Housing First is an approach to address homelessness that prioritises providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness. Here Professor Sarah Johnsen from Heriot Watt University in the UK reflects on what it is about Housing First that fosters such positive housing (and other) outcomes.
Read MoreThe Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP) is an innovative collaboration that sees organisations across industry, government, not-for-profits and education coming together to improve financial inclusion and resilience across Australia. Here Vinita Godinho and Abigail Powell explain the importance of a program such as this and reveal findings from the evaluation of phase one of the FIAP program.
Read MoreAcademics are increasingly exhorted to ensure their research has policy “impact”. But is this ambition predicated on an overly simplistic understanding of the policy process? Christina Boswell and Katherine Smith set out four different approaches to theorising the relationship between knowledge and policy and consider what each of these suggests about approaches to incentivising and measuring research impact.
Read MoreResearch assessment exercises provide the government and wider public with assurance of the quality of university research, with the guiding principles being accountability, transparency, and openness. But is there the same accountability and openness when it comes to the public cost of these large-scale exercises?
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The Cashless Debit Card Symposium was held at both the University of Melbourne and the Alfred Deakin Institute on Thursday, the 1st of February 2018. The Symposium attracted attendees from a range of backgrounds, including card-holders, representatives from community organisations, academics based at a number of Australian universities, Labor and Greens senators, and various other interested parties. A mix of presentations and panel discussions generated productive conversations around issues including the experience of being subject to the Cashless Debit Card (CDC), settler-colonial relations and the CDC, a rights-based perspective on income management, the consumer and banking implications of the CDC, income management and the social determinants of health, and perspectives on moving beyond current framings of welfare in Australia. Additionally, the Symposium featured a panel discussion on behavioural approaches in policy making. This is the first of several blogs that the Power to Persuade will publish based on the papers presented on the day. We kick off with an overview by Elise Klein, the organiser of the Symposium and a leading researcher into its harmful effects on communities and individuals. This paper is drawn in part from an article that ran in The Conversation; you can read it in its original form here.
Read MoreAustralia has a housing affordability problem. There’s no doubt about that. Unfortunately, one of the reasons the problem has become so entrenched is that the policy conversation appears increasingly confused. It’s time to debunk some policy clichés that keep re-emerging.
Read MoreThis week the national broadcaster's current affairs programs have focused on Australia's rapid population growth, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne. Discussion has highlighted the policy and planning challenges posed for governments and communities when population growth outstrips infrastructure planning. Few regions are grappling with these challenges in the quite the same way as Melbourne's west.
In this piece, Rodney Maddock presents a three-pronged approach that considers changes to planning laws, transport improvements, and creation of decentralised employment hubs to meet Melbourne's growth challenges across the West.
Read MoreThe Commonwealth Government announced late last year that they are changing the way they fund hospitals. While the initiative aims to improve the quality of hospital care and reduce overall costs, the new policy may result in some negative impacts. Helen Dickinson, Associate Professor of UNSW Canberra's Public Service Research Group explains why the pay-for-performance scheme may lead to unintended consequences. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Read MorePerformance management is key to achieving employee effectiveness and efficiency, but are organisations using probation as a tool to achieve high performance? Deborah Blackman, Fiona Buick, Samantha Johnson, and Michael O’Donnell of UNSW Canberra's Public Service Research Group believe that employers should use probation to help define high performance and encourage desired employee behaviour.
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What can the recent dramas surrounding Barnaby Joyce tell us about progress for women’s equality on International Women’s Day 2018? In today’s post, popular welfare commentator Juanita McLaren (@defrostedlady) and Policy Whisperer Susan Maury (@SusanMaury), both of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, use the headlines as an opportunity to consider how the Coalition’s own policies on welfare would hypothetically impact on Mr. Joyce’s family were he not in politics.
Read MoreIn honour of International Women’s Day on March 8th, the Wiley Network spoke with Associate Professor Helen Dickinson (UNSW Canberra's Public Service Research Group) and Professor Janine O'Flynn (University of Melbourne's School of Government) about their experiences as a successful women in academia and how societies and associations can help to improve gender parity in research fields. This podcast was originally published on the Wiley Network.
Read MoreResearch from UNSW Canberra's Gemma Carey, Helen Dickinson, Eleanor Malbon and Daniel Reeders shows that government must take an active role in ensuring that the important policy goals of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) are met through market stewardship, employing more than just light-touch measures. Eleanor Malbon and Gemma Carey explain their research findings in this article from The Mandarin.
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Market approaches have been used in a range of areas in Australia, an example of which is the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). While market approaches may lead to efficiencies in some areas, Gemma Carey of UNSW Canberra and the Centre for Social Impact argues that the Scheme should not sacrifice equity in the name of efficiency. This post was originally published in Pro Bono Australia.
Read MoreLaptops, mobile phones and other technological advances have created a workplace culture where employers and employees work around the clock. But more and more workplaces, and a few governments, have stepped in to ensure that work-life balance is protected to maintain productivity and employee wellbeing. UNSW Canberra's Dr Sue Williamson and Dr Meraiah Foley explain why 'leav[ing] early' should be modeled by public sector leaders to encourage healthier work behaviours. This piece was originally published in The Mandarin.
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How has the Australian Public Service (APS) been progressing and embedding gender equality, and are its efforts working? In the report Embedding Gender Equality in the Australian Public Service: Changing practices, changing cultures, UNSW Canberra's Dr Sue Williamson explains how the Australian Public Service Gender Equality Strategy has started an important conversation about the nature of equality, and where the APS may improve to achieve its goals. This piece was originally published in The Mandarin.
Read MoreThere are a range of approaches and tools that can be used to assess and improve public policy for women. Annie Pettitt, of Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, shared her expertise in applying a human rights lens to gender inequality in a keynote address given at the Women’s Policy Forum, held on 22 September 2017 in Melbourne. Today’s piece provides a summary of Annie’s key points, which explains the unique contributions that a human rights frame makes to better policy for women.
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There are high levels of awareness in Australia concerning the importance of men’s mental health. However, in today’s post Sarah Squire, recently appointed as the head of the Women’s Research, Advocacy and Policy (WRAP) Centre at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, argues that this is coming at the expense of awareness and investment in women’s mental health. There are specific gendered differences when it comes to addressing mental health needs, and the absence of women and girls within national mental health policy is deeply concerning.
Read MoreIn today’s post, Laura Vidal, who recently joined Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, discusses best practice solutions to early and forced marriage, particularly in light of recent Australia policy changes. Due to her work in both service delivery and policy responses to individuals who have experienced human trafficking and slavery, Laura received a 2017 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship, which took her on a study tour to 6 countries (Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, Denmark, United States, Canada and Kenya) to inform responses to early and forced marriage.
Read MoreThe ‘gender pay gap’ is a major contributor to conditions that enable and perpetuate domestic and family violence. That women on average earn much less than men increases their vulnerability to financial abuse, makes it difficult for them to leave violent relationships, and leaves them much worse off financially if they do leave. Recent research suggests that it’s the ‘child penalty’ more than anything else that is currently driving the pay gap. ANZSOG Research Fellow Sophie Yates (@MsSophieRae), who is completing a PhD on gender and domestic and family violence, reflects on the importance of changing our expectations about who will take care of children if we want to significantly reduce family violence.
Read MoreIn the new age of big data, firms are gathering comprehensive information about consumers - transaction and consumption data, browsing history, social network, or location data - that is increasingly tipping the scales in the firms' favour. In this post, Lauren Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of the Consumer Policy Research Centre, reflects on the need to broaden our understanding of consumer data issues in Australia, beyond establishing a Consumer Data Right and the Review into Open Banking. This piece was originally published in The Mandarin.
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