Centre for Policy Development's Blog, page 87
May 22, 2012
Communities in Control 2012 Conference | Melbourne, 28-29 May
Communities in Control is Australia’s biggest and best annual gathering of community sector workers, volunteers and supporters – each year bringing together a stellar list of speakers and hundreds of people who work in or care about community to listen, debate, network, exchange strategies, and recharge. Click here for program details and registration. CPD’s James Whelan will present a keynote on ‘Big Society’.
Communities in Control 2012 Conference | Melbourne, May 28-29
Communities in Control is Australia’s biggest and best annual gathering of community sector workers, volunteers and supporters – each year bringing together a stellar list of speakers and hundreds of people who work in or care about community to listen, debate, network, exchange strategies, and recharge. Click here for program details and registration. CPD’s James Whelan will present a keynote on ‘Big Society’.
Public Service research presentations
View summarised presentations of CPD’s public service research here.
Big Society and Australia: How the UK Government is dismantling the state and what it means for Australia
This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the UK’s ‘Big Society’ policies and programs and examines their potential impact if adopted and implemented in Australia. It seeks to contribute to an informed debate about the merits of ‘small government’ ideologies and policies that often receive less than critical media and political commentary.
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Big Society and Australia on Prezi
The State of the Australian Public Service: An Alternative Report
Public services are an integral part of our lives. From cradle to grave, Australians receive the benefit of services that are directed, managed and delivered by government employees. The most visible of these public servants are those engaged in direct or ‘frontline’ service delivery: the health professionals and teachers in the public health and education systems, police, armed forces and defence personnel, public transport workers and immigration and customs officers. Less visible, perhaps, are the many public servants who develop and implement the wide range of government policies and programs that address climate change and protect our environment and natural resources, manage Australia’s finances, uphold human rights and enforce our laws.
CPD published our ‘State of the Service’ report to provide an overview of the Australian Public Service, including an appraisal of its capability and an analysis of attitudes toward the APS agencies and services. Without detracting from the merits of the Government’s ‘State of the Service’ reports collated annually by the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC), CPD’s report provides an alternative perspective. The report considers the public sector, government administration, public service organisations, including the agencies and departments that constitute the APS, public servants and the services and other functions they deliver.
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The State of the Australian Public Service: An Alternative Report on Prezi
Staying Ahead of the Game: The world’s best public service?
In May 2011, the Australian Government concluded a major review of the Australian Public Service. Ahead of the Game, the review’s final report, contained 28 actions to help create ‘the World’s best public service’. One year on, what has changed? CPD intern Rob Harding-Smith has analysed over half of the 182 submissions made to the Moran Review, examining the relationship between concerns and issues raised by public service stakeholders and the 28 recommended actions.
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Staying Ahead of the Game: An analysis of submissions to the Moran Review of Australia’s Public Service and actions emerging on Prezi
Big Society | How the UK Government is Dismantling the State and What it Means for Australia
“Bush declared war on terror, Blair declared war on crime and it’s like Cameron has declared war on the public sector.”
It’s just over two years since David Cameron was elected as British Prime Minister. Since his election, Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ policies that have ‘redefined the role of the state’. By commissioning ‘any willing provider’, the UK Government has contracted corporations to play a dominant role in delivering a wide range of services that were previously managed by public servants or community groups. Other ‘Big Society’ changes have diminished the capacity of the public and community sectors. The impacts of the Big Society programs in the UK have included:
An £81 billion cut in public spending over four years including an average 19 per cent budget cut to government agencies,60 per cent cut to the budget for new public housing and £7 billion cut to the welfare budget.
The UK’s public service is expected to shrink by up to 710,000 public servants over six years.
Corporations and the largest charities have dominated the commissioning process: 35 of 40 Work Programme (employment agency) contracts were awarded to corporations.
Cameron’s budgets have dealt a £5 billion funding cut to the UK’s community sector and funding cuts of £110 million to 2,000 UK charities
The number of people employed in the UK’s community sector fell by 70,000.
Local government budgets were cut by more than a quarter in 2010-11 resulting in staff cuts of 10-20 per cent and widespread cuts to programs.
During 2010-11, public sector employment fell by 4.3 per cent. Private sector employment increased by 1.5 per cent.
In Australia, ‘Big Society’ ideas are generating interest and support amongst conservative think tanks and politicians. CPD’s report presents a comprehensive analysis of the UK’s ‘Big Society’ policies and programs and examines their potential impact if adopted and implemented in Australia. We hope the report contributes to an informed debate about the merits of ‘small government’ ideologies and policies that often receive less than critical media and political commentary.
CPD’s new report ‘Big Society and Australia’ will be available for downloading from this page from 30/5/12.
View our ‘Big Society in Australia’ Presi (online presentation) here.
Big Society and Australia on Prezi
Join the discussion
Get beyond the spin and find out what the ‘Big Society’ is really about. Join a conversation you won’t find in the mainstream media by liking us on Facebook and following CPD and the #ozbigsociety thread on Twitter.
Read what we are reading on ’Big Society’
To keep our finger on the pulse of public sector research, policy and political debates, CPD’s researchers maintain a Delicious account . It helps us access the latest online public sector articles and references. Read what we’re reading by checking out our tag cloud. Click on ‘Big Society’ to learn how UK policies are creating the “biggest shakeup of what the state provides in half a century”.
Our Public Service Research Program
The CPD Public Service Program aims to develop a robust knowledge base about the state of the public service: its funding and capacity; performance in delivering community services; and attitudes toward and expectations of the Australian Public Service. Click here to read more.
Find more ideas and publications on the Australian Public Service in one of our major research programs here.
Sign up for more good ideas here.
[image error] Change can happen faster than you think – help us seize the moment and point to the alternatives. Add your voice to ours!
May 14, 2012
Dr Gunter Pauli | ABC Radio National Big Ideas
Gunter Pauli’s goal is to create jobs, achieve multiple benefits and add value to underperforming assets. All with zero emissions and zero waste. Think he’s a dreamer? Think again.
ABC’s Radio National program Big Ideas rebroadcasts inspirational entrepreneur Dr Gunter Pauli’s talk on taking green and sustainable thinking to a new level, with his ‘Blue Economy’. In his talk, co-hosted by Sydney Ideas and the Centre for Policy Development, Pauli outlines his approach to a new type of sustainability that draws heavily from both the natural world and the market place.
The Blue Economy is where the best for health and the environment is cheapest and the necessities for life are free thanks to a local system of production and consumption that works with what you have.
LISTEN to Gunter Pauli’s talk on ABC Radio National Big Ideas
Change can happen faster than you think – help us seize the moment and point to the alternatives. Add your voice to ours!
May 7, 2012
Sustainable Economy | Farming Smarter, Not Harder
The Sustainable Economy team are working hard to ‘dig up’ evidence about how Australia’s land-based economy can benefit from policies to preserve the environment and resources that sustain them. The full report, due out this winter, will look at the value of Australia’s agricultural land and soil to the national economy.
Change can happen faster than you think – help us seize the moment and point to the alternatives. Add your voice to ours!
Public Service Discussion | 6pm, 29 May, Melbourne
CPD is always looking to engage with thinkers to expand our horizons, invite new ideas and communicate our research. Following the release of our forthcoming ‘Big Society’ report in late May, we will host an informal networking event in Melbourne for subscribers who share our interest in the public sector and its role in Australian society. The event, to be held in an inner city venue, will include a summary of the Big Society report, discussion about the report’s conclusions and brainstorming future directions for our Public Service research program. Please RSVP by emailing James.Whelan@cpd.org.au or phoning James on 0431 150 928.
May 3, 2012
Christopher Stone | Thinking ahead: a budget for more than this year, ABC The Drum
In his article on ABC’s The Drum, CPD researcher Chris Stone suggests a different way of thinking about the budget, and makes important predictions about budget night media and political commentary which he claims is driving a serious and repeated problem: “A national economy is a lot more like the Titanic than a speedboat; significant changes in direction take a long time. This means that if we think there’s an economic iceberg 30 years ahead, the time to start turning the wheel is now“. Chris goes on to give three examples of issues that probably won’t get a lot of air time on 8 May, but which really should. You can read the article on ABC’s The Drum here.
A number of comments on The Drum’s website raised questions about the assertion that Australians pay less tax than those in the US. Chris responds as follows:
The short answer to this is that the US has a large “social security tax” whereas Australia doesn’t, and so the total amount of tax that Australians pay on their wages is less.
The longer answer is that comparing tax internationally is complex, because every country has a different mix of multiple taxes that apply to wages. For this reason I’m basing my assertion on data from the OECD, which produces some useful reports comparing national taxation. This report gives a good understanding of our position: http://bit.ly/JcKpmc
Because the percent of wage taxes in all OECD countries depends on income and family circumstances, it gives comparative statistics for a number of hypothetical tax payers. Across all these, Australia is in the bottom 8 out of 34 OECD countries in terms of percentage of tax imposed on wages. And in every hypothetical we rank lower than the US.
[image error] Change can happen faster than you think – help us seize the moment and point to the alternatives. Add your voice to ours!
Christopher Stone | Thinking ahead: a budget for more than this year
CPD Researcher Christopher Stone suggests a different way of thinking about the budget, and makes an important prediction about budget night media and political commentary which he claims are driving a serious and repeated problem.
A national economy is a lot more like the Titanic than a speedboat; significant changes in direction take a long time. This means that if we think there’s an economic iceberg 30 years ahead, the time to start turning the wheel is now. The current commentary concentrates on minor course corrections when we should be thinking and talking about a bigger and longer-term picture.
In his article on ABC’s The Drum Chris also gives three examples of issues that probably won’t get a lot of air time on May 8, but which really should. You can read the article on ABC’s The Drum here
[image error] Change can happen faster than you think – help us seize the moment and point to the alternatives. Add your voice to ours!
Christopher Stone | Thinking ahead: a budget for more than this year | ABC The Drum
CPD Researcher Christopher Stone suggests a different way of thinking about the budget, and makes an important prediction about budget night media and political commentary which he claims are driving a serious and repeated problem. In his article on ABC’s The Drum Chris also gives three examples of issues that probably won’t get a lot of air time on May 8, but which really should. You can read the article on ABC’s The Drum here
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