The Royal Commission report into the failed Robodebt scheme offered a unique opportunity to reflect on the performance of Australian government institutions. This project, based directly on the evidence presented in the Commission’s hearings and report, focuses on the distinctive contribution of the Australian Public Service (APS), particularly its culture. It selects three general areas...

The authors of the volume are a range of academics and past public servants from different jurisdictions, which allows previously hidden stories and processes of multi-level governance in Australia across different periods of government to be revealed and analysed for the first time.

This paper examines transparency and the performance of outsourced government services. It discusses three aspects of outsourcing: value-for-money efficiency, effectiveness of performance, and publicity of performance information, and explores a number of lessons for both government and public sector managers on how to increase the extent of transparency, and thus the quality, of outsourced services.

The relationship between ministers and public servants has been a longstanding topic among students of Australian public administration. Recent debate has centred on issues of supposed politicisation and excessive responsiveness in the APS, caused, in part, by the weakened tenure of department heads (secretaries). The recent Moran report endorses changes to the appointment processes for...

This brief is on the theme of corruption and anticorruption— a timely topic given the recent headlines over the AWB payments in Iraq. It provides three perspectives: a diagnosis of the causes and cures for corruption, an economic analysis of corruption and the links between democracy and corruption. The articles included are: Democracy and political...