both public sector employees (e.g., engaging with key stakeholders to generate innovative solutions for serving client needs) and clients (i.e., increased well‐being through better service design and support). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Governments have historically offered their workforce a public service bargain founded on stable pay and conditions and job security. However, while the Westminster system aims for public service employment to be protected from the whims of government, public servants are nonetheless affected by the political environment in which they operate and changes to this bargain can occur with a new government. This paper focuses on a Queensland public service change process that resulted in large‐scale forced redundancies, non‐renewal of temporary contracts, and legislative changes that nullified the provisions in job security, organisational change, and redundancy policies. Using communication as a lens through which to understand leadership, it examines how the government communicated with the public service about this organisational change, immediately before and after the 2012 election. In particular, through analysis of public and media commentary, speeches and Hansard records, it examines Premier Newman's change leadership and communication by contrasting pre‐election messages to the public service with post‐election messages about the public service and the justifications for change during this period of downsizing. This analysis is used to reflect on political leadership, communication, fair treatment, and trust in public service change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the use of evidence in collaborative policy making focusing on the challenges of implementing national decarbonisation policies in regional areas. Its case study of a staged policy intervention to promote the ‘transition to a low carbon economy’ in Victoria's coal‐dependent Latrobe Valley reveals the selective use of evidence to support policy directions that emerged from the interaction of policy knowledge and the political mood. The paper shows how local conditions can be manipulated to enable the production of evidence consistent with the policy objective, but also suggests that despite combining orchestrated evidence with customised forms of networked governance, it is not possible to suppress or deflect unresolved political disagreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Victoria's Regional Management Forums were established in 2005 to facilitate collaboration between Victorian Government departments and local government in each of Victoria's eight administrative regions. At the time they were established, Regional Management Forums were a pioneering experiment in collaborative governance. Seven years after their establishment, this paper examines the Regional Management Forums to consider how they have evolved, what role they now serve, and what lessons can be learned. This paper finds that Victoria's Regional Management Forums have been able to adapt to an evolving policy and governance context. While not without their challenges, Regional Management Forums have given rise to regional-scale thinking and collaborative relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a practical guide for improving the quality of evidence-based policy. Rather than adopting an approach that gives priority to particular types of research methodologies, this paper argues that evidence drawn from any methodology will improve if standards of transparency and accountability are followed in the process of gathering, analysing, interpreting, and presenting evidence for policy. The papers details what these standards of transparency and accountability mean in practice, how these standards can be achieved, and possible limits to their adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public value theory has had its supporters and critics, with debate about the use of strategic management by public managers and confusion about the meaning of public value. This paper formalises Moore (1995) into a simple theory. That theory introduces the concept of an 'ideal state.' The ideal state is a simple means of describing and analysing public value, using a graphical presentation. In an ideal state roles are clear and public value is optimised. Insights from that ideal state are then applied to a more real world to clarify the nature of public value and to consider the appropriate use of strategic management by public servants. The conclusion is that public value theory provides some justification for strategic management, but the paper also demonstrates the limits to strategic management by officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outcome of the Symposium reported in AJPA 58(1) is said by the convenors to be that there are many different kinds of accountability and that there may be clashes between them. This paper suggests one possible reason is that the Westminster label hides the potential tensions between the increasing demands for accountability, more responsiveness and responsibility, the new public management and the institutional framework. Everyone wishes to cover perceived unmet demands and expectations, providing we remain with basic Westminster as our starting point. The paper suggests that commitment to what we call Westminster is the problem. It restricts understanding of the reality of Australian governance because it is not an uncontested term. Westminster is made to mean whatever the normative stance of the commentator requires. The paper argues that it is an opportune time to answer some basic questions about responsible parliamentary democracy in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Commonwealth's periodic attempts at housing and urban policy reform since the 1940s have been made in the face of a federal structure that allocates responsibility for such matters to the states. This paper explores the experience of federal governments since the 1940s, considering the various styles of political leadership, varying ways in which the problem has been framed, and differing policy settings that have been employed in resolving policy challenges. The historical narrative clarifies phases of active engagement and reaction, linking these to fiscal asymmetry and distribution of federal--state responsibilities, historical 'gateway' events, and transitions in policy paradigms. We argue that housing is a perpetual concern (both a basic need and an aspirational objective) and is so integrally related to other policy domains--in which decisions may have unintended consequences for housing--that it is never conclusively resolved. The complexity (and uncertainty) consequent upon these inter-relationships ensures that housing remains a wicked problem. The visual metaphor of a complexity cascade, however, may assist a more nuanced appreciation of the direction of policy travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the holding of the Canberra Seminars on Administrative Studies from 1963-1976. Growing need to train executives on public administration; Establishment of the Australian Institute of Management; Themes adopted.

A Review of Australia's Renewable Energy Target is used to contribute to the concept of negative externalities in consultation processes, including wasted investment by stakeholders and reduced investor confidence. The findings indicate that there is a need to establish clear consultation objectives. The paper concludes with a model for consultation agents to consider when initiating a consultation process. The model stresses the need to make objectives of the consultation process transparent to stakeholders, including the extent to which the outcomes of consultation are likely to result in changes to policy. Consultation agents and policy developers should seek to identify potential negative externalities at the outset of any consultation process, and address these within the consultation framework where possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Report on Government Services (RoGS) to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is considered an exemplar of benchmarking in a federal system. Published annually since 1997, RoGS provides performance reporting in the form of cross jurisdictional benchmarking on an unprecedented scale and scope. This paper argues ROGS has institutionalised a national approach to performance measurement and reporting that is now at the centre of the COAG reform agenda. The paper examines the processes and institutional structures that explain how RoGS has transformed performance reporting for social infrastructure services. The final section provides a preliminary assessment of the impact of RoGS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the Australian democratic nation there are towns where the citizens are governed by administrations that have not been democratically elected by the residents. These unique residential centres are termed 'special purpose towns' that can be transformed to a permanent community governed by a democratic structure through a process termed normalisation. This paper examines the special purpose mining town of Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory of Australia, which is on the cusp of the normalisation process. The paper outlines the similarities and differences of local government roles and responsibilities with Australian towns or shires that have publicly elected executive members. How Indigenous people are facilitating the normalisation of Nhulunbuy, through cultural perceptions of opportunity, is discussed. A concluding focus challenges well established conventional frameworks endorsing the roles of governments and miners in the normalisation phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent policy objectives surrounding the institution of marriage are based on strategies aimed at sustaining a stable and morally cohesive society. Policy-makers disapproving of marriage breakdowns often focus on the behaviour of individuals to explain the breakdowns. Policy initiatives seek to ‘cure’ individuals to overcome the problem of marriage failure. Pre-marriage education programs encourage self-help and depend on individuals solving their own problems. I argue in this paper that this rational view of marriage is flawed because it does not engage with the issue of romance. This is an important concern to administrators because romance often plays a central role in partner choice and people's expectations of marriage. Policy-makers either ignore romance or treat it as a myth to be countered; they rarely discuss how it influences a couple's decision to marry in the first place. I argue that romance should not be dismissed so easily as it plays a significant role in gender relations. Acknowledging romance ought to be a significant part of administering marriage education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership and management are best thought of as a matter of competencies. Or are they? The paper challenges the current orthodoxy in Australia on this question, and suggests that leadership and management need to be regarded as reflecting opposing values. The paper also distinguishes between charismatic and collective forms of leadership, and proposes the latter as likely to be of greater value in a public sector context. A challenge for public sector organisations is how to strike and maintain a suitable balance between management for ongoing operations and leadership for deep–reaching change. Strategies for developing collective leadership capability are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Public Management (NPM) reforms brought about in the 1990s have substantially altered the environment in which agencies mandated to provide policy advice to ministers do their work. Yet, cross–jurisdictional evidence tends to show that systems in place in these policy shops generally do not reflect the rigour that is needed to analyse and render quality policy advice. As one possible remedy, this paper suggests that use of rigorous evidence–based analysis (EBA) to inform the policy advice function be made an integral part of the policy shops’ learning and information protocol. EBA is a useful tool in assisting the agencies to demonstrate their adherence to a quality assurance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coombs Royal Commission identified a range of issues relating to the coordination of services. While there has been renewed interest over the last five years in the UK, Canada and Australia in initiatives that support joined-up and cross-cutting government, there has been only limited work to address the potential recognised by the Commission for these initiatives to result in unclear accountabilities. This paper reviews accountability approaches to joined-up government and identifies that while the sharing of accountability for outcomes has emerged quietly over the past 25 years, joining-up initiatives are demanding a clearer articulation of causal relationships regarding the sharing of outcomes and a fuller consideration of the multiple relationships in the partnership arrangements involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new concept in how some aspects of government policy can be delivered and the author is unaware of it having been utilised anywhere before. The author, whose field of competence is building regulation, has named it 'Officially Compulsory Advice' and he sees building legislation as a first possible arena for its use. This paper also explores the factors that may make it attractive in two other possible arenas and, therefore, Officially Compulsory Advice may be a useful technique in extending the efficacy of policy implementation. Specialists in other arenas may well discover further possible uses for the concept. Is Officially Compulsory Advice a tautology? Yes, no and maybe. The concept combines elements from these three words: Advice is something that the recipient is free to accept or reject; Compulsory means that the recipient is obliged to receive the advice; and Officially means that legislation has required certain defined classes of people to receive certain advice. This paper also demonstrates how these apparently disparate elements are combined to create a concept that is cohesive, viable, practical and potentially useful in the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current Australian Capital Territory (ACT) public sector workplace bargaining round lasted more than two years with most agreements involving a trade-off between low wage outcomes and protection of job security within performance improvement measures. The main focus of this paper is on government and agency experiments with bargaining structures and processes. The first was a limited and largely unsuccessful attempt in 1998 and 1999 at participative agreement making without the involvement of the key unions. The second, a selective decentralisation of bargaining to parts of a single business, was more successful: of 50 agreements, over 40 have been achieved. The procedural success of the decentralisation strategy is a significant outcome. However, the fragmentation strategy contained internal contradictions and required strong centralised policy control of bargaining agendas and outcomes, leading to delays and breeding distrust. Unions conducted effective defensive campaigns against non-union agreements and involuntary redundancies, but face their own dilemmas in finalising this round and preparing for the next. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a political struggle in the Australian federal sphere over parliament' s right, exercised through the Office of the Auditor-General, to oversee the accounts and management practices of the executive and entities created by legislation to deliver public services. The period from the early 1970s witnessed a dramatic shift in the method of delivering government services to the community and an increasing attention to economy, efficiency and effectiveness in their administration and delivery. The Australian government has increasingly used private sector organisational models and modern management and accounting practices to deliver a wide range of services. The rise of these 'new public management' practices resulted in an erosion of traditional parliamentary oversight of government management and reporting activities. This historical analysis is based upon Porter's (1981) processual analytical framework. The analysis focuses on the action of groups such as the executive, parliamentary committees and the Office of the Auditor-General as evidenced in documents produced in response to critical events. Models developed by Funnell and Cooper (1998) are used to characterise the transition of public sector audit from a traditional administrative model to a corporatist model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy advice is a core function of government that until quite recently remained outside the formal processes of performance evaluation. Evaluation, by its very nature, is designed to question both the effectiveness and relevance of government activities; applying it to policy advice opens up a traditionally confidential and politically sensitive arena. This paper reports on an evaluation experiment in Australian government -- policy management reviews (PMRs) -- that sought to evaluate the quality of central agency policy advice. It traces the development of the PMR model around interdepartmental committee processes, the bureaucratic politics that diluted the focus on policy outcomes, and examines how central agencies steered evaluation away from questions of public accountability towards arrangements for achieving more effective control of the processes underpinning production of advice. By targeting the process rather than outcomes of policy advising, PMRs sought unsuccessfully to adhere to the divide between management and policy and, in doing so, marked out the limits to performance evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the growing interest within the Australian public sector in the potential for establishing commercial partnerships with private sector suppliers. Politics of austerity in the 1980s and the 1990s; Benefits perceived resulting from partnerships; Delivery of government services as the focus of the philosophy and objectives of the public sector.

This paper expresses a concern that, in mirroring the Australian community, the public service is falling into the error of believing that morals and morality are out of date or at best not matters of moment. It seeks a better appreciation of the need for ethical standards in public administration and it calls for the profession itself, in the persona of the Royal Australian Institute of Public Administration, to grapple with the imponderables of these questions. A brief history is given of the public service flirting with considerations of its ethical basis, and the paper also gives some account of contemporary writing on the subject of ethics in administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite eight years of the Hawke government's rhetoric about encouraging high technology and building the ‘clever country’, Australia still lacks a coherent and effective science policy. This paper explores some of the reasons why a policy arena that has been considered by many to be critical to the nation's long-term economic recovery has languished. It is argued that since the mid-1980s the commonwealth departments responsible for science and technology have become fragmented and diffuse in their approach to policy development. Adequate coordinating mechanisms with which to integrate different initiatives have not emerged. Bureaucratic dispersion has been accentuated by the failure to set in place suitable consultative arrangements with clientele groups; a consequence, at least in part, of the introduction of a corporate management culture. Necessary scientific expertise has to a considerable extent been excluded from departmental decision-making processes. The lack of adequate input from relevant external organisations has not only contributed to a limited perspective on the part of agencies but, in several instances, resulted in the emergence of poorly conceived policy initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The irregularity of flooding in Australia reinforces an attitude that the risk posed by a rare event is acceptable. Disparate flood-related policies, fragmented responsibility and disharmony are often features of the relationship between the three spheres of government and amongst their agencies. The functions and powers of the various jurisdictions often operate to impede optimum land use planning and management of flood-prone areas at great social cost. This paper discusses these spheres of influence and shows by example how those impediments are signs of institutional wooden-headedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At one level, this paper is a fairly straightforward analysis of speeches about industry training made by two business people on behalf of the state. As such, it can be situated within a constellation of relations described by the following formations: relations between and within business and government; the role of non-statutory public advisory bodies; and the nexus of economy and training. At a second level, the paper may be read as an attempt to address the techniques of speech writing within the public service and how these resonate with ‘famous names’ to produce authored—and authorised—documents. And at a third level, what I am seeking is to advocate the use of discourse analysis in the study of Australian public policy, by positioning the speeches within a set of structuring forms of knowledge. I want particularly to argue for the dominance of neoclassical economics as a key logic determining the terms of truth within such speeches. This will be maintained both through a reading of these specific texts and a discussion of the context within which they were produced, circulated and consumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on interviews conducted between 2010 and 2013 with senior officials involved in Australian federal environmental policies over the past 30 years. It examines whether they have a prior sense of whether an environment policy is likely to succeed and their experience of the key factors driving environment policy success. Most interviewees claimed a strong prior sense of policy outcomes, but their expression of the key factors indicating success (consultation, clear objectives, a clear mandate, and a strong evidence base) varies from the usual emphases found in the public policy literature. The research illuminates the ways in which the policy officials at times exert a greater role than that suggested by the Westminster conventions or the policy theory literature. Not emphasised in the literature, yet pivotal for success in the vexed space of environmental policy, was the self-directed yet at times skilful policy 'agency' exhibited by officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With over 50 inquiries in 75 years, Australian communities continue to suffer from the impact of extreme events whether fires, floods, cyclones, or other emergencies. Einstein is reported to have said 'Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results'. The insanity may not lie in responding to fires and emergencies the same way, and facing another tragedy, but in reviewing these events in the same way and expecting the quasi-judicial process to identify how to prevent the next one. This paper argues that it is time to do the post-event review in a different way and suggests some possible options for new approaches to learning lessons from tragedy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structural pressures confronting the federal budget are well documented. Given the political risks associated with reducing the federal deficit by either increasing taxes or reining in expenditure at a national level, the Commonwealth has outlined its intention to freeze (in real terms) tied grants to the states from 2017. If implemented, this strategy will see Commonwealth transfers to the states decline from a peak of 29% of federal expenditure in 2001 to a projected 21% in 2024. Cost shifting on this scale is unprecedented in the Australian federation and arguably heralds a new era of 'fend-for-yourself federalism'. The potential significance of this move is exacerbated by the current budgetary context and the concurrent reviews of the national tax system and Australian federation. This article presents an analysis of tax and funding reform options available to the states that could bolster own-source revenues and fill the funding gap left by the Commonwealth while enhancing the efficiency of the national tax system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vigorous debate surrounding local government amalgamation in Australia remains unresolved. In an attempt to break the current stalemate Percy Allan (2001) has proposed a model of 'virtual local government' that seeks to combine the service appropriateness and effectiveness purportedly associated with demographically small councils with the service efficiency of large municipalities. This paper attempts to place his model in the context of the literature on the theory of public sector policy reform. It then goes on to examine virtual local government in the light of new institutional economics, public choice theory and the characteristics of Australian local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given recent focus on unethical activity and failings in corporate governance in the private sector, this paper briefly overviews the application of ‘economic rationalism’ in public administration and its impacts on the ethics of public sector decisions. It is argued that although ‘unethical’ decisions in public administration may be influenced by the economic imperatives embodied in ‘economic rationalist’ policies, it does not follow that the application of economic principles is necessarily inconsistent or injurious to ethical outcomes. In many instances the application of economic principles in public administration adds value by making existing ethical conflicts transparent and enabling more informed decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the ministerial office was one of the key issues investigated by the Royal Commission on Australian Government Administration (RCAGA) in 1976. At the time the ministerial office was undergoing new and controversial developments. In the 25 years since the Royal Commission the new ministerial office has become a permanent and accepted part of our machinery of government. This paper reviews RCAGA's analysis of ministerial advisers and uses research on the Keating advisers in 1995-96 to track how the institution of the ministerial office has developed since the time of the Royal Commission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article was originally presented as a paper to the National Conference of the Institute of Public Administration Australia on 1 December 2000. It considers why governments have adopted a more market-oriented approach to governance, concluding that this change in means has generally helped them to achieve their preferred courses of action. However, the principal threats to government capacity are political not technical, and the article also discusses the limitations of market-based policies in this respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that recruitment and promotion within the Australian Public Service (APS) have historically exemplified the practice of 'social closure'. Three periods of AP'S staff selection that correspond to what Halligan and Power identify as the bureaucratist/technicist, administrationist and political management models of executive branch regime are identified. Social closure in each instance was based on educational credentials or lack thereof. These practices have been justified in terms of various 'ideologies of promotion'. Such ideologies tend to reflect the ideal or material interests of social groups rather than the skill requirements of administrative work. The current form of social closure based on economics degrees illustrates this phenomenon. Accordingly, greater recognition of the value of non-economics degrees is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much literature in public administration debates the role of the public servant in the policy-making process. Some literature acknowledges an integral role of the public servant in the process. However, this role often remains obscure, due to being couched in abstract terms. The hierarchical structuring of responsibilities and power within bureaucracies imparts the capacity for differential influence. This paper provides a case study of the role of the Public Service Board (power over staffing) and the Australian federal Treasury (power over the purse) in the shaping of the bureaucratic structure. The case study centres on the industry policy bureaucracy in the volatile decade after World War II. In shaping the bureaucratic capacity, the Board and the Treasury exerted a discretionary influence on the policy process itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores two issues: first, the strategic and coalition-building tasks that may be routinely associated with New Public Management (NPM); and second, the implications of acknowledging these tasks for the conception of public management. NPM focuses on performance. It invites managers to accept responsibility for whole programs or systems (Kettle, 1997; Dunleavy, 1994; Ridley, 1996; Hood, 1995). This directs attention to basic program frameworks (that is, program strategy), as well as to operations. It involves the purposes of programs. It involves routine attention to such factors as the effectiveness of outcomes, the identification of alternative program configurations, the implications of emerging issues and needs, and the mobilisation of authority for change. In practice, this authority derives both from program stakeholders, as well as from ministers and the broader political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1981, the financing of the ACT has been subject to five inquiries by the Commonwealth Grants Commission. These inquiries have incorporated the ACT into the fiscal equalisation process between Australian states and territories, and have significantly affected the ACT's general revenue grants from the commonwealth. The inquiries produced evidence of generous commonwealth funding of the ACT compared with the other states. This funding has given rise to ‘over-spending’ on service provision by the ACT government. The ACT government is not currently responsible for all identified ‘over-spending’, being buffered to some extent by transitional allowances recommended by the Grants Commission. The ACT government is, however, experiencing fiscal stress for the ‘over- spending’ for which it is responsible. This stress is expected to increase in the future as the ACT government comes to bear the full burden of all ‘over- spending’. A significant cause of the ‘over-spending’ identified by the Grants Commission was health services expenditure. This situation has raised a number of interesting questions. Is the ‘over- spending’ on health a conscious policy decision to produce a higher quantity/quality combination of health services in the ACT? Or does it represent inefficiency? What policy options are appropriate in view of the ‘over-spending’ on health? This paper addresses these questions using data from the Grants Commission inquiries and a recently released study of hospital utilisation and costs in Australia. It is concluded that, at least with respect to public hospitals in the ACT, excessive staffing is the primary cause of ‘over-spending’. There is little evidence to support an argument that this ‘over-spending’ is resulting in superior health outcomes for ACT' citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate over managerialism has been the most controversial issue in Australian public administration journals in recent years. Although most articles have been critical, there have been responses in favour of the changes by senior public servants. One unfortunate consequence of this debate has been the appearance of a gap between academic public administration and public service practice. This paper argues that, from several angles, the work now carried out by public services is management rather than administration. It argues that managerialism is a long-overdue reform to a model which has outlived its usefulness. The traditional model of public administration was an irrelevance for many years; it was never efficient or effective and deserved to be replaced. However, public management does not necessarily mean the widespread and uncritical adoption of practices from the private sector. What it should mean is that a distinctive public management needs to be developed. This should take account of the differences between the sectors, but still recognise that the work being done by public servants is now managerial rather than administrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the place of performance evaluation in the recent administrative reforms and, in that context, assesses the changes made for the 1991-92 Program Performance Statements. The changes constitute a concerted attempt to improve the system of program evaluation throughout the Australian Public Service. Coherent and logical, they are based on a model of governance that seeks to establish a definitive demarcation between policy and administration, and hence confirm traditional notions of ministerial accountability. Analysis of these changes from a parliamentary perspective suggests that, unless there are serious reforms introduced into parliament, there is an increased likelihood that the monitoring of the bureaucratic machinery of government will become inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the accountability of public service in Australia. It is stated that accountability is about effective management hierarchy in which public servants are responsible to their next formal superior up, who is responsible in turn to the next up and up to the secretary, who is responsible to the minister, who is responsible to the parliament. Good management is described as, where authority and responsibility are sensibly divided so that people know what they are supposed to do, and their superiors know what they are supposed to be doing and roughly how well they do their job.

This paper reports a study which addressed the relationship between organisational effectiveness and two dimensions of organisational culture, both of which have been stressed in the prescriptions for and descriptions of successful private sector organisations. The study examined a number of public sector organisations to assess the extent to which the perceived degree of bureaucracy and the priority given to HRM in each organisation were associated with favourable perceptions of organisational effectiveness. The data for the study were obtained by two recent surveys of APS organisations. The first was a population survey of the SES of the APS, conducted by mailed questionnaire in mid-1989 (response rate of 52%). The second survey was of all staff in the 16 branches of a large Commonwealth agency (‘Department X’), conducted in early 1989 (response rate of 87%). The data support the hypothesis that organisations which give high priority to the HRM function are likely to be more effective than those whose cultures give a low level of support to HRM. There is equivocal support to the hypothesis that organisations which are hierarchical in their working arrangements are less likely to be effective than those which are relatively non-hierarchical. Most agencies surveyed apparently do not give high priority to the HRM function, particularly if the issue is asked of those at the lower levels of the organisation. This is explicable in terms of the relatively low value placed on ‘people’ skills by senior executives. These results support those writers who argue that private sector models are relevant to the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper that examines the reforms of the Commonwealth public administration in Australia during the last six years through 1989 is presented. It claims that the various reforms within the administration are interconnected in a manner as to show a coherent and practicable philosophy, with benefits for the government, public servants and the general public.

It is well established in the public management literature that boundary spanners - people or groups that work across departments or sectors - are critical to the success of whole of government and joined-up working. In studying recent unprecedented change to central government agencies in the Australian context, our research identified that intra-departmental boundary spanners also play a critical role in the functioning of government departments, particularly during restructuring. Although most contemporary literature in public management concentrates on boundaries across formal organisational entities (departments, agencies, sectors), boundaries also exist within departments. Our research has found that without dedicated intra-departmental boundary spanners, significant role confusion and dysfunctional practices arise. In turn, this has serious implications for the quality of policy advice given to Cabinet. Further research needs to be undertaken into both the role of intra-departmental boundary spanners and how to nurture and manage the practice of intra-departmental boundary spanners. This is especially the case if changes in Australia represent a fundamental shift more broadly in the way central government agencies operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carey and Harris present the concept of adaptive management as a practice for supporting effective collaboration, suggesting that performance information be used to modify actions. They observe that end-outcome performance information is less useful because of long delays between actions and effects, and recommend instead that the performance information should concern the collaborative process itself. The New Zealand government has followed a similar path to the Australian journey described by Carey and Harris. First, New Zealand tried using end outcomes to drive collaboration. Then, New Zealand tried using process measures, but found that the resulting collaboration lacked purpose and urgency. More recently, New Zealand has found great success in using intermediate-outcome measures to drive adaptive collaboration: measures with intrinsic value, but short delay between action and effect. We echo Carey and Harris' call for adaptive collaboration, but write to suggest that intermediate outcomes, rather than process measures, may drive more purposive management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principle of subsidiarity, commonly understood as the view that authority should be exercised by the lowest level of government competent to do so, is a key concept in understanding and reforming Australian federalism. In this article, we explore the way in which citizens with experience working in government react to the principle, and highlight that those with experience at different levels of government approach and value subsidiarity differently. Based on mixed-methods evidence, we propose that a pragmatic, problem-oriented approach to federalism and subsidiarity may cut through these differences, and allow policymakers to come together under a unified understanding of subsidiarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the 50th Golden Anniversary of the Australian Journal of Public Administration (AJPA) in 1989 and its historical milestones. AJPA, on its younger years, is also known as the Public Administration periodicals. Its publication started in Australia in 1937 when the New South Wales Group of the Royal Institute of Public Administration started publishing its news and documents under F. Armand Bland as the editor of the periodical. AJPA has experienced an unexpected change when it comes to the required amount of volumes and difficulties in publication. Several years have passed, AJPA continues to aim forward for the betterment if its publications.