Collaborative Governance A new era of public policy in Australia? Collaborative Governance A new era of public policy in Australia? Edited by Janine O’Flynn and 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/collab_gov_citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Title: Collaborative governance : a new era of public policy in Australia? / editors, Janine O’Flynn ; John Wanna. ISBN: 9781921536403 (pbk.) 9781921536410 (pdf) Series: ANZSOG series. Subjects: Public administration--Australia. Australia--Politics and government. Other Authors/Contributors: O’Flynn, Janine. Wanna, John. Dewey Number: 351.94 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 © 2008 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 17 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) and, most recently, Controlling Public Expenditure (2003). He has just completed a study of state level leadership covering all the state and territory leaders — entitled Yes Premier: Labor leadership in Australia’s states and territories — and has edited a book on Westminster Legacies in Asia and the Pacific —Westminster Legacies: Democracy and responsible government in Asia and the Pacific. 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, Courier-Mail and The Canberra Times and has been a regular state political commentator on ABC radio and TV. Table of Contents Contributors ix Preface xi Allan Fels Editors’ introduction xv Part 1. Setting the scene: challenges and prospects for collaboration 1. Collaborative government: meanings, dimensions, drivers and 3 outcomes John Wanna 2. Governing through collaboration 13 Peter Shergold 3. The changing nature of government: network governance 23 William D. Eggers 4. Doing Things Collaboratively: Realizing the Advantage or 29 Succumbing to Inertia? Chris Huxham and Siv Vangen 5. Hit or myth? Stories of collaborative success 45 Chris Huxham and Paul Hibbert 6. Collaborative governance: the community sector and collaborative 51 network governance Paul Smyth Part 2. The reality of collaboration: success, failure, challenges and questions 7. What works and why: collaborating in a crisis 61 Shane Carmody 8. Collaboration in education 67 Rachel Hunter 9. From collaboration to coercion: a story of governance failure, 75 success and opportunity in Australian Indigenous affairs Diane Smith 10. The PPP phenomenon: performance and governance insights 93 Graeme Hodge and Carsten Greve vii Collaborative Governance 11. Perspectives of community organisations: The Smith Family 113 experience Elaine Henry 12. Collaborative approaches to ‘people-based’ and ‘place-based’ 121 issues in Victoria Jane Treadwell 13. Formal collaboration, collaborative councils and community 127 engagement Margaret Allison 14. Collaborative democracy: the citizen’s ability to collaborate 137 effectively Louise Sylvan Part 3. Collaboration abroad: comparative perspectives 15. Galvanising government–non-profit/voluntary sector relations: 149 two Canadian cases to consider Evert Lindquist 16. Collaboration with the third sector: UK perspectives 171 Ben Jupp Part 4. Collaboration: rhetoric and reality 17. Elusive appeal or aspirational ideal? The rhetoric and reality of 181 the ‘collaborative turn’ in public policy Janine O’Flynn 18. Postscript 197 Peter Shergold viii Contributors Margaret Allison, Divisional Manager, Customer and Community Services, City of Brisbane Shane Carmody, Deputy Chief Strategic Officer, Strategy and Support, Civil Aviation Safety Authority Bill Eggers, Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and Global Director, Public Sector, Deloitte Research Allan Fels AO, Dean, Australia and New Zealand School of Government Carsten Greves, Professor, International Center for Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School Elaine Henry OAM, Chief Executive Officer, The Smith Family Paul Hibbert, Research Fellow, University of Strathclyde Business School, United Kingdom Graeme Hodge, Director, Centre for Regulatory Studies, Monash University Rachel Hunter, Director-General, Department of Education, Training and the Arts, Queensland Chris Huxham, Professor of Management, University of Strathclyde Business School and Senior Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Management Research Ben Jupp, Director, Office of the Third Sector, Government of the United Kingdom Evert Lindquist, Director, School of Public Administration, University of Victoria, Canada Janine O'Flynn, Research Fellow, Research School of Social Sciences and Crawford School of Economics and Government, The Australian National University Peter Shergold, Professor and Head, Centre for Social Impact, University of New South Wales and former Secretary, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Diane Smith, Research Fellow, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, The Australian National University Paul Smyth, Professorial Fellow in Social Policy, University of Melbourne Louise Sylvan, Former Deputy Chair, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Jane Treadwell, Executive Director, Citizen Access and Transformation Department for Victorian Communities Siv Vangen, Senior Lecturer, Open University Business School, United Kingdom ix Collaborative Governance John Wanna, Sir John Bunting Chair of Public Administration, Australia and New Zealand School of Government, The Australian National University x Preface Networked governance and collaboration to improve outcomes In introducing this monograph, I would like to begin by emphasising the importance of collaboration to better governance. This involves collaboration within and across government and between government and the community. These are the central relationships we explore here. It is clear today that governments across the developed world are preaching the gospel of collaboration, cooperation and coordination, and are realising that their objectives cannot be achieved without collaboration with others. The big question is: is the rhetoric matched by the reality or are governments merely mouthing platitudes? Do they really mean what they profess; do governments talk of collaboration genuinely and meaningfully or do they do so partially and largely with their own interests at heart? Do their actions indicate that they are serious and, if so, what cultural changes are necessary, what changes are under way and what changes will be required in the future? Questions of motivation and integrity are fundamental to the process of collaboration. We also need to consider how we can translate collaborative engagement (inter-agency relations, community engagement, collaborative `experiments') into more effective outcomes, better public policy and a better use of community and government resources. This raises questions such as how and when do we choose to collaborate? On what topics or issues? Are there policy matters on which we should not collaborate or on which it would be preferable not to do so? In short, how do we determine on what matters to collaborate? These questions in turn raise the issue of the capacity to collaborate across the various sectors. Are the stakeholders and players prepared for the effort required, the investment in time and resources, the consequences of going down such a path and the `loss of control' or shared control in most instances? Are governments geared up to collaborate and do they have real `connections' with the community, or have the arm's-length cultures of contract management severed relations with providers and community representatives? Are community bodies themselves geared up to collaborate with government and with each other? While it is imperative to find effective ways to engage with the community, it is not always clear `who' represents the community. Governments often find themselves dealing with surrogates for the community: self-appointed, organised groups who profess to represent