Centre for Policy Development's Blog, page 132

Fiona Armstrong: What's good for the planet

Another round of global climate talks is now behind us, and Australia has again avoided making any serious commitments to emissions reductions – despite the increasing willingness of poorer countries to do so. Looking at the climate policy agenda at home, Fiona Armstrong provides a glimmer of hope that there is recognition that re-framing the issue in a positive way may assist garnering the political support needed.

Read her article in Climate Spectator here.

James Arvanitakis: Who gets to speak freely?

Howard defended Pauline Hanson on free speech grounds. Why won't Gillard do the same for Assange? James Arvanitakis on what's at stake in the free speech argument.

Julian Assange is polarising opinion – of him as a crusader for free speech or a terrorist threatening the nation. James considers how far free speech should go and the responsibility that comes with it.

Read James' article in New Matilda here.

Ben Eltham: Wikileaks, Democracy 101

Like the rest of the world, we've been riveted by Wikileaks. In the first of two articles, CPD's Ben Eltham, goes behind the firewall and encrypted data to investigate what the recent developments mean for democracy and for what is now a truly new media.

Ben sifts through the avalanche of information, to make some fundamental points about the lies, misinformation and spin in his article for New Matilda here.

Eva Cox: Put the big society (back) on the agenda

Eva Cox asks can we retrieve and renew the idea that we live in a society, and that it's the qualities of how we live with each other that makes life good? When balancing community, governments and markets, Eva says we need to develop policies that serve our social goals, not just the economy.

Eva writes as part of Crikey's Big Ideas series, and considers how we re-orient priorities of government policy to ones that recognise the importance of a fair go and communality over and above serving the economy. Read her article in Crikey here.

Jennifer Doggett: Bean counters' diet that is starving us all

Jennifer Doggett, the author of our new paper, 'Beyond the Blunt Instrument: the Efficiency Dividend and its alternatives' writes about her findings in the Public Sector Informant in the Canberra Times. The efficiency dividend - After 20 years of arbitrary budget cuts, the bureaucracy is effectively eating itself

Jennifer illustrates what's wrong with the Efficiency Dividend:

"As anyone who has tried budgeting knows, there is a limit to the effectiveness of most cost-cutting measures. People who buy expensive take-away food for their work lunches will find it relatively easy to save money by bringing food from home instead.  However, those already taking homemade sandwiches every day will struggle to reduce their spending further and still provide nutritious lunches.

After 20 years of the Efficiency Dividend, the public service is now at the 'vegemite sandwich' stage of budgeting. Spending has been cut back to the point at which Departments now need to reduce core functions in order to deliver ongoing savings."

Jennifer continues:

"As two parliamentary inquiries into this policy have demonstrated, smaller agencies and those with a central policy function are particularly hard hit as they find it more difficult to undertake the 'creative accounting' required to meet savings targets.

For example, one practice, reported by public sector employees consulted as part of the Centre for Policy Development's research, is for organisations to artificially inflate the budgets of new policy proposals (exempt from the Efficiency Dividend) in order to offset the savings required elsewhere."

You can download a PDF of Jennifer Doggett's full article here.

Download 'Beyond the Blunt Instrument: the Efficiency Dividend and its alternatives'.

Markus Mannheim: Public Sector lifts costs in budget 'game'

The Efficiency Dividend – the main mechanism used to drive performance improvements across the Australian Public Service (APS) – has been chipping away at public service budgets for 20 years. While initially it may have helped reduce excess spending, its effects are now eroding the ability of government agencies to provide core services.

Today we launched our latest paper, 'Beyond the Blunt Instrument: the Efficiency Dividend and its alternatives' . In it, Jennifer Doggett discusses the many problems caused by the Efficiency Dividend and recommends alternative measures.

Markus Mannheim talked to the paper's author, Jennifer Doggett about some of the research findings. Read the full article in The Canberra Times here.

Former CPD intern to head on Antarctica expedition

Gemma Borgo-Caratti started interning with CPD a year ago, working on seeding our Green Economy Toolkit project – a policy portal of good green economic policy ideas. Gemma's experience here and engagement with climate policy ideas sparked her commitment to be a climate change campaigner. Now working at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), Gemma is planning to set off on an expedition to Antarctica in April 2011. She will become a youth ambassador for the protection of Antarctica,  making a commitment to campaign for Antarctica's protection up to and including 2041 when the moratorium is up for renewal.

Here's what Gemma has to say about her time contributing to the ideas at CPD:

'The dedicated team at CPD helped me to discover my passion for environmental protection and sustainability. Their commitment to effective and sustainable policy in Australia inspired me to take action and create the change I so desperately wanted to see. I had an amazing experience here during my placement at University and afterwards as a volunteer. I learnt so many new skills and I encourage anyone with in interest in policy development to volunteer with them. Thanks for all the opportunities you have given me.'

We're all very proud of Gemma. Read about her planned expedition to Antarctica in Northside magazine here (flick to page 9).

Chris Bonner: Education's Social Division

Chris Bonnor is concerned that trend of more public spending on education shifting to private education is creating social and academic apartheid in our schools.  In his article  How to end apartheid in Australian schools", in our recent book More Than Luck: Ideas Australia needs now, he argues that education is no longer considered a public good. Instead it's more of a positional race to get our kids the best chance in life.

Read about the growing divide in our schools and listen to Chris Bonner's in conversation with Phil Dobbie on BNET here.

Former CPD intern to head to Antartica as a climate ambassador

Gemma Borgo-Caratti started interning with CPD a year ago, working on seeding our Green Economy Toolkit project – a policy portal of good green policy ideas. Gemma's experience here and engagement with climate policy ideas sparked her commitment to be a climate change campaigner. Now working at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), Gemma is planning to set off on an expedition to Antarctica in April 2011.

Here's what Gemma has to say about her time contributing to the ideas at CPD:

'The dedicated team at CPD helped me to discover my passion for environmental protection and sustainability. Their commitment to effective and sustainable policy in Australia inspired me to take action and create the change I so desperately wanted to see. I had an amazing experience here during my placement at University and afterwards as a volunteer. I learnt so many new skills and I encourage anyone with in interest in policy development to volunteer with them. Thanks for all the opportunities you have given me.'

Read about Gemma and her planned expedition to Antarctica in Northside magazine here (flick to page 9).

Beyond the Blunt Instrument: the Efficiency Dividend and its alternatives

Efficiency Dividend is inefficient: Danger of waste on the way to asurplus

A new paper from the Centre for Policy Development examines the flaws caused by blanket budget cuts and puts forward alternatives.

The Efficiency Dividend – the main mechanism used to drive performance improvements across the Australian Public Service (APS) – has been chipping away at public service budgets for 20 years. While initially it may have helped reduce excess spending, its effects are now eroding the ability of government agencies to provide core services.

In the 2010 election campaign, Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey announced that a Coalition Government would increase the Efficiency Dividend to 2% if elected as part of a plan to deliver a Budget surplus 'twice as big as Labor's'. There are reports that the Government is also considering an increase in the Efficiency Dividend.

But the bean counting associated with the Efficiency Dividend is no trivial matter. The way in which we use public sector resources has a profound impact upon the sort of society we live in now and that which we leave behind for future generations.

Our latest paper 'Beyond the Blunt Instrument: The Efficiency Dividend and its alternatives' by CPD Fellow Jennifer Doggett discusses the many problems caused by the Efficiency Dividend and recommends alternative measures.

"The Efficiency Dividend is an easy way for Governments to hide overspending and bring Budgets back into surplus. However, this short-term electoral advantage occurs at the expense of essential public services which improve our individual and community well-being over the longer term. There are better ways to promote efficiency within the public service which don't compromise the role of public sector agencies or risk reducing the quality of service delivery", the paper's author, Jennifer Doggett said.

Jennifer illustrates what's wrong with the Efficiency Dividend in her upcoming opinion piece in the Public Sector Informant magazine in The Canberra Times:

"As anyone who has tried budgeting knows, there is a limit to the effectiveness of most cost-cutting measures. People who buy expensive take-away food for their work lunches will find it relatively easy to save money by bringing food from home instead.  However, those already taking homemade sandwiches every day will struggle to reduce their spending further and still provide nutritious lunches.

After 20 years of the Efficiency Dividend, the public service is now at the 'vegemite sandwich' stage of budgeting. Spending has been cut back to the point at which Departments now need to reduce core functions in order to deliver ongoing savings."

Jennifer continues:

"As two parliamentary inquiries into this policy have demonstrated, smaller agencies and those with a central policy function are particularly hard hit as they find it more difficult to undertake the 'creative accounting' required to meet savings targets.

For example, one practice, reported by public sector employees consulted as part of the Centre for Policy Development's research, is for organisations to artificially inflate the budgets of new policy proposals (exempt from the Efficiency Dividend) in order to offset the savings required elsewhere.

This continued focus on reducing public sector budgets – no matter what the cost – reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the public service."

The limitations of the Efficiency Dividend were recognised by the 'Moran' Review of public administration which recommended considering alternative options for promoting public sector efficiency. Ahead of the government taskforce undertaking this review, CPD's latest paper, based on international research and interviews with current federal public servants, offers some key points:

The Efficiency Dividend is counterproductive – not only is it starting to have a harmful impact on service delivery, it actually creates incentives for long-term inefficiency in some cases.
International experience does not support the Efficiency Dividend as an effective mechanism to improve public sector performance.
Alternative approaches to promoting public sector efficiency have the potential to increase efficiency without compromising service delivery.

The paper makes a number of recommendations for alternative evidence-based measures, including seeking input from employees, unions, clients and other stakeholders into the development of savings targets and the ways in which they can be achieved.

The paper outlines key principles that should underpin a new approach to promoting public sector efficiency.

"If Australia wants a high performing public sector in the future, we cannot risk continuing with the Efficiency Dividend", Ms Doggett said.

DOWNLOAD 'Beyond the Blunt Instrument: the Efficiency Dividend and its alternatives' HERE