Federalism in Australian schooling: Its impact upon quality and equity. The project is designed to support the objectives for schooling in Australia that have been identified by the Council of Australian Governments. These objectives are in the face of growing inequities in the distribution of educational resources, growing concentrations of students with high levels of educational needs, and imbalances in the distribution of resources across key stages, especially in early childhood education. ....Federalism in Australian schooling: Its impact upon quality and equity. The project is designed to support the objectives for schooling in Australia that have been identified by the Council of Australian Governments. These objectives are in the face of growing inequities in the distribution of educational resources, growing concentrations of students with high levels of educational needs, and imbalances in the distribution of resources across key stages, especially in early childhood education. By examining the ways in which federalism contributes to the structural barriers to these objectives and by developing and validating a set of structural reforms the project will contribute to these national objectives. Read moreRead less
Developing a Model for the Evaluation of Australian Public Private Partnerships. The primary aim of this research project is to improve the long-term evaluation of Australian Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Growing commitments by governments to the use of PPPs to deliver infrastructure-based services have created an urgent need for the development of evaluation systems to ensure that PPPs deliver efficiency and effectiveness for taxpayers as claimed. Further there is a need to ensure that th ....Developing a Model for the Evaluation of Australian Public Private Partnerships. The primary aim of this research project is to improve the long-term evaluation of Australian Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Growing commitments by governments to the use of PPPs to deliver infrastructure-based services have created an urgent need for the development of evaluation systems to ensure that PPPs deliver efficiency and effectiveness for taxpayers as claimed. Further there is a need to ensure that the quality of welfare-based services is not diminished through the use of PPPs.
A key outcome of this research is the development of a theoretically and empirically based post project evaluation model, developed with full support from key stakeholders, including Auditors-General and Public Accounts Committees.Read moreRead less
Whistling While They Work: Enhancing the Theory and Practice of Internal Witness Management in Public Sector Organisations. The protection of whistleblowers and other internal witnesses to corruption, misconduct and maladministration is a great unsolved problem in public sector governance. Involving 11 integrity institutions, this first national study of internal witness management will describe and compare organisational experience under varying public interest disclosure regimes across the Au ....Whistling While They Work: Enhancing the Theory and Practice of Internal Witness Management in Public Sector Organisations. The protection of whistleblowers and other internal witnesses to corruption, misconduct and maladministration is a great unsolved problem in public sector governance. Involving 11 integrity institutions, this first national study of internal witness management will describe and compare organisational experience under varying public interest disclosure regimes across the Australian public sector. By identifying and promoting current best practice in workplace responses to public interest whistleblowing, the project will use the experience and perceptions of internal witnesses and first- and second-level managers to identify more routine strategies for preventing, reducing and addressing reprisals and other whistleblowing-related conflicts.Read moreRead less
Government purchased services for children. Government purchased services for children. This project aims to establish ways the Chinese government can avoid the quality and accountability problems other countries’ governments have faced when purchasing child welfare services over the last 30 years. Using six regional case studies and government national datasets, this project will identify the effect of new purchasing models and address significant regulatory risks in China’s burgeoning welfare ....Government purchased services for children. Government purchased services for children. This project aims to establish ways the Chinese government can avoid the quality and accountability problems other countries’ governments have faced when purchasing child welfare services over the last 30 years. Using six regional case studies and government national datasets, this project will identify the effect of new purchasing models and address significant regulatory risks in China’s burgeoning welfare state. Findings are expected to build governments’ capacity to purchase good quality, equitable services for children; improve outcomes for millions of Chinese children; and build new theories of government contracting, service system governance, and global social policy convergence and transfer, relevant for Chinese and Australian social services.Read moreRead less
Investigating the Impact of Work Design on Productive Wellbeing in Mercy Health: The Modernising Third Sector. Around the world the Third Sector (TS) of the economy is coming under pressure to modernise their management. The typical approaches to modern management being imposed overseas may not be appropriate for TS organisations and therefore they need to be critically examined, especially for their impact on employees. In Australia the TS is a large (approx. $15billion), yet low-profile set of ....Investigating the Impact of Work Design on Productive Wellbeing in Mercy Health: The Modernising Third Sector. Around the world the Third Sector (TS) of the economy is coming under pressure to modernise their management. The typical approaches to modern management being imposed overseas may not be appropriate for TS organisations and therefore they need to be critically examined, especially for their impact on employees. In Australia the TS is a large (approx. $15billion), yet low-profile set of organisations, of which the health industry is central. This project will investigate the issues that make workplaces in a TS health organisation a healthier and more productive place to work. The results could directly help improve workplaces covering more than 150,000 employees.Read moreRead less
From entitlement to experiment: The new governance of welfare to work. This project aims to model and explain the governance dynamics of welfare to work in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Australia regularly undertakes major governance reforms in providing welfare to the unemployed and other groups in need. In this dynamic environment, welfare agencies are struggling to deliver benefits to the most disadvantaged people. Services must balance the need to meet central performance re ....From entitlement to experiment: The new governance of welfare to work. This project aims to model and explain the governance dynamics of welfare to work in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Australia regularly undertakes major governance reforms in providing welfare to the unemployed and other groups in need. In this dynamic environment, welfare agencies are struggling to deliver benefits to the most disadvantaged people. Services must balance the need to meet central performance requirements against the desire to help clients. The project aims to create a new framework for understanding how policy instruments and design experiments can improve services for those who are in need.Read moreRead less
Advocacy in the age of compacts: Strengthening the policy development dimension of partnership agreements between government and community organisations. The proposed research will be the first attempt to evaluate the roll-out of compacts in Australia. In order to ensure that the new compacts continue to be responsive to the needs of both government and community organisations it is crucial that their early operation be evaluated and the findings used to create ongoing mechanisms for monitoring, ....Advocacy in the age of compacts: Strengthening the policy development dimension of partnership agreements between government and community organisations. The proposed research will be the first attempt to evaluate the roll-out of compacts in Australia. In order to ensure that the new compacts continue to be responsive to the needs of both government and community organisations it is crucial that their early operation be evaluated and the findings used to create ongoing mechanisms for monitoring, outcome evaluation, and skill-building. The proposed project will assist Austraian governments to identify performance indicators for outcomes in the context of the compacts, particularly those that lead to the effective contribution of community organisations in policy development.Read moreRead less
The new digital governance of welfare to work. This project aims to analyse the implementation of a 'digital first' employment services system, its effects on frontline services and governance, and its potential for policy learning. It expects to generate new knowledge on how digitalisation changes interactions between jobseekers, providers, employers and the government, by working with our industry partners in a collaborative innovation lab. Expected outcomes of this project include a theoretic ....The new digital governance of welfare to work. This project aims to analyse the implementation of a 'digital first' employment services system, its effects on frontline services and governance, and its potential for policy learning. It expects to generate new knowledge on how digitalisation changes interactions between jobseekers, providers, employers and the government, by working with our industry partners in a collaborative innovation lab. Expected outcomes of this project include a theoretically informed, and practically tested, model of how digitalisation can promote service design and policy innovation that benefits jobseekers and employers. This should provide significant benefits for welfare system design, service outcomes, and policy learning nationally and internationally. Read moreRead less
Active citizenship of young people through electoral enrolment. Some 300,000 eighteen to twenty-four year old Australians are not enrolled to vote in federal elections, despite compulsory voting. Consequently they do not exercise their rights, and their responsibilities, as citizens in this way. The Australian Ele ctoral C ommission and the researchers will determine why these young Australians are not enrolled and do not vote. We will identify the characteristics of non-participants particularl ....Active citizenship of young people through electoral enrolment. Some 300,000 eighteen to twenty-four year old Australians are not enrolled to vote in federal elections, despite compulsory voting. Consequently they do not exercise their rights, and their responsibilities, as citizens in this way. The Australian Ele ctoral C ommission and the researchers will determine why these young Australians are not enrolled and do not vote. We will identify the characteristics of non-participants particularly those from rural and regional areas. Outcomes include identification of non-enrolled youth and appropriate interventions to engage young Australians to become active, democratic citizens....Read moreRead less
Corporate Governance in the Public Sector: An Evaluation of its Tensions, Gaps and Potential. This project aims to enhance corporate governance in Commonwealth public sector bodies (assets worth $125 billion), leading to better management of public resources and more effective public administration. It is a major theoretical and empirical analysis of corporate governance's impact on public administration from governance, management, and legal perspectives, drawing on private sector and internati ....Corporate Governance in the Public Sector: An Evaluation of its Tensions, Gaps and Potential. This project aims to enhance corporate governance in Commonwealth public sector bodies (assets worth $125 billion), leading to better management of public resources and more effective public administration. It is a major theoretical and empirical analysis of corporate governance's impact on public administration from governance, management, and legal perspectives, drawing on private sector and international comparisons. It will develop an integrated cross-government framework for corporate governance and customized guidance according to organisational type. The major outcome will be to advance knowledge of the multi-disciplinary basis of corporate governance in its applications within government, communicated through scholarly, governmental, and web-based resources.Read moreRead less