Sue O'Keefe

Local Councils as ‘Place-shapers’: The Implications of the Lyons Report for Australian Local Government

The recent past has seen an intense focus on ‘financial sustainability’ in Australian local government to the exclusion of other important dimensions of local governance. This restrictive emphasis on finance has been unfortunate as it has ignored important developments in the international literature, which is best exemplified in the landmark 2007 Lyons Report in the United Kingdom. In this official inquiry, Sir Michael Lyons reiterates the critical significance of local voice and local choice in contemporary local government and develops the concept of ‘place-shaping’ as epitomising the modern role of local councils. However, British local government enjoys far broader service provision responsibilities than its Australian counterpart. Accordingly, this paper thus seeks to outline the nature of ‘place-shaping’, as conceived in the Lyons Report, and consider its applicability in the much narrower Australian local government milieu.

Does the Reality of Workplace Training Match the Theory? An Analysis of Public Sector Employees' Training Decisions

Abstract The provision of, and participation in, workplace training and development has received significant recent attention in Australia in the face of rapid technological change, an ageing labour force and a growing skill shortage. Accordingly, many organisations have put in place policies and practices that ostensibly aim to encourage and support increased employee participation in training programs. From a theoretical perspective, human capital theory offers substantial insights into the economic benefits of training for the employee and the firm, and provides various predictions about the characteristics of individuals most likely to choose training programs. Drawing on an experimental choice analysis conducted in an Australian public sector organisation, this paper examines the applicability of some of these theoretical predictions to workplace training. In particular, it focuses on the training choices of highly educated workers.

A Note on Contradictions in Australian Water Policy

The success of Australias water markets is now well documented and confirms the hypothesised usefulness of water markets as a policy tool, at least in the context of places like the Murray–Darling Basin. In this article, we reflect on the theoretical benefits of water markets as a point of reference against which to scrutinise the current penchant of government to subsidise irrigation infrastructure in efforts to address over-allocation. We conclude that this approach results in a serious contradiction, unless there are grounds for believing that government has insights into the dynamic efficiency of the irrigation industry that exceed the coordination power of the market.