Mutated conventions: how secrecy in the name of security harms democracy

Jude McCulloch (Monash University) writes in The Conversation that secrecy is a weapon of information control that valorises official stories and outlaws those who expose governments and police and security agencies to scrutiny.

Yes minister: how political appointments tip the scales of fearless advice

Chris Aulich (University of Canberra) writes in The Conversation that the public service has gradually become more politicised in recent years. But this is a bigger problem for agencies broadly described as integrity agencies and for bodies where public perception of neutrality are important to their operations.

Boats secrecy leads to bad policy without democratic accountability

Alex Reilly (Director of the Public Law and Policy Research Unit, University of Adelaide) writes in The Conversation that there is confusion about the role of government, and the role of information in holding the government to account. The agencies of the bureaucracy are a central part of government. They carry out the will of the executive and as such need to be open to the same scrutiny as ministers themselves.

Higher education changes: the case in favour

A few weeks ago I republished an excellent article on the Government's poorly conceived and executed higher education "reforms" from Stephen Parker. His was a cogent and spirited attack on "ideology in search of a problem". The justifications of the reforms by the government amount to little more than confused rhetoric, attempting to "spin" away the mean-spirited dogma.

John Quiggin has also provided a spirited and cogent attack on the "reforms".

In contrast, Ian Young (Vice Chancellor at ANU) attempted to fill the intellectual void with a flawed attempt in support of the reforms in front of the National Press Club a month or so ago.

Now Glyn Davis (Vice Chancellor at Melbourne University) has made an attempt to justify the elite universities' support for the reforms - it seems it is all simply a desperate attempt to shore up funding in the face of the continuing erosion of Commonwealth funding. Well, at least he's honest! Nevertheless, he makes some useful points.

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.

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.

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''.