Centre for Policy Development's Blog, page 136

Miriam Lyons: Good ideas equals bad politics?

At the recent Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House, CPD's Miriam Lyons joined a panel alongside other sharp political thinkers – including Elizabeth Farrelly, Waleed Aly and Annabel Crabb – to ponder the rather dire proposition that in Australia "Good ideas make for bad politics".

Watch it online here.

JOBS AT CPD | We're hiring!

TWO RESEARCH DIRECTORS NEEDED | Hiring NOW.

We are looking for research directors to join the Centre for Policy Development to lead our Sustainable Economy Program and Public Services Program.

Who are we looking for?

The successful candidates will be ideas people with strong research and communication skills, who can combine big-picture visions for Australia's future with attention to policy detail. Each of these positions needs an individual who is reliable, resourceful, creative, and able to make things happen quickly and with minimal resources and supervision. A passion for fair, sustainable and democratic policy change is essential.

Public Service Research Director

Help shape the future of public services in Australia
4 days per week – flexible hours can be negotiated
Sydney based
Position to begin as soon as possible, going through to late 2012
Applications close Friday, 19 November. More information here
To apply, please send your CV and a cover letter addressing the selection criteria to admin@cpd.org.au
We encourage you to include links to past research publications and examples of other writing in your cover letter.

Sustainable Economy Research Director

Help develop the evidence and ideas we need to make Australia's economy sustainable
Full time position – flexible hours can be negotiated
Sydney-based
Two-year appointment – to begin as soon as possible, going through to late 2012
Applications close Friday, 26 November. More information here.
To apply, please send your CV and a cover letter addressing the selection criteria to admin@cpd.org.au
We encourage you to include links to past research publications and examples of other writing in your cover letter.

"The CPD offers a unique way to put forward ideas into public debate – in a timely and effective manner. It connects people in a way that can generate real conversations, better ideas and progressive change."

Ben Spies-Butcher, CPD Fellow, economic and political sociology lecturer and co-author of Reforming Australia's Hidden Welfare State

Does this sound like you, or someone you know?

Pass this on to your networks. Contact us at ideas[at]cpd.org.au or call 02 9514 2034 for more information.

James Arvanitakis: Progress on water and the trap we need to escape.

CPD Fellow James Arvanitakis considers the 'progress trap' that has captured public thinking in Australia about water allocation. The ability to allocate water and the benefits that flow from this has trapped Australia into a vicious cycle which political leaders seem increasingly unwilling to end.

"Whole communities have come to rely on the over-allocation of water rights that has made many (though not all) successful. As it has become increasingly obvious that the river is dying, any policy to reverse this has never been successfully implemented."

The way forward on this issue requires more than a simplistic 'live or die' debate about the future for water-rights dependent communities. What is instead needed is coordinated and meaningful reform, which seeks neither to abandon water-rights dependent communities, or principles of sustainability.

"I am not some inner city hippy demanding water cuts – what I am trying to highlight is that we need to confront this issue. There is a need for some serious structural adjustment here – and despite promises made to irrigators as late as the 1960s that water supply would be continuous, this has to change."

Read the full article at The Punch here.

New Public Service Research Program

The Centre for Policy Development will soon be launching a new public service research program that will start by identifying a long-term intellectual framework for public sector reform – based on clearly stated values and principles, evidence of what works (and what doesn't), and awareness of the internal and external challenges that will face the public service over the coming decades.

This program will put forward evidence on:

What governments do best (covering both their role in directly providing public goods, and their relationship with the market and community sectors)
How governments can do what they do best, better (taking in common causes of governments' failure to serve the public interest effectively and how to address them)
How to fund governments to serve the public interest over the long term

…and it will place these arguments within the context of the major forces driving change in the public sector over the coming decades.

We're hiring! RESEARCH DIRECTOR NEEDED

Help shape the future of public services in Australia. See a detailed position description here.

The CPD's new public service research program has been generously made possible by the CPSU and by your donations. Outcomes of the program will not necessarily represent the views of its funders – see CPD's Funding Policy for more information. You can find a list of our supporters here AND you can join them by donating to make good ideas matter.

Eva Cox: Government more ready to fund bureaucrats than welfare recipients

CPD Fellow Eva Cox discusses the role that 'Income management' is likely to play in the future of Australian welfare.

To find out more read the full article on Crikey.com here (subscribers only).

Ian Dunlop: Pricing carbon and removing "a great big old subsidy"

CPD Fellow Ian Dunlop discusses the need for greater action on reducing carbon emissions in Australia. The case is made that short-term thinking and short-sighted interest groups have continuously scuttled attempts at transforming Australia into a low-carbon economy. As the resources industry continues to invest in carbon intensive activities Australia is being left behind, and will be ill-prepared for the inevitable structural change in the global economy:

"China and India are well down the track developing these industries, far more so than Australia.  As the true cost of climate change hits home, their transformation away from fossil-fuels will accelerate, notwithstanding that they continue to make substantial fossil-fuel investments in the short term."

What is urgently needed is greater leadership from within the corporate ranks, like that shown recently by BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers.

"Corporately, CEOs and directors have a fiduciary duty to act honestly, in good faith and to the best of their ability in the interests of the company in perpetuity, not just in the short term. Accordingly Kloppers, and hopefully more of his CEO colleagues, now need to make it clear to both shareholders and the community that they are genuine in seeking urgent action . . ."

Read Ian Dunlop's article in full on ABC's The Drum Unleashed.

Eva Cox: Women and business – you know it makes sense.

Eva Cox wants to know why more women are not appointed to senior positions in Australian business.

"What is wrong with the boards of big business? Their competence in running companies is put in question by their poor record in selecting senior line managers and new board members."

The business case for having women in positions of power in companies is strong. So why do women remain under-represented?

To find out more read the full article on Crikey.com here (subscribers only).

Ben Eltham: This Is Not Art . . . but it's damn good fun

CPD Fellow Ben Eltham writes about 'This Is Not Art', the annual Newcastle based cultural event that has developed into one of the leading arts festivals in Australia.

"Somehow, this strange and largely unfunded event has become something of an institution in Australia's cultural landscape, bringing thousands of mainly young artists and media-makers from around the country to the Hunter annually for a program that typically encompasses hundreds of separate events."

Read the full article on Crikey.com here.

Suffer the little children – asylum seeking kids in Australia

Right now there are 628 children in immigration detention. The new Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen, would have you believe that these children are not really being detained. On the ABC's Q&A program recently, he said that "There's no children in detention centres as such, so there's no children behind the razor wire." As though the absence of razor wire alone can make detention humane or acceptable. Of course, the notorious Baxter detention centre did not have razor wire. Instead, there were "electrified courtesy fences" to use the language of the Department at the time. And Villawood detention centre has had no razor wire since Amanda Vanstone was Minister. Would anyone claim none of those people are being held in detention?

ChilOut was a volunteer group campaigning from 2001 to 2006 on behalf of children in immigration detention. We wound down our campaign after the amendment was written into the Migration Act that "Children should be detained as a measure of last resort." At the same time, children were removed from the main immigration detention centres (IDCs) and put out into the community either on bridging visas or residence determinations. The only children held in any form of secure facility – residential housing– were those whose parents were a proven security or flight risk. This was not a radical left agenda. It was done by the Howard government.

The sad fact is that right now 618 children are being held in detention facilities – of the 628 in the immigration detention regime, only 10 are in the community under residence determinations. If you read the very small footnotes in the Immigration department detention statistics summary, you will see that this is the only form of detention where the person does not have to be accompanied at all times by a designated person i.e. under guard going to and from school.

The statistics summary states that as of August 27, 438 children were detained on the mainland "ten were detained in the community under residence determinations, 317 were in alternative temporary detention in the community, 51 were in immigration residential housing and 60 were in immigration transit accommodation. Of the 2379 people in immigration detention on Christmas Island, 190 were children (aged under 18 years) – all in alternative temporary detention in the community." Let's unpack what these nice sounding places mean.

Alternative temporary detention in the community is not 'temporary' as children have been in Leonora for four months as of the end of September and for far longer on Christmas Island. It is not really 'in the community' as children are held behind fences, and the few lucky enough to go outside to school do so under guard and are brought right back afterwards. There are 190 kids held in this form of detention on Christmas Island. Most of them are unaccompanied afghan children – effectively war orphans. There can be no argument that they are being held because they are a security risk.

For the 51 kids in immigration residential housing, things are no better. These places are actually mini-detention centers, albeit more humane, less institutional and with less security. It is generally a cluster of houses or demountables built around a common recreation area, fully fenced with a guard house and CCTV monitoring in the common areas. Again, there are no visitors in without authority and kids generally only go outside for school under guard. Any recreational trips are few and far between. The last category is the 60 kids held in immigration transit accommodation (ITAs.) These places were intended to be used only for very short term (around 7days) as a place of transit while a person was in the process of being removed from Australia.

Many children have not left their place of detention in months. While it was laudable that the ALP policy was to remove children from IDCs – the main detention centres – the result has been that kids are now held for long periods in places that do not have anything close to adequate facilities. At least the IDCs were purpose built to house people for long periods and have recreational and educational facilities. Places such as the Darwin Asti Motel are cramped, with only a cement carpark for children to play in. 150 afghan boys held in the Darwin Lodge have not been outside since April. Dr Louise Newman, an adviser to Government on immigration detention issues, has stated that in some cases, detention centres are actually better than the alternatives currently being used for children.

Sadly, ChilOut has had to resume our campaign in light of so many kids being held in immigration detention facilities in unacceptable conditions that are a breach of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. When we ended our first campaign, there was overwhelming support from the Australian community to ensure that children were not being detained. When we closed up shop, members of our group were drained – emotionally, physically and financially.

But there is no way we are going to stand by and watch this happen again. Not in our name, not in our country. No way. We will not allow our government to damage and traumatize another round of vulnerable children who fled to us with arms outstretched, seeking safety and protection.

The first time around we were just simple middle-class mums and dads who thought a couple of letters to the papers would solve the issue. After a 5 year hard-fought struggle we are seasoned campaigners, polished media performers and savvy political operatives. And we are mad as hell that we have to do this all over again.

For more information or to join the campaign, go to www.chilout.org

Miriam Lyons: On The Drum, Day one of the new parliament

CPD's Miriam Lyons joins Kerry Chikarovski, Dr Nick Economou and ABC's The Drum regulars to look back at all that happened on the first parliamentary sitting day of the new minority government.

Watch it online here.