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Critical Reflections on Australian Public Policy Selected Essays

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Critical Reflections on Australian Public Policy Selected Essays Critical Reflections on Australian Public Policy Selected Essays Critical Reflections on Australian Public Policy Selected Essays Edited by John Wanna Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/critical_citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Title: Critical reflections on Australian public policy : selected essays / editor, John Wanna. ISBN: 9781921536700 (pbk.) 9781921536717 (pdf) Series: ANZSOG series. Subjects: Political planning--Australia Policy sciences. Federal government--Australia. Australia--Politics and government--21st century. Australia--Economic policy. Australia--Social policy. Other Authors/Contributors: Wanna, John. Dewey Number: 320.60994 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design by John Butcher Printed by University Printing Services, ANU Funding for this monograph series has been provided by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government Research Program. This edition © 2009 ANU E Press John Wanna, Series Editor Professor John Wanna is the Sir John Bunting Chair of Public Administration at the Research School of Social Sciences at The Australian National University. He is the director of research for the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). He is also a joint appointment with the Department of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University and a principal researcher with two research centres: the Governance and Public Policy Research Centre and the nationally-funded Key Centre in Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University. Professor Wanna has produced around 20 books including two national text books on policy and public management. He has produced a number of research-based studies on budgeting and financial management including: Budgetary Management and Control (1990); Managing Public Expenditure (2000), From Accounting to Accountability (2001); Controlling Public Expenditure (2003); Yes Premier (2005); Westminster Legacies: Democracy and Responsible Government in Asia and the Pacific (2005); Westminster Compared (forthcoming) and most recently The Reality of Budget Reform in the OECD (forthcoming). He is completing, with John Butcher and Ben Freyens, a study of service delivery in the Australian government, entitled Policy in Action (with UNSW Press). He was a chief investigator in a major Australian Research Council funded study of the Future of Governance in Australia (1999- 2001) involving Griffith and the ANU. His research interests include Australian and comparative politics, public expenditure and budgeting, and government- business relations. He also writes on Australian politics in newspapers such as The Australian, the Courier-Mail and The Canberra Times and has been a regular state political commentator on ABC radio and TV. Table of Contents Foreword ix John Wanna Contributors xiii Part 1. Reflections on federalism 1. Federalism and the engine room of prosperity 3 The Hon Wayne Swan MP, Treasurer of Australia 2. Does federalism work? 13 The Hon John Brumby MP, Premier of Victoria 3. What has federalism ever done for us 23 The Hon Anna Bligh MP, Premier of Queensland 4. Splicing the perspectives of the Commonwealth and states 33 into a workable federation Terry Moran AO 5. The reform imperative and Commonwealth–state relations 45 The Hon John Brumby MP, Treasurer of Victoria 6. Fostering creativity and innovation in cooperative federalism 59 —the uncertainty and risk dimensions Mark Matthews Part 2. Reflections on policy and politics 7. Cabinet government: Australian style 73 Patrick Weller AO 8. Consumers and small business: at the heart of the Trade Practices Act 85 Graeme Samuel AO 9. Constitutional litigation and the Commonwealth 101 David Bennett AC QC 10. Evidence-based policy making: what is it and how do we get it? 107 Gary Banks AO vii Part 3. Reflections on governance and leadership 11. The two cultures re-examined: a perspective on leadership and 133 policy management in business and government Philip M Burgess 12. Leading the Australian Defence Force 153 Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston AO AFC 13. Essential linkages—situating political governance, transparency 163 and accountability in the broader reform agenda Andrew Murray Part 4. Reflections on adaptive change 14. Higher education: it’s time…(to change the policy framework) 181 Ian Chubb AC 15. Achieving a ‘conservation economy’ in indigenous communities: 193 a Canadian model for greening and growing local economies Ian Gill 16. From crystal sets to the double helix in one journalist’s lifetime 205 Peter Thompson viii Foreword This collection of `critical reflections' on Australian public policy offers a valuable contribution to public discussion of important political and policy issues facing our nation and society. These essays are important not only because of the reputation and position of the various contributors, but because they are incredibly `content rich' and brimming with new ideas. Contributors to this volume include politicians, senior public servants, respected academics and civil society leaders. Their views matterÐwhether or not one agrees with the propositions putÐbecause of who they are and their capacity to influence and shape events. With few exceptions, the contributors are active players, not dispassionate observers of the issues in which they are engaged. Their observations and commentary on Australian public affairs reach back into the recent past and, in some cases, the essays need to be viewed through the lens of antecedent and subsequent events. For example, readers of Ian Gill's essay on creating a conservation economy in indigenous communities (Chapter 15), will compare and contrast his experience with Australia's experience of the Northern Territory intervention. Readers of Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston's essay on leadership in the Australian Defence Force (Chapter 12) will reflect on his remarks in light of recent controversies concerning the relationship between the Defence Minister and the civilian and military arms of the Defence portfolio. Many of the essays in this collection are `primary sources' insofar as they provide an important record of the views, hopes and frustrations of key decision makers working at the coalface of Australian political, social and economic affairs. It must be borne in mind, when reading some of these contributions, that the views expressed by the authors reflect a particular point in time: for example, John Brumby has contributed two essays to this collection, one prepared on the back of the National Reform Agenda (see Chapter 5) from a speech given while he was still the Victorian Treasurer and John Howard was still Prime Minister, and the other (Chapter 2) from a speech given after he became Premier and John Howard had given way to Kevin Rudd. Taken together, the two essays chart the political and policy trajectory of the development of his ideas as the federal reform agenda progressed. The essays in this collection were originally presented either as part of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) Public Lecture Series in 2007 and 2008 or at the ANZSOG Annual Conference `Making Federalism Work' held on 11 and 12 September 2008, in Melbourne. The sole exception is Peter Thompson's essay reflecting on changes in the media landscape during his lifetime, which was prepared for a special ANZSOG workshop on strategic media management held in August 2006. The essays in this volume are grouped into four broad themes. ix Critical Reflections on Australian Public Policy Part 1, Reflections on Australian federalism, contains essays by the Federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, Victorian Premier, John Brumby, and ANU academic Mark Matthews, each of whom outlines cogent arguments and prescriptions for a renewed and reinvigorated federalism. In Part 2, Reflections on Australian politics and policy, Griffith University's Pat Weller paints a compellingÐand at times amusingÐportrait of cabinet government and Solicitor-General, David Bennett, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chairman, Graeme Samuel, and Productivity Commission Chairman, Gary Banks, reflect on matters as diverse as constitutional litigation, the operation of the Trade Practices Act and the many iterations of evidenced-based policy. In Part 3, Reflections on leadership and governance, the colourful former Telstra executive Phil Burgess 1 reflects on the cultural divide between public and private sector leadership; former Senator Andrew Murray speculates on the inclusion of political governance, transparency and accountability as part of a broader reform agenda alongside burning issues such as climate change, education and infrastructure; and Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston reflects on the principles on which successful leadership of the Australian Defence Force must be based. In Part 4, Reflections on adaptive change, The Australian National University's Vice-ChancellorÐsometimes dubbed the most powerful vice-chancellor in AustraliaÐpresents a compelling argument for `rethinking, renewal and reinvigoration' in Australian higher education; social entrepreneur Ian Gill, President of Ecotrust Canada, outlines the Canadian
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