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Digital technologies have enhanced the capacity for organisations across many sectors to produce, publish, and disseminate research in a variety of formats, and a great deal of it is sought and used in public policy and practice‐related research, yet this diversity is often overlooked in studies of research use. While the need for diverse research sources and formats for public policy and practice is increasingly acknowledged, there have been few studies which articulate and categorise what this diversity looks like in practice, and how research is filtered and selected based on genre, source, and other facets. This article reports on a large‐scale online survey and semi‐structured interviews with research users across multiple sectors in Australia on the materials they access and use for policy and practice work. The results indicate that research users are active information seekers who require online access to diverse genres and formats produced by a range of sources and sectors. However, respondents also faced many barriers to research use, including the cost of subscriptions for academic journals, discoverability of reports and data, poor management of publications by organisations including government, and the time required for filtering and evaluation. Based on these findings I argue that policy research requires a far greater variety of genres and sources than is generally recognised with implications for the way research use and the research publishing system is understood and managed in Australia. Points for practitioners: Policy research and implementation requires diverse online sources and resources from multiple sectors, including reports, discussion papers, evaluations, and data, produced by organisations (grey literature), as well as journals and books.However, this paper finds there are major barriers to discovery, filtering, and access to diverse research publications for practitioners, resulting in poor productivity and policy outcomes.To improve the use of evidence for policy and practice, we must invest in efficient discovery, access, and management systems for diverse research publications. Summary at a glance Research publications used for public policy and practice in Australia are far more diverse, dynamic, and multisector than is generally recognised with implications for the way we understand and manage the research publishing system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There is a growing interest in how policy processes can better incorporate the values of the communities they serve, yet policymakers face numerous challenges when they seek to embed values into policies. This paper builds on existing values research to develop a bespoke policy values framework for Australia, based on the popular notion of a 'fair go'. While the fair go is often associated with a narrow set of equality and procedural justice values, we show that it has a much wider range of historical and contemporary meanings, which taken together provide a useful starting point for understanding policy values important to Australians. We apply our framework to two policy domains—housing and immigration—to show that it offers an effective heuristic to help policymakers understand key value priorities and conflicts in these policy areas. The paper provides theoretical insights regarding the role of values in policymaking and offers a practical tool for use when designing, implementing, and evaluating policies. Points for practitioners: Community values should inform public policy decision‐making in a democracy. However, incorporating values into policy is difficult because of the wide range of different values to consider, the need to manage tensions and conflicts between values, and the time pressures often faced by policymakers.The popular and enduring notion of the 'fair go' embodies multiple value positions, which cover a range of different values that matter to Australians, making it a good basis for an Australian policy values framework.Our fair go values framework is designed to serve as a heuristic for policymakers when designing and evaluating public policies. It is not intended as a comprehensive guide to value debates in all policy areas, but offers a starting point for quickly appreciating the key value priorities and conflicts in relation to a policy issue. Policymakers should wherever possible follow up with detailed research to understand the complex value debates of different policy issue areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JobKeeper is a short‐time work subsidy implemented between March 2020 and March 2021 in Australia during the COVID‐19 pandemic to reinforce the resilience of the labour market. As a job retention (JR) program, JobKeeper supports businesses, protects jobs and employment relationships and secures income of Australian workers. Drawing on microeconomic and macroeconomic evaluations of the JR programs published in other countries in a pre‐pandemic period, this paper studies how the generosity, responsiveness, governance and eligibility criteria of JobKeeper may shape its efficiency and equity. We show that expected benefits of JobKeeper may be limited by some negative economic effects of short‐time work subsidies. Locking employees in their current position potentially crowds out more efficient matches on the labour market. These displacement effects may slow down economic recovery. As a wage subsidy, JobKeeper distorts the relative wage and employment prospects between eligible and non‐eligible workers. These substitution effects can increase the dualization of the Australian labour market and institutionalise lay‐offs inequities for workers holding a temporary visa. Finally, we argue that subsidies for part‐time work also generate incentives for working time reorganisations that should be evaluated. JobKeeper is a short‐time work subsidy to reinforce the resilience of the Australian labour market during the pandemic. This paper studies how the generosity, responsiveness, governance and eligibility criteria of JobKeeper may shape its efficiency and equity. We analyse how expected benefits of JobKeeper may be impacted by displacement, substitution, deadweight effects and work reorganisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Reviews the discussion paper `Towards a Best Practice Australian Public Service,' by the Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service.

The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) has, since its inception, prioritised policy relevance in its research. Drawing on an impact narrative approach, this paper presents a case study of the contribution of AHURI research to the development of a specific policy initiative: the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator function of the National Housing and Finance Investment Corporation (NHFIC). The paper will explore the development of this policy initiative through a series of research projects and publications, and highlight processes of dissemination and engagement with the policy and practice community. This will reveal the value of a strong evidence‐base, and effective knowledge transfer mechanisms in the development and implementation of policy. It will also demonstrate the utility of a policy impact narrative approach in the evaluation of research impact, particularly in relation to policy development processes subject to the vagaries of politics. This policy impact narrative presents a case study of the contribution of the research and policy engagement practices of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) to the implementation of a policy initiative. AHURI research on institutional investment in social and affordable housing refined and tested this model for financing community housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a post‐COVID‐19 world, innovation stimuli and well‐aligned policies will assume even greater importance as various sectors seek to recover lost ground and to generate new opportunities. Collaborative partnering in innovation research and development (R&D) between private industry and higher education has increasingly emerged over the last decade as a leading key performance indicator for government policy development, and higher education research funding allocations. Recalibration of R&D‐related policies and incentivisation will require careful consideration, with constructive lessons to be learned from outcomes over the last four decades. This paper presents findings from a new study of stakeholder perceptions as to the National Innovation and Science Agenda's impact on innovation partnerships, and synthesises outcomes from two prior studies. It then examines a newly proposed innovation policy framework, Stimulating Business Investment in Innovation (SBII), set against a background of the shifting mix of paradigms that have comprised Australian innovation policy over the last 40 years. It argues that, following the SBII, any proposed change of policy direction will face significant challenges in its implementation, requiring a fully committed and comprehensive embrace by Government of the new APS engagement framework and greater levels of deliberative democracy. Industry–research partnering is a key performance indicator for government policy and research funding. This Paper synthesizes three studies on innovation, set against the shifting mix of paradigms in innovation policy over the last 40 years. Policymakers must embrace the new engagement framework, and deliberative democracy, when adopting new innovation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of regulatory accumulation has increasingly been recognised as a policy problem in its own right. Governments have then devised and implemented regulatory reform policies that directly seek to ameliorate the burdens of regulatory accumulation (e.g. red tape reduction targets). In this paper we examine regulatory reform approaches in Australia through the lens of policy innovation. Our contributions are twofold. We first examine the evolutionary discovery process of regulatory reform policies in Australia (at the federal, intergovernmental, and state levels). This demonstrates a process of policy innovation in regulatory mechanisms and measurements. We then analyse a new measurement of regulatory burden based on text analytics, RegData: Australia. RegData: Australia uses textual analysis to count 'restrictiveness clauses' in regulation – such as 'must', 'cannot' and 'shall' – thereby developing a new database (RDAU1.0). We place this 'restrictiveness clauses' measurement within the context of regulatory policy innovation, and examine the potential for further innovation in regulatory reform mechanisms. This paper examines the political economy of regulatory reform in Australia. We analyse regulatory reduction mechanisms and measurements as a process of policy innovation. We introduce RegData: Australia – a new project aimed at quantifying regulation using textual analytics – as an input into further regulatory reform innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cape York Welfare Reform (CYWR) initiative aims to reduce 'passive dependence' on welfare and restore 'positive social norms' to revitalise cultural and social networks and support economic engagement in Indigenous communities in the Cape York Region of Australia. Critics of the initiative and, in particular, its income management (IM) policies have associated it with a broader neoliberal reform agenda that delineates social 'problems' from their historical and structural context. This paper discusses key qualitative findings from a strategic review of CYWR, paying particular attention to the ways in which Cape York IM (CYIM) straddles both Indigenous and settler social norms, while perpetuating neoliberal conceptualisations of welfare 'dependency'. We situate these findings within the existing literature on Australia's other IM models and also consider them in relation to subsequent government responses to the review and associated policies. We argue that CYIM represents a unique initiative, the subtle nuances of which have been largely ignored or misunderstood by critics. Further, we conclude that any extension or revision of this initiative should be considered with respect to deep and wide‐ranging consultation of the Indigenous communities subject to CYWR. However, such consultation has not been the standard practice in Australian contexts. The paper presents the qualitative findings of a Federal Government review of Cape York Income Management (CYIM). We argue that although CYIM shares a common ideological foundation with Australia's other IM policies, it is also distinct from these alternative forms of IM, particularly in terms of its evolution, high‐level of targeting, and delivery mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour markets around the world are experiencing extraordinary disruption during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The gap in the employment rate between Australians with and without disability is likely to widen, given the entrenched disadvantage of people with disability in the job market. For many, it will compound existing health and economic vulnerabilities. This scenario is troubling from both a human rights and an economic perspective. In this paper, we examine the interface of two policy instruments intended to improve the prospects of people with disability finding and keeping employment in Australia – Disability Employment Services and the National Disability Insurance Scheme – in the lead up to and in the early stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Findings from three studies conducted between 2018 and 2020 reveal these instruments are not mutually reinforcing. With a 10‐year National Disability Employment Strategy (NDES) in development under federal government oversight, we argue that more concerted and targeted effort from these services and broader public policies and programs is needed to ensure Australians with disability are not sidelined in the labour market in the wake of the pandemic. We examine the interface of two policy instruments intended to improve the employment prospects of people with disability in Australia. Three recent studies reveal these instruments are not mutually reinforcing. More concerted effort is needed to ensure Australians with disability are not excluded from work in the wake of COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the strategic interests that inform deforestation policies in Australia, and the variance in policy selections over time. A theory of deliberate policy disproportionality is used to analyse 20 years of regulatory reform in Queensland, focusing on the Vegetation Management Act (VMA) 1999. Application of the framework to this case suggests that political executives were prone to deliberately adopt (dis)proportionate policies as a strategic response to either manage or capitalise on stakeholder support or opposition to any proposed legislative change. The high variance in (dis)proportionate deforestation policies is attributed to how political executives respond to claims made by competing constituencies regarding the costs versus benefits of successive reforms. During key reform phases, policy under‐reaction was the norm, and political executives intentionally limited the scope and effectiveness of the VMA 1999 due to perceived impacts on the agricultural sector. Political executives were highly responsive to the emotional investment of rural constituents and averse to introducing policies that required difficult trade‐offs. Elections offered strategic opportunities for delivering more proportionate policies that balanced public environmental benefits with economic impacts, as evidenced by a conditional deforestation ban introduced between 2004 and 2012 and reinstated in 2018. Points for practitioners: Variance in Queensland's deforestation policy over time can be attributed to the intentional decisions by political executives to limit or expand the scope of regulations as a strategic response to stakeholder expectations.Political executives were responsive to the costs versus environmental impacts/benefits of any deforestation reforms, but prone to policy under‐reaction when the priority was managing the emotive reactions from rural constituencies.More proportionate regulations, such as the partial deforestation ban of 2004, aimed to balance environmental benefits with compensation for landholders but were only implemented when electorally beneficial.Stakeholders have a significant influence on disproportionate deforestation policy design and governments will need to manage competing claims to deliver more durable policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically uses a street‐level bureaucrat (SLB) lens to compare the impact of personal and organisational support on the innovative behaviour of frontline healthcare workers in Australia and the United States. Survey data came from the 260 U.S. and 220 Australian respondents. The structural equation model shows that organisational (i.e. manager–subordinate relationships) and personal supports (i.e. psychological capital [PsyCap]) significantly influence the innovative behaviour of frontline SLBs in health care. Further, the mediation results show that reciprocal social exchanges provide the foundations for facilitating the growth of healthcare workers' PsyCap, which then gives them the resilience to be innovative in the workplace. The U.S. respondents perceived stronger organisational support and consequently had a better platform for building PsyCap – providing better work conditions for facilitating innovative behaviour to bourgeon. The paper adds to SLB theory concerning the influence of two variables on SLBs' innovative behaviour, in addition to a meaningful comparison of the U.S. and Australian healthcare workers. If governments and organisations want innovative workers, then the policies must be based on empirical evidence that shows the impact on all stakeholders, including SLBs, because otherwise, irrespective of policy directives, the outcome is low levels of employee wellbeing (which likely results in limited innovative activity). This paper shows that healthcare SLBs in the USA are more innovative than those in Australia. The factors facilitating innovative behaviour include (a) high quality relationship with supervisors, which in turn facilitates (2) the development of high Psychological Capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation has joined the mainstream in many nations as governments search for new ways to tackle challenging societal and economic problems. But Australia is seen to be lagging on innovation policy. Is this related to how governments define innovation? What do they regard as the problem they are addressing? What proposed solutions follow from this? This paper examines how Australian governments have defined innovation over four decades, signalling their policy intentions about how to make the nation more innovative. Definitions of innovation are analysed using 79 Australian (national level) policy documents published from 1976 to 2019. Close reading of these documents suggests two main definitions: innovation as technology, and innovation as culture. Topic modelling uncovers more differentiated themes, shows how definitions change over time, and demonstrates an association between definitions and political parties in government. The divergent approaches suggest a lack of coherence and continuity to policy on innovation in Australia. Points for practitioners: Innovation has expanded and broadened in its definition and governments and policymakers have paid increasing attention to it.In Australia, there are two main definitions of innovation used in policy—one related to technology and one related to culture.The technology view of innovation can be further divided into a focus on businesses or a focus on research and development (R&D).Different innovation definitions, problems, and solutions dominate at different times, with Coalition governments tending to favour business and technology over culture, and Labor governments doing the opposite.There are divergent approaches to policy on innovation in Australia which suggest a lack of coherence and consistency in policy over the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses and profiles public ancillary funds (PubAFs), charitable trusts that act as intermediaries between public donors and approved nonprofit beneficiary organisations. PubAFs are an important part of Australia's philanthropic landscape given their public benefit purpose, yet little is known about this sector's characteristics and identities. This paper examines PubAFs, analysing online databases and reports and PubAF websites (where available). Based on the analysis of data from three sources: the Australian Charities and Not‐for‐profits Commission, Australian Taxation Office, and websites of 991 PubAFs (where available), this study provides valuable insights for the public, philanthropic practitioners, and researchers. Findings systematically map the field to develop an extended taxonomy, as a basis for promoting understanding and legitimacy beyond PubAFs' moral intentions, providing valuable insights into an opaque group of organisations at a time when the philanthropic sector's transparency is limited and legitimacy is being questioned. This paper systematically maps the field of Public Ancillary Funds (PubAFs) to develop an extended taxonomy, as a basis for promoting understanding and legitimacy beyond PubAFs' moral intentions. It provides valuable insights into an opaque group of organisations at a time when the philanthropic sector's transparency is limited and legitimacy is being questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the preferences and experiences of the councillor level of New South Wales (NSW, Australia) local government, concerning the public service values that guide the council staff working under a politicised employment relationship. The results of the study show that councillors perceive council staff to be as largely neutral in their behaviour as they expect them to be. The paper further reports that the council staff (in the view of councillors) do not politically respond to any unreasonable demands made by elected officials or act as the trustee of the public interest in competition with them. Data for this study were collected through interviews, a survey, and from secondary sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares key aspects of governance structures for Indigenous populations in the United States and Australia. The paper focuses on policy coordination and administration, in particular the nodes of decision‐making in the two countries in relation to government contracting and accountability. The U.S. approach to funding Indigenous organizations stems from the 1975 Indian Self‐Determination and Education Act and its subsequent expansions. Through the development of contracting into permanent compacting via block grants, this approach builds established nodes of Indigenous government and facilitates whole‐of‐government coherence at the level of the American Indian tribe. The U.S. approach seems correlated with better performance and may lighten bureaucratic loads over the long term. The Australian model, on the other hand, seeks to create whole‐of‐government coherence through top‐down financial accountability in a way that hampers the development of Indigenous political capacity. The paper traces the development of these practices through time and illustrates how they contribute to the fragmentation rather than growth of Indigenous political capacities. It suggests ways the Australian model could be improved even in the absence of fundamental reform by drawing on the contracting‐to‐compacting framework of longstanding U.S. practices. We compare models for funding Indigenous organisations in the United States and Australia. The U.S. approach encourages nodes of Indigenous governance via permanent compacting, and seems correlated with better performance. The Australian approach, on the other hand, pursues whole‐of‐government coherence via unpredictable short‐term contracts that fragment Indigenous political capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions between horizontal accountability agencies (e.g., anti‐corruption agencies [ACAs]) and social accountability actors (e.g., journalists, civil society activists, and complainants/whistleblowers) are recognized as important to horizontal agencies' performance, but the reason(s) is not clear. This study therefore explores why horizontal accountability agencies need social accountability actors in performing their functions. The study analyses data from 30 key stakeholders in Australia, including ACAs staff members, social accountability actors, and other observers to report on the specific support roles social actors play to ACAs' activities and operations. Through the conceptual lens of social accountability, evidence show that social actors play four key types of support roles to ACAs' activities and operations: activate ACAs' investigations; "amplify" ACAs' operations; guard ACAs' activities and operations; and defend ACAs' independence and powers. These findings support the need for interactions and, also, affirm the potential for research into how these support roles can better be provided for effective anti‐corruption outcomes. The research is of value to public accountability agencies in Australia, and internationally. This paper examines why anti‐corruption agencies (ACAs) need social accountability actors to effectively perform their accountability functions. It shows that social actors play four key support roles to ACAs' activities and operations: activate ACAs' investigations; "amplify" ACAs' operations; guard ACAs' operations; and defend ACAs' independence and powers. The findings are of value to public accountability agencies in Australia and internationally. [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]

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]

In Australia, the precarity of the aged care sector has been well documented over several decades. During this time, policy reforms have ultimately landed care, and the business of providing it, within a market model. Following recent evidence produced by the Royal Commission into Aged Care and Safety and the COVID‐19 Senate Committee, this model and the sector's incapacity to consistently deliver appropriate care has been the subject of intense public scrutiny and debate. The many COVID‐19‐related deaths of aged care residents have added to demands for urgent action to redress the sector's weaknesses, particularly those relating to workforce adequacy. This paper presents findings from a recent mixed methods study of community aged care provision by five providers who operate across a large rural part of regional Victoria. It utilises data to illustrate the impact of rural location on care provision, and significantly, on local capacity to maintain an appropriately skilled workforce. Demographic factors and funding shortfalls for consumers with multiple, complex care needs underscore the need for strategic planning to ensure workforce adequacy into the future. Encouragingly, our data showcase the many capacities of community aged services in this rural area and the opportunity to develop effective strategies relative to the recruitment and retention of direct care workers and the design of best practice models for meeting complex care needs. In Australia, the precarity of the aged care sector has been well documented over several decades. This paper provides findings from a mixed methods study conducted in rural Victoria. The data showcase the many capacities of rural community aged care providers and the opportunities for effective workforce strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including federal budgets, tax reform in Australia and federal government.

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]

This article presents the findings from a case study of the 2004–05 annual budgets prepared by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments of Australia. The study examined the headline budget balance (general government sector surplus or deficit) announced in the budget papers and speeches of each of the nine governments. Findings indicate the adoption of varying measurement bases and a consequent lack of comparability in the headlined budget balance numbers. Accounting reforms have resulted in adoption of two different systems of accrual accounting by governments — the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) system and the professional Australian Accounting Standards (AAS) system — which provide significantly different measurements of the budget balance. However, there has been no prescription of the manner in which these alternative measures should be presented. This raises a number of questions from an accounting perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population ageing is profoundly challenging the institutions and systems that organise paid work, healthcare, and retirement. A major response to these challenges has been to encourage older workers to remain longer in employment, thereby extending the period of 'productive life' in which they are net contributors to government revenue. Yet this strategy depends on a range of micro-level adjustments, about which relatively little is known. These include how willingly older workers and employers adjust their attitudes and practices, and what types of policies facilitate these adjustments. In this paper, we critique the major policy responses to workforce ageing in Australia to date, and consider further measures to improve recruitment and retention of older workers. We argue that a more holistic policy response will require better evidence about ageist employment barriers, late-career transitions, and older workers' job performance. We outline a research agenda to improve evidence and policy in these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disability support is often provided at the interface with other human services such as health, education, and employment agencies. This can present many organisational problems for people receiving support and the organisations that provide it. Individualised funding is one attempt to ease problems of fragmentation and unmet needs, but perversely, it introduces further interface complexities as organisations consider how to manage their service provision and financial structures. Drawing on interviews with 28 managers, the focus in this paper is on organisational and interface changes and challenges following the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia, and the adaptive strategies of organisations to provide individualised and coordinated supports. The three themes derived from the thematic analysis, adopting a commercial mindset, finding a business niche, and working across complex interfaces, epitomise the benefits, constraints, and consequences of new market mechanisms for the delivery of supports, and how organisations are adjusting to a more commercial‐orientated sector while also creatively negotiating multiple funding and governance systems. The findings contribute to understandings of how individualisation is creating new dynamics of local disability support governance and collaboration in service provision. Whereas much of the literature on individualised funding has focused on the fragmentation of services, this study of organisation managers contributes to understandings of how individualisation also generates new dynamics of collaboration and tension in local disability support governance and service provision. [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]

Improving collaboration by public sector agencies is an important element of many public sector reforms. Common approaches include introducing responsibilities under legislation and policy decisions, the provision of information and guidance, and strengthening third-party oversight. To identify how collaboration is being practised, this paper reviews evidence from over one hundred reports by Auditors-General and Ombudsmen in Australia and New Zealand to identify key attributes of collaboration, and assesses these further by examining three reports in detail. It concludes that problems that have been known for many years continue to constrain public sector effectiveness. Although continuing existing approaches may assist in improving collaboration, the paper argues that there is a need to adopt more systematic approaches to organisational capacity for collaboration. It further identifies that changes in the external environment such as technology-based innovation may demand rapid progress and change in relation to collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the features of public budgeting that make it resistant to efforts to balance central oversight and situational flexibility. Its aim is to help explain why systemic efforts at budget modernisation in the name of 'devolution' may have failed to deliver expanded budget flexibility. After defining flexibility, and briefly surveying how it can be inhibited by budget practices using the example of collaboration, the paper applies a taxonomy of general 'budget rules' to illustrate the trade-offs between control and flexibility. It uses an analysis of budget reform in the Australian federal government over the last 30 years to identify a key set of 'legacy reforms' - all intended primarily to enable budget flexibility - to show how their design and redesign were purposed as modification to the general rules, and how, ultimately, they were constrained by them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the recent Productivity Commission report into mental health, the previous Federal Government announced its intention to produce a new national agreement that lays the platform for Australia's sixth national mental health plan. It has been recommended mental health move to a more regional model of governance and planning, away from a centralised, top‐down approach, partly in response to broader reforms affecting health care, and partly in direct response to consistent inquiry evidence that the mental health system remains in crisis. The past 30 years of mental health planning have been centralised. Successive national plans set a broad framework, with real decisions about mental health funding and service allocation made in the health departments of our capital cities. Will the next plan sponsor or inhibit regionality in mental health planning? This paper assesses Australia's historical approach to health planning particularly as it affected mental health and the costs arising. In learning these lessons, we propose the necessary ingredients to facilitate a regional, innovative, and effective approach to decentralised planning, for better mental health outcomes. We cannot afford to replicate the failed planning approaches of the past. Summary at a glance Mental health has been challenged to replace historical, centralised approaches for decentralised regional planning approaches to foster choice, innovation, and effective service provision. The past 30 years of central planning have demonstrated its limitations. Federal and State governments should create an enabling environment to free‐up local implementation and operationalise a social determinants approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Black Summer Fires of 2019/2020 remind us not only that Australia is arguably the most bushfire prone area in the world but also that we have much to learn in terms of how we learn from such events. Bushfires interact with emergency management systems in a manner that is complex and unpredictable which all too often results in damages and losses, so significant that governments establish public inquiries to forensically examine what happened and why afterwards. Too often, such processes have resulted in emergency management practitioners (EMP) being blamed, not to mention scapegoated and even vilified for damages and losses from major bushfire events. With recent bushfire events (as well as other crises surrounding Covid‐19) highlighting the excruciating demands placed on EMP and an escalating scepticism about whether public inquiries improve preparation for future bushfires, this paper explores the question: what can we learn about public inquiries based on the experiences of EMP? Learning to learn from bushfire through insights from emergency management practitioners. [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 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: 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]

The residential aged care industry in Australia will expand rapidly over the next 10 years leading to substantial increases in government expenditure. Recent and future reforms are likely leading to changes in the structure of the industry with a potential impact on quality of care. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate broader public debate, based on the available evidence, about the preferred structure of this important industry. It examines the literature on the impact structure has on the quality of services and compares this with a fresh analysis of current trends. The paper argues that future policy should be evidence based and explicit about the structure of the industry that will emerge from current policy reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous peoples in Australia and similar colonised countries are subject to racism and systemic socioeconomic disadvantages, resulting in worse health outcomes compared to non‐Indigenous counterparts. Such inequities persist despite governments' attempts to reduce them. Since 2008, Australian governments have committed to a national 'Closing the Gap' (CTG) to reduce inequities in health, education, and employment outcomes between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians, but with limited success. We applied policy theory and a cultural safety framework developed for the research to analyse stakeholder perceptions of CTG policy implementation between 2008 and 2019. We identified policy‐shaping ideas and policy incoherence in the environment surrounding CTG policy that obstructed culturally safe policy. Top‐down, prescriptive modes of implementation were also a barrier. However, Indigenous‐led policy partnerships and community‐controlled services in the health sector have met principles of cultural safety. Identifying these strengths and weaknesses points to ways in which implementation of CTG policies can be improved to achieve cultural safety and reduce Indigenous health inequities. These results may hold lessons for similar countries such as the United States, New Zealand, and Canada. We applied policy theory and a cultural safety framework to investigate stakeholder views of the implementation of Australia's 'Closing the Gap' (CTG) Indigenous health policies, circa 2008–2019. The paper identifies strengths and weaknesses of CTG and identifies key areas of policy reform to advance cultural safety and improve Indigenous health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of New Public Management (NPM)‐inspired reforms in the public sector in the 1990s saw a big leap in public–private outsourcing partnerships in public service delivery; however, many of these have failed, resulting in backsourcing. Although effective governance of the ongoing relationship between outsourcing partners is arguably key to a successful partnership, the findings as to the optimal type of relationship between two main governance mechanisms – contractual and relational – remain inconclusive. Adopting Huber et al.'s dynamic perspective of governance mechanism interplay as a research framework, this paper empirically investigates the interplay in two problematic outsourcing public–private partnerships, that is the delivery of services has been backsourced or considered to be backsourced. Our data confirm the existence of a dynamic interplay between contractual and relational governance. The findings, however, do not represent a perfect fit with Huber et al.'s conceptualizations, signalling the significance of our research as to a more diverse and complicated group of interactions. Our analysis also reveals the potential interference of additional contextual factors in the interplay. Further research that explores and tests these contextual factors is warranted. The optimal relationship between the two main governance mechanisms: contractual and relational, remains inconclusive. This research, adopting Huber et al.'s (2001) dynamic perspective of governance mechanism interplay, examines the pattern and nature of the interplay between contractual and relational governance in Australia healthcare public‐private partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposition that the urban built environment can, and indeed should, be made more visually attractive is a long-standing feature of the governance of Australian cities. In this vein, this paper examines how 'good design' in terms of visual aesthetics is currently pursued including through the development assessment process and thework of government architects. The paper begins by tracing the background of contemporary regulatory practice from longstanding ideas around beauty and its value through to the urban design movement of today. Next, it considers in more detail various rationales for aesthetic governance and what might be better forms of regulatory practice. In short, it will be argued that while there can be scope for regulation to deliver superior outcomes, this practice must be sensitive to a high degree of contingency in what the public values and that deliberate empirical inquiry into the latter is desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forced amalgamation has been used as a policy instrument in local government by numerous regulatory authorities across the world. A common presumption underlying municipal mergers holds that larger local councils will experience greater economies of scale. However, the empirical evidence on this question is mixed. Part of the reason for this could lie in the frequent use of population as a proxy for local government output in the empirical literature. This paper examines the use of alternative proxies, particularly the number of households but also the addition of business unit data. We demonstrate that household data represents a more accurate proxy of Australian local government output compared to population size. In addition, the paper employs experimental data, conceptual considerations on population, and household dynamics to establish that the number of households represents the most appropriate measure of local government size for both empirical and public policy purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While governments make extensive use of competitive tendering for the procurement of goods and services, there is a considerable degree of confusion in Australian and overseas literature about key terms and principles. This impacts on the debate about its use and on its implementation, monitoring and evaluation by governments. A major report on the use of competitive tendering by Australian local government, published by the Evatt Research Centre, is analysed here in detail, to highlight the nature and extent of conceptual ambiguities evident in current literature. This paper provides a description of the use of competitive tendering by governments in Australia and overseas and discusses the key concepts involved. This analysis addresses important questions such as: What is competitive tendering? Is it a form of privatisation? How does it impact on the cost of government services and how does it work in theory and practice? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary Australian public policy has come to rely increasingly on technical reports produced by commercial consultants in contrast to the traditional approach, which employed disinterested public servants to generate the specialist information required to inform decision makers. This approach is fraught with problems, not least the fact that 'hired guns' have strong incentives to create the 'answers' sought by their employers. By way of a 'cautionary tale', this paper examines the empirical evidence adduced in favour of radical amalgamation of Tasmanian local authorities in Local Government Structural Reform in Tasmania, produced by Deloitte Access Economics (DAE) (2011), and commissioned by the Property Council of Tasmania. In particular, the paper provides a critical analysis of the econometric modelling undertaken in the DAE (2011) Report. We find that if the DAE model is re-estimated - employing alternative functional forms - then the empirical evidence in support of Tasmania council merges evaporates. [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]

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]

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]

'Sustainability' provides the dominant frame for environmental policy debate, even though there is considerable debate to as to what sustainability is, why is it needed, and how can it be progressed. From 1999 through to 2010, Victoria was governed by Australian Labor Party (ALP) led governments that, at times, actively pursued the goal of sustainable development. This culminated in the stated ambition for Victoria to be 'world leaders in environmental sustainability debate and practice'. This paper explores the way in which sustainability was enacted by Victorian Labor while in government. The evidence indicates that the potential of Victorian Labor's vision was never realized, and that it failed to significantly reform the neoliberal policy settings it inherited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate over the efficacy of voluntary agreements versus regulation, and uses a study of the Livable Housing Design initiative to deliver voluntarily new-built accessible housing in Australia. We first probe why regulation has become such a significant component of government policy making, and then ask why political campaigns focus on this issue as a strategy for reform. We refer to research by disability activists, which claims that the voluntary approach has failed and regulation is necessary. Amongst our conclusions are: (1) that the disjuncture between policy rhetoric and outcome can be attributed to the power of lobbyists, reliance on the private market to address inequality, and antipathy to regulatory enforcement; and (2) that there is a need for greater interrogation of the language deployed in policy texts to identify whether they are crafted to maintain the government's legitimacy or to deliver purposeful change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debate over municipal amalgamations in Australian continues to dominate local government reform agendas, with the putative need to achieve economies of scale and scope consistently set against anti-amalgamation arguments designed to preserve extant communities. Following from an examination of recent episodes of consolidation in Australia, this paper reports on citizens' attitudes to amalgamation garnered from a national survey of 2,006 individuals. We found that generally, citizens are ambivalent toward amalgamation, although attitudes were influenced by particular demographic characteristics and attitudes to representation, belonging, service delivery requirements and the costs thereof. The results suggest that, away from the local government sector itself, structural reform may not be the vexatious issue it is often portrayed as. The implications of this are explored here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

he meaning of the term ‘community service obligation’ (CSO) has been a point of conjecture in recent years. This paper highlights the importance of CSOs within the context of the accountability of public sector organisations. In particular the paper advocates the need to formulate an agreed definition of a CSO. The paper seeks to distil such a definition by using academics and GBE representatives as authoritative opinions. [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]

This paper presents a case study of policy introduction, implementation and termination. It demonstrates how the coupling of a well-defined problem with a workable solution by advocates can generate policy change, even in an area where there has previously been scant governmental interest. It also reveals that increased public funding associated with policy implementation can provide administrators with the legitimacy and authority to advance reform. Finally, this case study indicates the fragility of policies which: have short histories of governmental attention and financing; cross major party political differences towards federalism and Commonwealth/state responsibilities; and solely benefit repressed interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]