This is a special collection of papers, representing a range of views about diverse subjects by people whose opinions matter – not necessarily because they are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, but because they are, for the most part, in the public eye and, most importantly, because they have the capacity to influence the shape and the reality of public policy.

With the exception of Professor Geoff Gallop and Professor Mark Moore, they are not practicing academics. Most, including Geoff Gallop, are either former or serving ministers of state. Two – Lynelle Briggs and Mark Prebble – are senior government officials with deep understandings of...

I am pleased to speak to you about the need to continue a passion for policy in the Australian Public Service. I assume that having made the time to be here today you share my concern for getting the best policy outcomes for Australia. I hope that at the conclusion of this lecture you will also share my enthusiasm for re-examining where the public service is positioned in the policy environment, and for working out where we need to be, and how to get there — and for re-igniting a passion that goes to the very heart of what we do....

Australia entered the 20^th century as arguably the richest country in the world. However, during the century we slowly fell through the rankings. This was not primarily because we went backwards, but rather that we failed to keep pace with our competitors. We face a similar challenge as we enter the 21^st century. We do not enter this century as the richest country in the world, but we are one of the fastest-growing developed economies. However, there are signs that the same factors which led to our decline last century are re-emerging. Therefore, it is timely to examine what caused...

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we’re meeting today. I acknowledge the richness of the culture that prospered here in the past and also the strength of the culture that continues to enrich Australians in the 21^st century. However I must also acknowledge the frustration of looking at the last 30 years of Indigenous policy in this country and not seeing results anywhere near good enough to show for it. Life for too many of our first Australians continues to be unhealthy, unhappy, violent and short.

Surely we can all agree on one thing. For First...

I begin today with a cautionary tale. The substance of it will no doubt be familiar to this audience, even if the detail is not. It is a reminder of the work that still needs to be done before there is any consensus — even a broad one — about what community consultation and collaboration involves, and what it means.

A little over a week ago, the deadline passed for submissions to a discussion paper the ACT government issued earlier in the year on the subject of formally recognising same-sex relationships. As often happens with these things, there was a flood of...

Let me begin right up front by acknowledging the traditional owners of this part of this country. I think it is a very important protocol now to establish and recognise the traditional owners. One of the things I was very pleased to do was to represent the Government on the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation for three years because my earliest writings were about Australian race relations.

I have to say that I cannot be more pleased with the Ministry I have, Workforce Participation, because all of my working life and all the time I have spent in Universities has been...

I am going to talk tonight about public service matters, and the relationship between Australian and New Zealand Public Servants. This is because I am a life long bureaucrat, and my mind tends to turn to public service type issues.

For example, last month when hurricane Katrina was battering the state of Louisiana in America and we all watched the story unfold, my mind turned to public service related questions. I wondered how well prepared we would be to meet such a problem. I wondered whether our City Councils would cope with such devastation, and whether our Police would stay...

I am delighted to be contributing to the Australian and New Zealand School of Government’s ANU Lecture Program.

The creation of ANZSOG and indeed the Graduate School of Government at the University of Sydney where I teach is an indication that public administration is returning to its rightful place as an essential element in the study of government and politics.

Politics is not just about theory and policy it is also about administration and implementation. Systems have to be administered and policies implemented.

The way this has been, could be and ought to be done is a matter that warrants...

When I wrote Creating Public Value, my intention was to offer a challenge and a source of inspiration for people who wanted to provide leadership in the public sector. At the time, there was, quite rightly, some criticism along the lines of: ‘Well, fine. One can readily talk about a concept of public value at a very high level of abstraction. But can we define the concept more concretely so that we can recognise objectively and empirically whether we are producing it?’ This seemed like an important challenge to address.

To respond to this criticism, I began to talk about...