• Monash's Public Sector ~~ Management Institute gets a$1.5m boost ~ The Federal Government has granted the university 51.S million over the next two and a half years towards expanding tbe recently-eslablished Public. AMAGAZINE FORTHE UNIVERSITY Sector Management Institute witbin tbe Graduate School of Management. Registered by Australia Post - publication No. VBG0435 The grant, announced by the Minister the Minister for Transport and Com­ NUMBER 4-88 JUNE 8, 1988 for Employment, Education and Train­ munications. Senator Gareth Evans. ing, Mr John Dawkins, represents the Professor Chris Selby·Smith will be lion's share of $1.8 million set aside in responsible for health policy and the last budget as the National Public management, and the chairman of the Sector Management Study Fund. Economics department, Professor John Gun lobby's aim: "To According to its director, Professor Head, for tax and expenditure Allan Fels, the primary thrust of the new administration. He will co-operate in the institute will be research, but it wiD also area of tax. law with Professor Yuri involve itself in teaching non-degree Grbich. a former Monash academic, intimidate government courses, providing in-service training for now at the University of New South public sector managers and carrying out Wales Law School. contract research for Australian and The position of Professor of Public foreign governments and private sector Sector Management, concerned with in the frontier society" organisations. effectiveness and efficiency in the public In addition to the successful tender to service, has been advertised. It is ex­ Australian sbooten are travelling down a well"trodden American road, says noted the Commonwealth, the institute has pected that an appointment will be made lua coatrol lobbyist, Joba Crook, la b1s Master of Arts tbesls. also drawn support from the Victorian early in 1989. Like American shooters before them, Prior to the introduction of new laws Government, which has agreed to con­ A large proportion of the money pro­ they have become influential in the at the end of 1972, the Sporting tribute $500,000 over five years to mised to the new institute will be used on shaping of government legislation, and Shooters Association brought out from enable the appointment of a Professor a seeding basis. There is no government recent scenes of shooters demonstrating the UK a former Yorkshire policeman of Public Sector Management. commitment necessarily to continue or in Australian cities could be a sign of who had written a book which disputed "The fact that there was such strong renew funding. things to come. the efficacy of gun control laws. state government support greatly Professor Fels said: uIt is hoped that .. Australians will indeed have to assisted Monash's application to the several parts of the institute'S activities watch out, because there are similarities Federal government. An earlier grant of will be self-funding by the time the between the Australian and the $60,000 a year for two years from the money runs out. There will be some American experience. We were, and to Vice-Chancellor's Academic Develop­ areas, however, where the university will some extent still are, a frontier society." ment Fund, and further support from have to seek renewed funding." said Mr Crook in an interview with I the Dean of Economics and Politics also Uln the past. there has been a dearth Monash Reporter. V gave credibility to our plans," Professor of research into public sector manage­ His thesis, The Development and In­ Fels said. ment by universities. Schools of public fluence oj the Australian and American He said that the institute eventually administration and management have Gun Lobbies I has been accepted, and he would comprise between 20 and 25 tended to downplay the part that effi· already has a working title for the Ph.D academics. This would mean the eient management practices can play in thesis he hopes to begin next year: appointment of about 15 academics achieving government policies. Shooting: The Twentieth Century within the next six months. "In fact. various schools of manage­ Religion. The institute will focus on four main ment have emphasised the private sector "Australia is a melting pot, like areas of study, each headed by a pro­ at the expense of the public sector. America," he says. "We are both, in a fessor. Professor Henry Ergas has been u A key feature of the Monash sense, new cultures with a strong out­ appointed to develop studies of com­ development is that the new institute will door sporting section. munications, especially telecommunica­ be linked with the Graduate School of •• And even though shooters are in the tions. Already. he has been active as a Management, and not hived off into a minority. as we saw in the recent gun member of the government working par­ separate school, cut off from main­ lobby marches, they're prepared to in­ ty which recently reported on the future stream developments . in management timidate state governments." • John Crook of the telecommunications industry to research and funding." While the Victorian gun lobby might His timely appearance legitimised the appear to be a political newcomer. it has stand of the association, says Me Crook. been influencing successive governments When the new laws were introduced by since the late 1950s. Sir Rupert Hamer's government on I January 1973, the restrictions on high­ Former Victorian Premier. Sir Henry powered rifles which had been in place Bolte. a farmer and keen shotgun since 1958, were removed. shooter I presided over the first post-war •'The thing that I discovered was that firearm Act in the state in 1958, Mr intelligent and sophisticated politicians Crook said. became absolutely childish when faced Under the Act, which placed some with the gun lobby." constraints on rifles. 90 per cent of a In 1978, Mr Crook founded Aus· shooter's licence was put into a wildlife tralia's first gun cODtrol organisatioD: fund earmarked for 'research and the Council for Control of Gun Misuse. development' of wildlife reserves - pro­ More recently, he helped form tbe Vic­ jects that included buying back swamps torian Coalition for Gun Control in the from local municipalities for the use of wake of the Hoddle Street killings. duck shooters. However, after eight months of being However. this cosy arrangement constantly frustrated by the coalition's which benefited the shooting fraternity lack of political will, Mr Crook was not considered unusual at the time. established Qun Control Australia' in "The traditional way of thinking was early May and became its founding that the sporting shooter knew every· chairman. thing about ducks. Therefore he was the The new lobby group maintains that it. best one to go to about conservation is essential that gun control is taken out issues because he was interested in the of the political process and placed in the future of his sport. hands of an independent authority "Ifyou go back to those times, politi· which would oversee the issuing of cians didn't think that anybody but the shooters' licences. police and the gun clubs should be con· • Continued page 2 suited on gun laws." In the legal limelight ) The Springvale Legal Service was in the news last month with a contro­ versial visit by the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, and an official opening by the Victorian Premier, Mr Cain. Mr Hawke chose the service's new the services came from a non-English premises at 5 Osborne Avenue for the speaking background, and with the help launching of the Federal Government's of translators they were able to make Social Justice report. He was greeted by more sense of life in a new country, Mr demonstrators - mainly women and Cain said. children - who drowned out the last of his speech and ensured television news * * * coverage. The Springvale Community Aid and The opening of the building was a Advice Bureau was established in an old more congenial affair. Mr Cain describ­ house at 5 Osborne Avenue in late 1970 ed the Legal Service and its co-tenant. and opened for business in July 1971. the Springvale Community Aid and Ad­ Legal "referral" sessions. started in vice Bureau. as "state-of-the-art" 1972 by Monash Law students, council models for the provision of community and bureau staff. laid the foundations • AbcMt. Mr Hawke k...,. speaking above the uproar. Below. Legal service staff. from left, services. of the Springvale Legal Service. Susanne liden, Susan Miller and (standing) co-ordinator, Adrian Evans, pfctured in the new Over the next 15 years, the bureau and offices with Mr Julian Gardner, director of Legal Aid at the Legal Aid CommiSSion of He commended those who had started Victoria. Photos - Richard Crompton. legal services in Victoria - at Spring­ the legal service grew rapidly and vale. Fitzroy and Heidelberg. developed a wide range of community • "They were not flavor-of-the-month services with local. state and federal in the early 19705, but some of you saw government funding. The two services the need and followed through," he complement each other and are widely said. acknowledged as leaders in their respec­ "Citizens' advice and legal services tive fields in Australia. have grown in number and importance The Legal Service staff come from the around Victoria. Legal Aid Commission of Victoria and "Such services give people more con~ Monash University. About 60 law trol over their lives - guiding them students work at the centre each year. through a bureaucratic maze, helping helping to provide legal advice. referral them to rectify an injustice or discover~ and casework services to several thou­ ing that they are entitled to some form sand clients.