Chris Salisbury

Policy entrepreneurs and promotion of Australian state knowledge economies

Policy entrepreneurs seek to shift the status quo in given areas of public policy. In doing so, they work closely with others, and their activities call for high levels of political skill. This article examines the actions of policy entrepreneurs who promoted the development of knowledge economies in two Australian states: Queensland and Victoria. During the past two decades, national and sub-national governments around the world have sought to nurture knowledge economies within their borders. Our analysis of knowledge economy advocacy improves understanding of how specific individuals – as strategic team builders – can promote major policy change. This focus on team work and coalition-building as central elements of the process of policy entrepreneurship offers a corrective to some earlier studies that inappropriately conferred lone hero status to policy entrepreneurs. 政策企业家们试图改变公共政策特定领域内的现状。在这个过程中，他们与他人密切合作，他们的活动呼唤高水平的政治技巧。本文考察了政策企业家在澳大利亚的昆士兰和维多利亚两个州促进知识经济的行动。在过去二十年里，世界各地国家以及次国家政府都想在自己的版图内培育知识经济。我们对知识经济促进情况的分析有助于更好地理解何以某些个人如战略团队的建设者们可以促成重要的战略转变。本文聚焦团队工作以及联盟建设，将其视为政策企业家活动的核心因素。这样一种视角是对以往过分强调个人英雄的一种修正。

‘It’s Bigger than the Olympics’: changing Australia through football and the 1974 FIFA World Cup

In the 1970s, Australian football finally had the impact that its early promoters predicted. Fuelled by waves of British immigration, the game was changed by a post-war generation from Europe. Australia began its World Cup quest with two misses in the 1960s, before qualifying for the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany. The campaign, based around an Australian team dominated by overseas-born players, coincided with the election of Gough Whitlam’s socially progressive federal Labor government with a commitment to move away from Australia’s mono-cultural past. The fortunes of these two campaigns intertwine in surprising ways. The Australian sporting landscape, long the preserve of rival football codes and Olympic success, began to change. Marking the fortieth anniversary of Australia’s first World Cup appearance, this essay re-examines issues of nationalism and inclusiveness in the light of recent global debates on the rights of overseas-born players to represent their adopted country.

Australian urban water reform story with detailed case study on New South Wales

In 2016, the International Water Centre (IWC), with funding from the World Bank, commenced a review of the water utilities reform processes in Australia. The aim of this work is to explore the key success factors in the reform of urban water supply services through a study of the Australian example, from which relevant lessons can be drawn for other countries. To meet this aim, the IWC and researchers from the University of Queensland have sought to identify commonalities and differences between the steps taken by the various states and water utilities during Australia’s experience of reform in the urban water sector. One goal of our research is to reveal insights into the interplay between the state level of reform and regulation and national framework agreements. The related story of regulatory oversight, as part of the overall reform process, has been examined elsewhere. For example, the role of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) in New South Wales is important to that state’s pricing, regulatory, and sector reforms. Because there are many lessons to be learned from the New South Wales case, including and beyond IPART, the urban water sector reforms in New South Wales are the subject of a case study. Thus, this report analyzes urban water reforms initiated by recent national agreements in Australia, and demonstrates variations between jurisdictions and between approaches at different times. The analysis focuses on water utilities in the major cities (principally the state-level capital cities). The analysis also demonstrates how the Australian urban water reform process is part of a wider and longer series of national and subnational regulatory reforms since the late 1980s. These include competition policy reform, corporatization of government agencies, and the formation in the 1990s of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). The COAG was crucial for bringing all states on board for reform in Australia, but there are major questions about how such coalition building among governmental leaders and senior bureaucrats can be adapted to the circumstances of other countries.