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The Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) and the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) hosted a ‘Policy Roundtable on Federalism’ on the 17–18 May 2007 at the University of Canberra. Around 50 attended the roundtable comprising politicians, Commonwealth and state public servants, and academics. The roundtable was provided with a number of background papers including the Hollander-Patapan article and another produced by staff of the Commonwealth Grants Commission entitled ‘Trends in Commonwealth-State Financial Relations: a Grants Commission Perspective’. The roundtable focused not only on issues and challenges but, more practically, on options and how to make federalism work better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desire to base policy at least in part upon scientific information is a clear trend in Australian governance. The growing literature on how to facilitate this intent highlights a few important principles complemented by examples from the application of social sciences. An example from a very large research project based on physical sciences responding to a national crisis is presented in the context of how it approached delivery to policy-makers. The Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields Assessment, widely considered an outstanding success in both scientific terms and for its impact, is reviewed with respect to how the scientific challenge of assessing the future security of water resources in Australia's most important and politically contentious catchment translated into the policy domain. The lessons learned offer a potential template for science with policy intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ideas of ‘community’ and ‘community voice’ have been mobilised in collaborative programs developed between the National Museum of Australia and the Murray-Darling Basin Commission since 1992. This collaboration is set within a broader context of changing ideas and practice around governance, community and environmental issues. The recent Murray-Darling Outreach Project (MDOP), a series of museum outreach projects with regional communities aiming to increase community engagement in local environmental issues in the Murray-Darling Basin, is specifically examined. Evaluation research on the MDOP found that the approach to program development significantly shaped the types of voices, range of issues presented and the nature of the communicative forums established. The potential impacts on online audiences are discussed along with broader implications for government agencies involved in community partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explore an important intersection of the Commonwealth's administrative and spatial histories by examining the Commonwealth bureaucracy's office space accommodation practices between 1996 and 2006 in the urban spatial context of Canberra. After initially conceptualising and describing the experience of the Howard decade and contrasting it with previous policy and practice, the article seeks to theorise the general experience of the last ten years through stressing the interweaving of neoliberalism, path-dependencies, and contingency. In doing so, the piece offers a number of insights into not just the Howard government, the Commonwealth and Canberra, but also of neoliberalism, and the potential impacts of social spaces on policy processes and public sector practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech to the 5th Annual Conference of Policy Advice and Implementation: Developing Effective Links Between Policy Advice and Implementation, Hyatt Hotel, Canberra, 30 June, 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A report issued in 1996 commemorated the 10th Anniversary of this Fund, outlining its origins and purpose, briefly identifying the 21 recipients of grants from the Fund up to that time, and describing the projects for which the grants were awarded and outcomes of those grants (IPAA/UC 1996). The Fund has now run for more than another five years, and it is appropriate to report again on its activities; the Management Committee is grateful to the editors of AJPA for making space available for this report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on the transformation of the departmental machinery of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory government since 1987. Background and character of the 1987 government policy settlement; Factors affecting the stability of the machinery; Support of departments for ministers, policy development and monitoring and appraisal and evaluation.

This article examines the way in which national law firms lobby the federal government from their Canberra offices. It is based on extensive interviews with lobbyists from those law firms, other commercial lobbyists in Canberra and legal professional bodies. The article begins by establishing the unique nature of law firm lobbying. In particular, it looks at the technical skills law firm lobbyists possess, their access to specialist legal knowledge and their preference for administrative, over political, lobbying. The development of law firm lobbying is then discussed. This centres around changes to the legal profession, federal business laws and federal government decision-making. The article concludes by suggesting that law firm lobbying both reflects and stimulates changes in government decision-making and will grow in importance as the legal profession in Canberra grows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents a study involving the significant impact of the new design of the Parliament House on the manner in which Parliament operates and the inter-relationships between elements of the Parliament, particularly concerning the Executive Government in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The results indicated that members and senators were enthusiastic about the new building before the move, but now have concerns about its scale and distance, about its potential isolation, and about how the Ministral Wing may affect relationships between the Parliament and the Executive.

Comments on the Institute of Public Administration (IPAA) National Conference, held in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Choice of author Andrew Leigh a presenter for the Sir Robert Garran Memorial Oration; Four themes outlined by Leigh which he considered absent from popular debate; His argument that economic inequity in Australia had increased; Other presentors.

Presents the fourth report on the RIPAA-University of Canberra Public Administration Trust Fund's status as of June 1995. Developments of past year; Research grant awardees; Publications funded by grants from Fund; Sam Richardson Award for most important article published in Australian Journal of Public Administration.