Australia has had a number of recent reminders of the importance of an independent public sector being able to offer frank advice to governments, with a range of challenges across Australian jurisdictions in navigating the ever-shifting interface between politics and the public sector. At the commonwealth level, we are seeing…
We’ve seen what happens when a public service fails to do its job, and when individuals are either afraid to speak up, not listened to or absolve themselves of responsibility. While the final report is not due until the end of June, the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme reveals…
The biggest choice facing this country is between poor public services and inadequate government income support or more taxes. Unfortunately, I fear next week’s Budget will seek to avoid this choice. The purpose of government is to choose, and the best record of those choices and consequently a government’s priority…
It is almost 50 years to the day that Australia exited the Vietnam War*. Fifty years later, our veterans system remains largely unchanged. They say those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it. For younger generations, some may think that the system we have in place today is…
In government, we often speak about policy levers. But in the real world, a lever without a fulcrum is just a plank of wood. Levers are needed to lift a load, but without a fulcrum you can’t move it very far. Fulcrums are needed to dramatically increase the impact of…
The National Anti-Corruption Commission’s main focus will be on public servants and government procurement contracts, rather than politicians, when it begins operations mid-year if the experience of state integrity bodies is repeated at the federal level. ArcBlue, a leading procurement and supply chain consultancy, is advising public servants to get…
The proximal stimulus for Pradeep Philip’s Independent Review of Medicare Integrity and Compliance was media reporting about the extent of medical practitioner fraud against Medicare. But the distal cause was more fundamental. The Medicare payment regime, bureaucratic oversight, policy development and information technology infrastructure to support Medicare payments are all…
By the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war had become dismayingly familiar to Ukrainians and outside observers alike. A terrible routine had emerged: on the 800-kilometre front, two large armies faced each other, neither able to advance much. Ferocious fighting with huge casualties around Bakhmut had…
In 1974, Woroni, the student magazine of the Australian National University, published an article looking at the lives of lesbians at the university. One contributor, “Jody”, told of her experience with a doctor who pressured her for details on how she has sex, and who didn’t believe her reports of…
Like many others, I have been amazed by the text and art people are sharing online, made with nothing but a few words typed into an artificial intelligence (AI) generative deep-learning model (and, some say, the uncredited work of millions of creators). Working in privacy and technology regulation, I take…
In Seth MacFarlane’s off-beat homage to Star Trek, The Orville, the increasingly earnest show becomes a series of cautionary tales. In one episode, Majority Rules, MacFarlane signals the dangers of the real world mirroring the online one. The crew of the Orville attempt to rescue a couple of imprisoned anthropologists from an Earth-like…
A new index has shown public confidence in the public service and government has plummeted (again) compared to other sectors which experienced a “softening” in ethics over the past year. In 2022, the ethics index scored public service and government at 38, down eight points from the 2021 (46) and…
According to the 2022 UN E-Government survey, Denmark, Finland and South Korea scored the highest when it comes to the breadth and quality of digital services they provide. Despite the challenging macroeconomic conditions that prevailed in 2021, Australia remains one of the top 10 nations globally alongside countries including New…
The night after the Federal Budget for 2022-23 was delivered, Sam Mostyn AO, Chair of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, took a microphone during a Q&A session, brandished a copy of the Women’s Budget Statement, and shared her insights with a rapt audience. “This is a huge, huge step.” “Gender…
No one is looking for this week’s Jobs and Skills Summit to provide a panacea for all of Australia’s intersecting challenges, but almost everyone is hoping for a turning point, an agenda that charts the way forward. How we bring our country’s care economy to maturity needs to be a…