John Wanna

Traditions of Australian governance

Australias traditions of governance tend to be pragmatic and to blend different ideologies. Its traditions are less dependent on political party ideologies, and more on competing conceptions of the significant problems and the way that they should be addressed. In this article we identify five principal traditions, namely: settler–state developmentalism; civilizing capitalism; the development of a social–liberal constitutional tradition; traditions of federalism; and the exclusiveness/ inclusiveness of the state and society. These traditions have been robust and have developed over time. We show how political actors operating from within this plurality of traditions have understood the public sector and how their understandings have led to changes in the way the public sector is structured.

Crashing Through with Accrual-Output Price Budgeting in Australia : Technical Adjustment or a New Way of Doing Business?

In 1999 Australia embarked on an accrual budgetary methodology in conjunction with an ambitious outcomesoutputs framework. The changes were entirely driven by central budgetary agencies who wanted to see the total costs (or prices) of outputs reflected in budgetary documentation and evidence of value for money in declared results. The government also decided to implement the changes within 1 year, and by adopting a crash-through mentality the central actors persevered and successfully achieved their main objective. Many problems, dilemmas, and inconsistencies were encountered along the way, not the least of which raised questions about the very nature of the annual budget. This article examines the trajectory of these reforms and asks how successfully they were implemented and accepted. It also raises questions about many of the decisions made in the process of change and whether the quality of budgetary information has improved the cabinet decision-making process. The article argues that accrual budgeting was implemented in Australia with many compromises and adaptations, but that the exercise should be understood primarily as part of a broader process of public sector reform.

From afterthought to afterburner: Australia's Cabinet Implementation Unit

Abstract In late 2003 the Australian government under Prime Minister Howard introduced a Cabinet Implementation Unit, but rejected the approach taken with the UKs Prime Ministers Delivery Unit. This paper traces the initial aspirations and decision pathways of key public executives at the centre of government. The first two parts sketch the background and genesis of the CIU. The third examines in detail the internal decision making and politics that shaped its specific form, the fourth its charter and intended responsibilities, and the fifth section reviews its roles in ex ante scrutiny of intended cabinet decision and ex post reviews of decisions and policies. The final section evaluates the impact of the CIU and this greater interest in implementation, and considers why the Australian government has moved in this direction.

Australia After Budgetary Reform: A Lapsed Pioneer or Decorative Architect?

The Reality of Budgetary Reform in OECD Nations investigates the impacts and consequences of budgetary reform through a comparative assessment of advanced Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) democracies that have undertaken budget reforms over the past two to three decades.

Innovative State Strategies in the Antipodes: Enhancing the Ability of Governments to Govern in the Global Context

Australia and New Zealand began engaging with the globalised economic environment from the 1960s through a gradual process of adaptation. Both countries began dismantling the ‘protective state’, spawning new governance practices and some new institutions. While the core political institutions of Westminster governance remained largely unchanged, they have proved particularly resilient and adaptive to change. The most pronounced impact of globalisation was evidenced through changed policy orientations and institutional behaviour at the national and sub-national levels. We focus on recent policy innovations in the fields of science and technology and tertiary education. Both cases indicate that these nations, governed at the time by parties of different political complexion, have anticipated and responded to globalisation in similar ways. We argue that these comparable policy responses can, at one level, be explained as responses to the imperatives of globalisation and international markets. However, at another level, they indicate that the ‘nation-building’ state has not disappeared but remains active in shaping and redirecting market mechanisms.

Chapter 30. Are Wildavsky's guardians and spenders still relevant? New public management and the politics of government budgeting

The ‘guardian-spender’ framework formulated by Aaron Wildavsky has defined the way in which most political scientists think about government budgeting since it first appeared in 1964 (Wildavsky 1975; Green and Thompson 1999). Wildavsky argued that budgetary outcomes could be explained (or at least analyzed) by focusing on the interplay of budget actors performing the highly stylized institutional roles of guardian (of the public purse) and spender. This behavioral framework proved sufficiently flexible to account for the differences in budgetary performance across different political systems (see studies by Savoie 1990; Heclo and Wildavsky 1974; Wildavsky 1986); as well as explaining the impact of budgetary reform and divergent economic environments on budget politics (Caiden and Wildavsky 1974; Wildavsky 1975). Reference to ‘guardians’ and ‘spenders’ still pervades discussions of government budgeting in the academic literature of political science and economics (Campos and Pradhan 1997), and has become accepted as conventional descriptions by practitioners in national governments and international bodies (such as the OECD, World Bank and the IMF).

Delivering policy reform: anchoring significant reforms in turbulent times

Predictable and unpredictable challenges continually confront the policy settings and policy frameworks of governments. They provide a constantly changing dynamic within which policy-making operates. Governments at all levels are asking their public services to identify innovative and workable reforms to anticipate and address these challenges. Public service leaders around the world are struggling not only to better anticipate emerging demands but also to address reform backlogs. However, time and time again, major policy reforms can prove tough to implement - especially in turbulent environments - and even tougher to anchor over time. This leads to considerable uncertainty and inefficiency as governments and policy communities try to keep pace with change. Policies that unravel or are dismantled are costly and represent wasted opportunities. They lead to cynicism about the effectiveness of governments and public service advice more generally, making it more difficult to deal with other emerging challenges. This volume of proactive essays on delivering policy reform offers an intriguing blend of strategic policy advice and management insight. It brings together a diverse range of high-quality contributors from overseas as well as from Australia and New Zealand – including national political leaders, public service executives, heads of independent agencies, and leading international scholars.

Investigating the reality of reform in modern budgeting

The Reality of Budgetary Reform in OECD Nations investigates the impacts and consequences of budgetary reform through a comparative assessment of advanced Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) democracies that have undertaken budget reforms over the past two to three decades.

Business and unions

The union movement enjoyed a high profile in the two years prior to the 2007 election based on its campaign against the Coalition Governments unpopular WorkChoices legislation. The campaign entitled, Your Rights at Work, campaign continued into the election campaign itself. Business groups, by contrast were less united and less focused. From a union perspective the campaign was its ‘Stalingrad’.

A One Party State? - Queensland Chronicle 2001

The six-month period from July to December 2001 was an extraordinary phase in Australia’s political history. Until 26 August, when 460 asylum seekers were rescued from their sinking vessel off the Western Australian coast, there was nothing to suggest that politics in Australia would be any different from the usual round of policy pronouncements, routine attacks by the opposition, and the occasional headlinegrabbing scandal. It seemed, as the Australian’s international editor Paul Kelly wrote, that tax would dominate the 2001 federal election campaign (21-22 July 2001). Once the asylum seekers had been rescued by the Norwegian freighter Tampa and refused entry to Australia, however, tax declined in significance. The ramifications of the Tampa incident and its aftermath were still engaging the Australian polity when, on 11 September, terrorists hijacked four passenger jets in the United States and flew two of them into the World Trade Centre in New York, one into the Pentagon, and crashed another in Pennsylvania, killing, it was estimated, more than 6000 people. Both incidents changed Australian politics. The extent and significance of the changes remain to be fully seen, but one short-term effect was to boost significantly the government’s chances of re-election.