The National Disability Insurance Scheme promises to transform the lives of people with disability, and deliver an economic boost for all Australians by creating thousands of jobs. At the recent launch of an Empowering Youth Initiative designed to encourage young people to work in the disability sector, David Moody, National Disability Services State Manager – Victoria, talked about opportunities to develop and grow the disability workforce of the future.
Read MoreThe Federal Coalition Government has introduced a range of cuts to welfare payments, and accompanying this there has been an increasing focus on compliance. Compliance requirements are often onerous and unrealistic for people receiving welfare, and in addition seem designed to strip recipients of their dignity and agency. In today’s post Policy Whisperer Susan Maury (@SusanMaury) from Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand briefly reviews some of the compliance initiatives, suggests possible world views that are driving these changes, and provides a brief review of the consequences. Note: Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand is part of the newly-formed Treating Families Fairly campaign, organised by the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare.
Read MoreThe idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is gaining traction in Australia and around the globe. While a UBI has the potential to lift people and communities out of poverty, Michael Fletcher from the Aukland University of Technology warns us that it is not a panacea; government still needs to provide comprehensive services and tailored support. This policy analysis originally appeared on the New Zealand web site Briefing Papers, and can be viewed here.
Read MoreIn another insightful post, Juanita McLaren (@defrostedlady) of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand examines the patterns of welfare dependency by women and suggests that the Welfare to Work policy could be more effective if, rather than punishing single mothers, it supported them based on normal arcs of parenting and employment. You can hear Juanita speak on her experiences at our upcoming Women’s Policy Forum, held in Melbourne on 22 September 2017.
Read MoreA growing number of organisations have explicitly supported the campaign for marriage equality in Australia. But as the debate has gathered momentum and a degree of heat in some quarters, some organisations have chosen to refrain from taking a public position, viewing the issue as one of personal conscience. In this adapted evidence review, Jason Rostant briefly outlines the public health case for health, community sector and other NGOs taking a public stance in support of marriage equality.
Read MoreIn this blog that originally appeared on the Nesta blog, Alex Glennie and Madeleine Gabriel examine the role of innovation in helping to support the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but caution that innovation is not a certain road to reducing global inequality.
Read MoreThis is a guest post on Paul Cairney's Politics & Public Policy blog by Claire A. Dunlop and Claudio M. Radaelli both from the University of Exeter. In it they discuss how to use insights from the Policy Learning literature to think about how to learn effectively or adapt to processes of ‘learning’ in policymaking that are more about politics than education. The full paper has been submitted to the series for Policy and Politics called Practical Lessons from Policy Theories
Read MoreAnother from our audio and graphic recording series from last month's Power to Persuade symposium: today we feature EY's David Schmidtchen on the vital and under-appreciated role of middle managers - the engine room of change and reform.
Read More'Naive optimism' and mistaken beliefs about improved efficiency and cost savings are major drivers of the adoption of government ‘one stop shops’, a recently published review paper has found. Misplaced expectations about cost savings don’t just influence decisions but can be damaging, as governments pre-emptively cut budgets and leave new projects without enough money, argues Dr Cosmo Howard in ANZSOG's open access Evidence Base journal.
Read MoreContinuing our audio and graphic recording series from the Power to Persuade symposium, today we feature the first panel of the day: "Changing concepts of evidence". Speakers were Tara Oliver and Prof Robert Slonim (Behavioural Economics Team, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet), Daniel Reeders of ANU, and Dr Michael Fletcher of the Auckland University of Technology.
Read MoreThis week we'll be posting the audio and graphic recordings from last month's Power to Persuade symposium held at ANU in Canberra. Jessamy Gee from Think in Colour attended the symposium and produced wonderful visual representations of each session. The keynote speaker for the day was Professor Gillian Triggs, whose presentation featured in various national media publications. Listen to Prof Triggs and see her graphic recording here!
Read MoreLast week’s Power to Persuade symposium led to fascinating discussion about how evidence feeds into public policy and the impact of post-truth political culture. Stephen Easton writes that policymakers have always seen multiple truths, and not everyone believes the widely-understood term describes a genuinely new phenomenon. This article originally appeared in The Mandarin.
Read MoreWould you, and should you trust autonomous systems? How should artificial intelligence process and act on information that could have ethical ramifications? RMIT's James Harland explains that ethics should be a key consideration in AI research. This article was originally posted on The Conversation.
Read MoreThe Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet would like to see more women work in cyber security, but it seems a cultural barrier is impeding them from entering this space. UNSW Canberra's Public Service Research Group and the Australian Centre for Cyber Security have looked into the barriers to entry for women in the cyber security industry and what steps may be taken to reduce these barriers over time. This article is a repost from The Mandarin.
Read MoreBetween 1907 and 2005, Australian deaths by infectious disease declined markedly. Now, chronic and ‘lifestyle’ diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity-related disease, and chronic respiratory conditions are dominant and account for as much as 90% of all deaths in Australia. Geoff Browne explores health equity as a collective choice.
Read MoreIt’s still true that the higher you go in the public service, the fewer women there are. Progress is not happening fast enough for many, so IPAA Victoria has made the decision to advocate for change. Article by David Donaldson.
Read MoreUsing actuarial modelling of future costs as the key measure of the welfare safety net’s effectiveness is a “deeply flawed” idea imported from New Zealand, according to Michael Fletcher, former public servant turned academic.
Read MoreResearch engagement and impact. Everyone’s talking about it. The United Kingdom’s 2014 Research Excellence Framework included it. As announced in the National Innovation and Science Agenda, the Australian Government now wants to see it. Dr Pauline Zardo with the Queensland University of Technology explores the implications for practice.
Read MoreLearning by our mistakes is an accepted wisdom, yet how does this apply in the sphere of public policy. In this re-post from The Mandarin, Catherine Althaus and David Threlfall examine the conditions needed to support innovation in public policy
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