ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SUE OLNEY
Sue is the Director of Power to Persuade. She is an Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Her research examines cross-jurisdictional governance, opportunities and challenges in coordinating policy design and implementation across service systems, and impacts of policy reform on individuals, communities, service providers and bureaucrats, with a focus on disability, employment, and welfare-to-work service systems.
Sue has worked in universities, government and the not-for-profit sector, and been involved in a range of cross-government, cross-sector and interdisciplinary research projects, government and community sector initiatives, committees and working groups to promote access and equity in employment, education, training, health and disability services in Australia and internationally. Her past academic appointments include Public Policy Research Fellow at the Melbourne Disability Institute, Honorary Senior Fellow in the Melbourne School of Government, and Honorary Fellow in the Melbourne Social Equity Institute at the University of Melbourne; Honorary Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University; and Visiting Fellow in the Public Service Research Group at UNSW Canberra; and her academic experience includes teaching and research on governance and public administration at the University of Melbourne, UNSW Canberra, ANU, and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).
Sue is also a partner in the consortium led by Swinburne University developing the Centre for Inclusive Employment for the Department of Social Services from 2026 to 2028; a Research Affiliate in the Centre of Research Excellence in Achieving Health Equity for All People with Disabilities (CRE-AHEAD); and a Fellow in the Australian Welfare and Work Lab.
Sue holds a PhD in Public Policy and is on the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Public Administration.
2026
Speaking truth to power: a tribute to Dr Raelene West
2025
Strengthening Australia’s reform 'muscle' via Social Licence to Operate: Evidence and practice
Measuring the hidden costs of disability in Australia
No one left behind: the urgent need for disability support outside the NDIS
2024
The power to persuade: a tribute to Professor Gemma Carey
2023
The importance of diverse perspectives
2022
Looking for workers in the lead up to the Jobs and Skills Summit? Here’s half a million.
The social safety net as a complex system failure for women
Finding support outside the NDIS
2021
2020
Will COVID-19 kill the 'lifters and leaners’ welfare trope?
The long tail of COVID-19: implications for disability policy
2019
The 2019 Power to Persuade symposium: examining systems thinking and big data in social policy
Blunt mechanisms fail to move unemployed people into viable employment
Explainer: Newstart - Australia's unemployment benefit scheme
2018
Back-to-back MoGs induce ‘dysfunction’, warns APS review submission
2017
Random drug testing won’t help unemployed people find a job or overcome addiction
New tools for thinking about policy implementation
Choice, control and the NDIS: Service users’ experiences of the National Disability Insurance Scheme
2016
Working across boundaries: how insights from feminist thinking can make us better at collaboration