policy advice

Tactics for navigating the political-administrative interface include codifying effective practices and building good working relationships.

How do we ensure ministers and their departments engage in the most productive way from the start of their working relationships? Sally Washington outlines how.

Good government is about receiving excellent policy advice. But that advice is only as good as the consideration in detail that it gives to implementation and execution.

Leaders from across the public sector, the private sector, and academia have come together to discuss the ins and outs of delivering great policy advice. Last month the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA), and four departmental secretaries launched the Delivering Great Policy initiative. The four key […]

The relationship between ministers and the Australian public service has transformed from a partnership to one more like “master-servant”, with the “master” including the minister’s staff, according to former senior bureaucrat Andrew Podger. Podger, who headed various federal departments and was public service commissioner, said this had come about through the “thickening” of the interaction

The process to select new submarines reflects a long-standing view that civilians cannot be allowed to question military expertise. Michael Keating argues defence planning and acquisitions involve considerations that range well beyond military expertise and the department’s advice should be contestable.