Boards fail on strategic focus

An interesting article in the January 2015 edition of The Harvard Business Review by Dominic Barton and Mark Wiseman, Where Boards Fall Short: most boards aren’t delivering on their core mission of providing strong oversight and strategic support for management’s efforts to create long-term value.

Why the federal budget is not like a household budget

This is a timely article from Warwick Smith (research economist at the University of Melbourne) on the simplistic and misleading view that many in the public and the Parliament (and, alas, many economists) have of Government budgeting.

Managing Government finances is very different from managing a household Budget, and confusing the two approaches leads to poor public policy. The key differences include:

• Governments can compulsorily levy their income from taxpayers according to its needs, albeit that there may be some political pain and economic implications which may impose some limits
• Governments can (and do) print money (creating income out of nothing), with the only limits being balancing the inflation and exchange rate effects
• the need to balance budgets is a myth, which harks back to the days when currencies were backed by the gold standard

Higher education changes a ‘fraud on the electorate’

This is an excellent article on the Government's poorly conceived and executed higher education "reforms" from Stephen Parker, Vice Chancellor at the University of Canberra, and one of the only University leaders to speak out against the proposals.

Public sector performance measurement and reporting

The Victorian Auditor-General has recently published a report which documents the lamentable nature of public service performance reporting, not just in Victoria but across all Australian jurisdictions.

The role of rice in the food security of Asia

It was a pleasure to read an authoritative survey on food security recently. Peter Timmer is an Adjunct Professor at the Crawford School of ANU and was previously at Harvard.

Timmer's article, Food Security in Asia and the Pacific: The Rapidly Changing Role of Rice, is a survey of the changing role of rice in the food security of Asia, the behavioural dimensions of food security, and policy approaches.

Treasury workshopped dealing with recession in 2003-04

The Treasury has released papers, under a Freedom of Information request, documenting how it's Executive Board considered dealing with a possible recession in 2003-04. The issues raised in the papers figured large in Treasury's advice to the Rudd Government in 2008, when considering a response to the global financial crisis.

Lacking political leadership: Comparing the treatment of boat people in 1977 and today

An excellent article by Klaus Neumann, Professor of History at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, in “Queue jumpers” and the perils of crossing Sydney Harbour on a Manly ferry provides the historical context for the current morass that is Australia's refugee policy.

Neumann provides a survey of the Vietnamese boat people "crisis" that occurred in 1977 and draws parallels with the politics of boat people during the last decade or so.

Former PS Head: Five problems with the state of the public service

Two recent articles in The Mandarin on problems with the APS—one from a former APS Head and the other a former Minister.

IMF: Inclusive capitalism and financial integrity

Christine Lagarde (Managing Director, IMF) gave an insightful speech in May on the topic of economic inclusion and financial integrity. One of the interesting themes highlighted was that inequality is not a trade-off for better economic performance - indeed, IMF research indicates that the right redistributive policies actually lead to better performing economies. Furthermore, Lagarde focusses on the need to ingrain a greater social consciousness in the financial sector, so as to re-engender trust in the system.

IMF: Redistribution, Inequality and Growth

In a staff paper published in February, the IMF examines the links between rising inequality and the fragility of economic growth. They note that conventional wisdom would suggest that redistribution would in itself be bad for growth but, conceivably, by engendering greater equality, might help growth.

OECD predicts: No Malthusian food security crisis anytime soon

Good news it seems! The OECD doesn’t expect a Malthusian food crisis to materialise any time soon. 

Agriculture Minister foreshadows a return to sensible agriculture policy rhetoric?

Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce MP, has demonstrated a sense of proportion in respect of Australia's place in the global food market, in contrast to many politicians and industry leaders or lobbyists. Speaking at the Farm Writer's Association of NSW on 25 July and again today on Sky News, the Agriculture Minister stated that “We’re not going to be the food basket of Asia. We’ve got to dispense with that rhetoric. It’s ridiculous."

Governance inadequacies and waste in indigenous programs

A great opinion piece by Nyunggai Warren Mundine, Stop the waste: let our people govern, in The Australian this weekend commenting on the inadequacies in the mainstream policy approach to remote indigenous communities.

Amanda Vanstone’s tips for influencing Ministers

Lindsey Eifler from Criterion Conferences recently blogged about Amanda Vanstone's top tips for influencing Ministers. Vanstone, a former Howard Government Minister, shared the tips with delegates at Criterion's recent Policy Development conference.

Rethinking the nature of strategy

NAB's latest Business Research and Insights, contains a summary of a seminar provided by Michael Porter at the World Economic Forum, which was held in Sydney in May. Porter is a Professor at Harvard Business School and Director of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, and he discussed the world of opportunities available to companies that are willing to recalibrate their thinking around strategy.

Board's role in developing and overseeing the implementation of strategy

An excellent article by Tony Featherstone in the March edition of Company Director on the Board's role in developing and overseeing the implementation of strategy, including 12 top tips.

Public sector enterprise bargaining

An excellent article yesterday from the Canberra Times' Public Sector Informant. Paddy Gourley writes that:

It's hard to think of an area of policy that is more shambolic, fraudulent and counterproductive than the government's IR bargaining arrangements for the public service. It has been indulged for many years and is a proven failure. At huge extra costs, it has smothered productivity and efficiency, inhibited the movement of staff between agencies and wrecked the touted notion of ''One APS''.

Agriculture White Paper: Productivity Commission Submission

In the Productivity Commission's submission to the Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper, the Commission made the following main points:

• Governments should focus on providing an environment that facilitates innovation and productivity gains by farm enterprises and allows market forces to allocate land, water and management skills to their highest valued uses.

Agriculture White Paper Submission: Chicken Meat Submission

I worked with Inovact to put together this Australian Chicken Meat Federation submission for the Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper.

Vegetable growers angry over research direction

An independent review into Horticulture Australia Limited is raising concerns that have been brewing among growers for many years.

The rumbling is in the vegetable sector with a number of submissions to an ongoing independent review of Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL) revealing concerns that Australia's research capacity has been destroyed.

Largest horticulture levy payer calls for reform

Australia's largest mushroom producer, Costa, is unhappy with the way horticulture levies are managed and spent.

Governance advisory panel for Treasury

The Secretary of the Commonwealth Treasury, Martin Parkinson, has established an Australian Treasury Advisory Council. This group of respected leaders will make up a governance and advisory board that will help replicate the discipline provided by a private sector governance board.

Revisiting the reliability of ABS' GDP growth estimates - 2002 RBA research paper

Estimates of GDP growth have, at least for some periods, been subject to substantial alteration for quite some time after they were first released—sometimes for as much as 5-10 years. This issue was the subject of one of the more interesting past RBA research discusison papers—Real-time National Accounts Data by Andrew Stone and Sharon Wardrop (September 2002).

Food Security 1 — Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies conference

I was at an Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies conference at the ANU last week. The lowlight of an otherwise excellent conference was the final session on food security. Particularly ordinary was the presentation by Julian Cribb, a science communicator and journalist. The slides or papers aren't available yet, but his talk was consistent with this presentation and his book The Coming Famine.

Food Security 2 — Presentation to the Academy of Social Sciences

In my earlier blog today, Food Security 1, on the food security seminar convened last week by the ANU, I referred to a 2011 symposium organised by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, following release of the PMSEIC report on food security.

I presented on the issue of agricultural production in the Murray-Darling Basin in the context of international food security (I was chief economist at the  Murray-Darling Basin Authority at the time). While not criticising the PMSEIC report directly, I pointed out that water (in this case) was just one factor of production, and farmers are adept at maintaining production, even in the face of very sizable changes in input availability or prices.

Food Security 3 — Agricultural productivity growth

At the recent ABARES Outlook 2014 conference, there was an excellent presentation by Ken Ash of the OECD on Policies to Enhance Agricultural Productivity Growth.

Productivity Commission Staff Paper - Non-market Valuation

A new Productivity Commission Staff Working Paper examines the potential for these methods to contribute to policy decisions that better reflect community preferences. The paper also offers suggestions on how best use can be made of non-market valuation in developing environmental policy.

ANU forum on competition policy reforms - Rod Sims

The ANU Crawford School hosted an excellent forum on Friday, mostly a retrospective from key players in the 1995 Hilmer competition reforms, but also with some interesting insights into competition policy design and work left to do for the Abbott Government's new review.

Rod Sims talked about what the Abbott Government's proposed review of competition policy should focus on, and what can be learnt from the Hilmer reforms.

ANU forum on competition policy reforms - Peter Harris

The ANU Crawford School hosted an excellent forum on Friday, mostly a retrospective from key players in the 1995 Hilmer competition reforms, but also with some interesting insights into competition policy design and work left to do for the Abbott Government's new review.

Peter Harris scoffed at the idea that all the low hanging fruit (in terms of economic reform) had been picked—there never was any low hanging fruit. Getting agreement to undertake the Hilmer review was extremely difficult, and so too was implementing the competition reforms.

ANU forum on competition policy reforms - Ken Henry

The ANU Crawford School hosted an excellent forum on Friday, mostly a retrospective from key players in the 1995 Hilmer competition reforms, but also with some interesting insights into competition policy design and work left to do for the Abbott Government's new review.

ANU forum on competition policy reforms - Fred Hilmer

The ANU Crawford School hosted an excellent forum on Friday, mostly a retrospective from key players in the 1995 Hilmer competition reforms, but also with some interesting insights into competition policy design and work left to do for the Abbott Government's new review.

Fred Hilmer talked about what the Abbott Government's proposed review of competition policy should focus on, and what can be learnt from the Hilmer reforms.

Agriculture infrastructure development in Australia

In NAB's latest Corporate Finance Insights, Frank Drum and Ben Matigian examine the infrastructure gap in Australian agriculture and the potential for strategic infrastructure investment in the sector.

Australia’s role in securing the food, water and supply chains of Asia

Dr Ken Henry, (former Treasury Secretary) has provided an insightful and realistic assessment of the role for Australian agriculture in Asia in the latest version of NAB's Corporate Finance Insights.

Basin Plan Timeline for 2014

The MDBA has released a timeline of Basin planning activities for 2014.

There are a lot of publications due for release this year, which will start providing some of the detailed planning information, including:

• water trade guidelines (March)
• evaluation framework (April)
• annual environmental watering priorities for 2014-15 (June)
• environmental watering strategy (November)

State of Housing Supply Report: Changes in how we live

Around Australia, most housing markets exhibit dampened demand and construction rates, reflecting an investment environment of relative uncertainty and risk aversion. While prices have edged upward in many places (significantly in Darwin), relatively low levels of demand continue despite historically low interest rates. 

Encouraging entrepreneurial thinking in rural communities

Farm consolidation, globalisation of new technologies and different ways of doing business are all having an impact on Australia’s rural communities. For those with an entrepreneurial mindset, the changes signal opportunity rather than the threat of decline.

“In the rural sector, the ability to identify, create and develop new opportunities is fundamental to building sustainable businesses and making the most of emerging markets,” says Dr Yasmin Chalmers, Director of the Centre for the Study of Rural Australia at Marcus Oldham College. “We designed the EntruBIZ program to encourage farmers and other business owners to think in a more entrepreneurial way.”

Business imperatives for a prosperous Australia

A new paper from Deloitte asks how Australia–and its individual sectors and businesses–can position for prosperity? If mining is our current wave, how do we extend its run? And what other future waves can we catch?

The role of management and the board in managing strategic risk

Backed by the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Research Council, a new study will examine the role of both management and the board in managing strategic risk – the risks created as a result of an organisation trying to deliver on its strategy.