In an environment of "post-truth politics" and hybrid governance, how can we ensure that those working in the public sector are trusted, equipped and encouraged to weigh up evidence, to negotiate consensus among different stakeholders and to design public policy and public services that promote the public good? Thu-Trang Tran, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, explains why we should be looking for - and cultivating - wisdom in public administration.
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As well as changing the way we deliver services to our clients, the NDIS is affecting how disability organisations work with each other.
That’s why UNSW, National Disability Services and the Brotherhood of St Laurence are calling on CEOs, senior managers and sole providers to help us paint a complete picture of the ways organisations collaborate under the NDIS.
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The Liberal’s Welfare to Work model has been dissected from many angles, including several Power to Persuade blogs (e.g., this recent policy comparison, this discussion of the psychological impacts of feeling ‘workless’, and this piece on how current welfare policies are designed to punish recipients. Today’s piece provides an insider’s perspective, as Juanita McLaren uses the required number of work hours to demonstrate the illogical bureaucratic requirements that are placed on recipients. Juanita is on student placement with Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand.
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The exploitation of migrant workers in Australia is widespread, with current systems failing to stop the abuse. The WEstjustice Community Legal Centre Employment Law Project seeks to address this by consulting with newly arrived and refugee community members, leaders and organisations, and collaborating with community partners to improve employment outcomes. Project Lead Catherine Hemingway (@cathemingway) shares this summary of the Project's key findings and recommendations, to be released in an upcoming report: Not just work: ending the exploitation of refugee and migrant workers.
Read MoreThe Attorney-General and Solicitor-General's office have been locked in a high stakes political battle over the provision of advice to the Federal Government. In this post, Jennifer Duxbury (@duxburyjen) at the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra, asks, what is the relationship between law and politics in our democracy? This post originally appeared on The Policy Space.
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Is evidence-based policymaking "naïve and dystopian"? In this post, Devaki Nambiar (Research Scientist at the Public Health Foundation of India and a Member of the Social Science Approaches for Research and Engagement in Health Policy & Systems (SHAPES) and Translating Evidence into Action Thematic Working Groups of Health Systems Global) argues that for research knowledge to inform policy, it must be 'translated' by a range of other players who can make it 'culturally salient and institutionally viable'. This post originally appeared on the Health Systems Global website.
Read More'Learn to love complaints' is the message from Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass to the public sector bodies she investigates. Her office has produced a good practice guide as part of its work to drive improvements in public administration.
It's a useful guide also for other sectors, not least its case studies which also point to the Ombudsman's role in handling complaints from vulnerable and disadvantaged people
Read MoreJudith Innes, Professor Emerita of City and Regional Planning, at the University of California Berkley speaks in this video lecture on: Planning in complexity: applying collaborative rationality to wicked problems. It was delivered as part of the 2016 Dean's Lecture Series at the University of Melbourne, and is posted here with thanks.
Read MoreCayte Hoppner, Director of Mental Health for Latrobe Regional Hospital (LRH) in south-eastern Victoria and a member of the Inner Gippsland Child and Youth Area Partnership steering group, has led a trial on how a whole agency can change practice to be trauma informed.
The training was rolled to nearly 300 staff members of the LRH's mental health services, across 13 sites and multiple disciplines and roles – from clinicians to cleaners – and is seen to have had a profound impact on the way that teams and individuals think and wor
Read Moren an open letter to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during Anti-Poverty Week, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the Campaign for Australian Aid, along with 36 signatories, have called on the Australian Government to take meaningful action to fight domestic and global poverty.
Read MoreThe Strengthening Disability Advocacy Conference hosted recently in Melbourne by the Disability Advocacy Resource Unit (DARU) included a session on applying a human rights based approach to person-centred service delivery. It asked:
- What role can or should disability advocacy play in a landscape of person-centred service delivery?
- How do we make sure that mainstream services are accessible to people with disability?
- What will best practice look like?
Advocacy for Inclusion CEO Christina Ryan was a panelist at the session and delivered this address to open her contribution, which included a big challenge to all community service organisations in the room.
Read MoreRecent effective election campaigns by nurses and teachers may point the way to new industrial campaigning on issues that is led by women and will shift beyond the traditional union-Labor party dynamic, writes Ben Spies-Butcher in the post below.
It was originally published at the POP Politics Blog and is republished here with permission.
Read MoreToday we present the final blog post from Putting Women at the Centre: A Policy Forum. Hannah Gissane (@hannahgissane) from the Equality Rights Alliance (@ERAAustralia) discusses the role of feminist networks in advocacy. She covers a brief history – or herstory – of women’s networks in Australia, including the ERA. She then discusses networks as influencers, capacity builders, and movements, concluding that networks help women reach out to each other for support, exchange of knowledge, growth, and to generate the energy needed to do the difficult but essential work of advancing equality.
Read MoreA/Prof Alison Reid of Curtin University knows more than most about predictive models for the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma. In today's Women's Policy Action Tank she draws on her ANZSOG-funded research in the latest issue of Evidence Base journal to explain why these models are important to get right - and why we need to pay attention to women as well as men!
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Today’s blog post by Policy Whisperer Susan Maury (@SusanMaury) examines the intersection between social isolation and flourishing, particularly for young people. Australians report feeling increasingly lonely, which has alarming cognitive, social and health consequences across the lifespan. It is time to incorporate a proactive, universal approach to ensuring young people know how to create and sustain positive social relationships.
Read MoreLast week Good Shepherd’s (@GoodAdvocacy) Financial Security Specialist, Tanya Corrie (@TanyaCorrie), attended a major gathering of anti-poverty advocates and services in Boston. Run by Empath (@DisruptPoverty), an organisation that has developed a unique approach to services, research, and advocacy, the conference explored new frontiers in disrupting inter-generational disadvantage, and of which Good Shepherd is a member. Here, Tanya highlights how services can use the latest brain science on stress and trauma in both delivering services and influencing systemic change.
Read MoreAt this year’s Prevalent and Preventable Conference organised by the Australian Women Against Violence Alliance (AWAVA) and Our Watch, there was a dedicated stream to exploring intersectionality within the Australian context, in relation to responding to, and preventing violence against women, specifically those who have been ‘minoritised’ by the dominant social groups. Intersectional theory is by no means new, however its more centralised inclusion in the violence against women discourse is. Many feminist and critical race theorists have long suggested and warned that ‘culture talk’ in relation to violence against women is a double-edged sword – whilst it may obscure gender-based domination within communities, it also highlights the importance of cultural considerations for contextualising oppressed groups claim for justice, for improving their access to services, and for requiring dominant groups to examine the invisible cultural advantages they enjoy.
This blog piece provides a reflection of the intersectionality stream and is posted as a Storify by the Women's Policy Action Tank.
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As an egregious abuse of human rights and an often hidden form of violence against women and children, forced marriage needs very specific policy responses. Currently, the major response is a legal one, requiring police intervention. Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand has been a key driver in increasing awareness of its prevalence in Australia, through conducting research (The Right to Refuse) and helping to establish the Victorian Forced Marriage Network. Good Shepherd’s Kathy Landvogt explains why a criminal response, while important, is not adequate.
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The Productivity Commission’s inquiry into Human Services has released its interim report, and Policy Whisperer Paul Smyth identifies the social services sector as leading the match – but is there scope to carry this important conversation to completion? Together with Eleanor Malbon and Gemma Carey, Paul led a coordinated response to the Inquiry in the form of the report Social Service Futures and the Productivity Commission.
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Today’s policy analysis examines how the government response to disasters puts women at greater risk due to a lack of gender analysis. Stereotyped role assumptions underpin women’s increased vulnerability; they are more likely to experience violence and financial hardship immediately following a disaster, and are are less likely to have received disaster preparedness training. What is known about gendered differences to disasters needs to be incorporated into an effective strategy to keep women and children safer.
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