bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
PERFORMING AUDITORS?: ASSESSING AND REPORTING THE PERFORMANCE OF NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICES—A THREE‐COUNTRY COMPARISON
Authors: Wilkins Peter
Published: March 2008

Abstract: This article reviews self‐assessment and reporting strategies of national audit offices in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia and develops a framework for the reporting of their performance. There is a common emphasis in the audit office objectives on serving their primary client and on improving the performance of the public sector, but there are differences in emphasis regarding the clients being served. The differing approaches to assessing and reporting their own performance can in part be attributed to differences between their mandates, objectives and identification of the clients being served. The audit offices have developed complementary internal quality assurance processes which generate additional performance information and have been subject to external peer reviews which assess and report on their performance.

A framework is developed which clarifies the relationship between audit office objectives and the measures used. It involves a hierarchy of performance parameters, including effectiveness, efficiency and workload and gives priority to meeting the needs of the primary client. The study has revealed that significant progress is being made in particular areas of assessing and reporting audit office performance and this should encourage audit offices to share their experiences internationally to enhance their own accountability to their primary clients and the communities they serve.
WHISTLEBLOWING WITHOUT TEARS: THE EXPOSURE OF BRISBANE'S KING GEORGE SQUARE CAR PARK FRAUD
Authors: Tucker Doug
Published: March 2008

Abstract: This is essentially a “now it can be told” account of a massive fraud perpetrated on the Brisbane City Council in the mid‐1970s by six attendants in a council car park, who manipulated bundy clocks to falsify departure times on parking tickets surrendered by departing motorists. Because of bitter personal rivalry between two senior council officials, which was complicated by (i) strong support for one official at elected member level, (ii) the subsequently discovered domestic liaison of the latter official with one of the prime suspects, and (iii) bungling in the crown prosecutor's office leading to a judge's decision to throw out the initial conspiracy charge against the car park attendants, it seemed that they might be reinstated and resume stealing on a massive scale. A method of dealing effectively with the issue, involving “blowing the whistle” while protecting the identity of the whistleblowers, was therefore devised. As a result, the thieves were eventually charged and convicted individually. The senior official who advised against police investigation of the suspected fraud while concealing his relationship with a prime suspect was also punished. The paper concludes with a defence of the deception perpetrated by whistleblowers to protect themselves from possible retribution.
THE WELFARE COSTS OF SUPPLY RESTRICTIONS IN THE GENERAL PRACTICE LABOUR MARKET
Authors: Clarke Harry R.
Published: March 2008

Abstract: This paper examines policy arguments for further restricting supply to the Australian General Practice profession by immigration and medical school policies. It uses economic analysis to assess the costs and benefits of supply restrictions. The effects of Medicare and GP income‐targeting on policy design are analysed. Restrictions are shown to impose net costs on the community as a whole and on government. Even with Medicare subsidies, the inefficiency costs of the current health system are minimised with liberal policies for accepting foreign‐ trained GPs.
Performance Appraisal or Performance Development? a Tale of Two Schemes
Authors: Clayton Peter , Ayres Helen
Published: March 2008

After reviewing some of the literature on performance appraisal, this evaluation presents a case study of the introduction of two related schemes in a single Australian government agency. The reasons one was successful and the other less so included the ownership by the agency of the successful scheme; its rapid implementation; and its focus on development rather than appraisal
Public Management 1995: The Year That Was
Authors: Stewart Jenny
Published: March 2008

Until it was discontinued in 1988, the Australian Journal of Public Administration published an administrative chronicle intended to document the events of the past year in state and commonwealth administrations.

This administrative essay, the first of a projected annual series, has a different, although related purpose. It is organised on a thematic, rather than a state‐by‐state basis, and attempts to describe and to illuminate the main issues in public administration in Australia as they emerged through the events of 1995.

In a short essay, detail must necessarily be sacrificed in order to capture the main trends. Nevertheless, the major features of the administrative landscape, as they appeared during 1995, have been faithfully recorded.
National Competition Policy and its Implications for Local Government
Authors: Felmingham Bruce , Page Bruce
Published: March 2008

Two aspects of National Competition Policy (NCP) are likely to be the catalyst of change in Australian local government (LG): competitive neutrality and the reform of public monopolies. Competitive neutrality will be achieved in LG through the imposition of tax equivalents, removal of debt guarantees and cross‐subsidisation deemed not to be in the public interest. The reform of public monopolies will open more functions to competition.

But other items of the NCP are also of significance to LG. The imposition of prices oversight of LG services will make these more cost reflective. Legislative reviews at LG level will produce deregulation in some cases and greater uniformity in others while the issue of allowing private access to LG assets has competitive potential in relation to the services and provision of roads, parks and sewerage treatment.

We emphasise the importance of recognising the present benefits of current LG operations and cite the current proposal to privatise Tasmania's water and sewerage services as an example. NCP has the potential to produce further LG boundary amalgamations, or to accelerate regional cooperation as an alternative. The role of cross‐border and competitive tendering in this respect are highlighted. Finally, we analyse the implications of the NCP for the Local Government Grants Commission process.
National Competition Policy
Authors: Scales Bill
Published: March 2008

Economic reform in Australia certainly did not start with the Hilmer Report — it has been underway for the last 15 or so years. It began with financial deregulation and floating of the Australian dollar in the 1980s and the reduction of tariff protection, and includes more recent initiatives such as moving from the centralized wage fixing system to more flexible enterprise bargaining arrangements, restructuring of government business enterprises, developments in public administration and most recently the focus on competition policy.
The Implications of National Competition Policy
Authors: Boswell Senator Ron
Published: March 2008

The Competition Policy Reform Bill 1995 is part of a national policy package which aims to free up competition in Australian markets. The objective is to systematically remove anti‐competitive behaviour so that efficiency is improved to the public benefit.

While one can endorse the concept that economic efficiency is best served in a purely competitive market, where businesses can get on with their responsibilitiy to maximise profits, concerns exist as to whether it is possible to impose legislatively and unilaterally an economic principle or philosophy on a nation that will achieve its lofty objectives.

These proposals were developed before the 1996 federal election.
Consumers/Citizens and the National Competition Policy
Authors: Carver Lisa
Published: March 2008

NCP provides a framework for reform ranging from the introduction of competition in energy and water services to the dismantling of agricultural marketing boards. The effects on consumers will depend upon whether their interests are narrowly construed as preoccupations with price and choice of services or whether they extend to broad social justice and equity considerations. The ‘marketisation’ of government services is not concerned with distributional equity, and budget funding of CSOs is necessary to address distributional inequities. But domestic consumers will remain captive to monopoly franchises and competition objectives add pressure for the ‘contracting out’ of government services and the winding back of cross‐subsidies which have traditionally operated in favour of household consumers.

NCP will transform the public from ‘citizen’ to ‘consumer’. Consumer advocates have risen to these new challenges and grasped the opportunity presented by industry restructuring to propose a range of mechanisms for consumer empowerment. This article will briefly identify some of the key issues for consumers in the implementation of the NCP and demonstrate the complexity of any attempt to assess the threats and opportunities for consumers. Particular attention will be given to the reforms to the electricity industries in NSW and Victoria.
National Competition Policy and the Australian Taxi Industry
Authors: Gunning Robert
Published: March 2008

This article outlines the Australian Taxi Industry Association's (ATIA) perspective on the development of the National Competition Policy (NCP). The ATIA has been actively involved in the issue since the establishment of the Hilmer Inquiry into National Competition Policy in 1992.

The Australian taxi industry is regulated by state and territory governments. Taxi industry regulations are designed to facilitate the provision of high‐quality and comprehensive taxi services to the community and disadvantaged groups. One element of this regulatory structure involves the sale, or lease, of taxi plates by state and territory governments as a revenue‐raising measure.

This revenue‐raising by governments produces two different effects. On the one hand taxi plate owners having purchased taxi plates from the government (or leased) have an interest in the value of the plate, as well as in continuing to provide quality services. On the other hand some observers see taxi plate values as inherently unacceptable and needing to be reduced, or abolished, by allowing unrestricted access to the taxi industry.

These competing views have provided much of the impetus for the debate associated with the taxi industry and the NCP. The industry believes that NCP has the potential to impact adversely on taxi ‘markets’ and consumer interests.
National Competition Policy — Its Evolution and Implementation: A Study in Intergovernmental Relations
Authors: Churchman Susan
Published: March 2008

The second reading speech on the Competition Policy Reform Bill 1995 described the policy as ‘the most important single development in micro‐economic reform in recent years’. The speech went on to describe the vision of the Hilmer Report ‘for a national competition policy in which the commonwealth, states and territories cooperated to ensure that universal and uniformly applied rules of market conduct apply to all market participants regardless of their form of ownership’. This article considers how this vision was translated into reality.
Looking Beyond Managerialism The 1995 National Conference of the Royal Institute of Public Administration Australia, held on 29th November to 1st December 1995, Brisbane
Authors: Rhodes Rod
Published: March 2008

In providing this conference summation I have chosen to highlight six themes well represented during proceedings: (1) managerialism; (2) institutional scepticism; (3) markets and networks; (4) empowering the customer; (5) national governments and globalisation; and (6) legitimacy and the new tribes. As the conference included over 55 papers and four simultaneous strands it was impossible to cover everything — so these reflections are informed by personal preferences.
The Transformation of Bureaucracy? Structural Change in the Commonwealth Public Service 1983‐93
Authors: Stewart Jenny , Kimber Megan
Published: March 2008

Commentators have predicted bureaucratic organisations would undergo substantial change as a result of social and economic pressures. We ask whether reforms to the Australian public service over the 1983–93 period exemplify this process.

We use the methods of organisational analysis to characterise the direction of change, basing our assessment on the standard structural variables of complexity, formalisation and centralisation, together with a cultural variable. We find evidence that, overall, departments of state in the APS were becoming less bureaucratic in their structure, culture and internal function in the 1983–93 period. However, the effect was not uniform across departments, or unambiguous — formalisation, for example, increased in some respects and decreased in others. Centralisation increased overall, despite devolution of some decision‐making.
Competitive Tendering and Contracting in the Australian Public Sector
Authors: Quiggin John
Published: March 2008

The Hilmer reforms, and recent reports from the Industry Commission, advocate a significant shift toward competitive tendering for Australian public services. This article discusses the policy debate in the light of recent developments in the economic theory of contracts.

It will be argued that, although more intense competition can, on some occasions, generate apparent efficiency gains, it can also generate efficiency losses. Following Stigler, it will be argued that the general tendency for competition to generate cost reductions may be explained in terms of increased work intensity, and does not therefore involve a net social welfare gain. Such issues will be examined in relation to the Industry Commission (1995b) draft report on Competitive Tendering and Contracting by Public Sector Agencies, with particular attention to the issue of net social welfare benefits of contracting out. It is suggested that the Industry Commission estimates of efficiency gains available through contracting out are based on an incomplete sample, ignore the social transfer implied in reducing costs and are unlikely to hold for many sections of the public sector.
The Use of Contracting in the Public Sector
Authors: Scott Graham
Published: March 2008

Around the world and especially in English‐speaking countries there has been a wave of contract‐based public sector management following on the heels of a wave of corporatisation and privatisation.
The Use of Contracting in the Public Sector—Recent New Zealand Experience
Authors: Boston Jonathan
Published: March 2008

This research note examines the expanding use of contracting within the public sector in New Zealand. The term ‘contracting’ is interpreted broadly to include both external contracting (ie outsourcing) as well as the use of more explicit or formal ‘contracts’ within and between public sector organisations. No attention is given here to the separate, albeit related, processes of corporatisation, commercialisation and full privatisation (ie asset sales and the termination of public funding as well as provision). The empirical data, although limited, suggest that the recent increase in contracting in New Zealand has brought significant gains in terms of fiscal savings, productive efficiency, consumer choice and managerial accountability. Recent trends, however, have also posed some important policy issues, among them the limits to contracting out and the potential dangers associated with ‘hollow’ government.
The Role of Employment Equity Units in the Public Sector and in Universities
Authors: Burton Clare
Published: March 2008

The location of equity units remains a matter of contention in some agencies. Are equity goals best served by a central placement, or is mainstreaming a more efficient method? This article argues that issues such as active intervention, culture and management commitment are important prerequisites to questions of organisational design.
Past and Future Directions of the APS: Some Personal Reflections
Authors: Keating Michael
Published: March 2008

Reform of the public service has not been just some management fad, nor is it even driven by purely management considerations. Fundamentally, public service reform, both in the last decade and in the future, is being driven by basic changes in our society, economy and technology, which in turn influence what the public expects from government.

The reforms of the last decade or so have concentrated on changing the management framework and culture. Future reforms are likely to impact more heavily on the responsibilities of the APS and what it actually does. However, the underlying rationale will continue to be to ensure the delivery of services which respond more effectively to the needs of the community.
Introduction to the Symposium on Public Sector Management in Asia: What's New from the North?
Authors: Corbett David
Published: March 2008

What lessons can we draw from a symposium on public administration in Asia? Does Australia share common problems with our Asian neighbours? Are Asian countries adopting similar patterns of public sector reform, or diverging in their responses to contemporary problems?

In this commentary David Corbett reviews the contributions to this symposium and finds Asian nations grappling with local issues and problems. And yet he considers there are many continuities which run across cultural and historical differences. Asia provides a patchwork of different public sector cultures and experiences on which, he suggests, there is much to reflect.
China: Administrative Corruption — Experience in a Comparative Context
Authors: Tsao King K. , Worthley John Abbott
Published: March 2008

As a new world economy emerges what is being learned about the accompanying phenomenon of administrative corruption? To probe this question we combine study of current developments in China with prevailing theories of corruption. The administrative corruption experience, as it has unfolded during the economic development thrust of the Deng reform era, is described and analysed in a comparative context. In specifically interjecting the American experience we suggest that a balanced control response to corruption —rather than an elimination focus—could be a fruitful avenue for policy and research, and that informal, social approaches to corruption control are pregnant with possibilities. China's experience offers a significant opportunity to push the margin of wisdom on these issues as they relate to economic and political development.
The Two‐Way Street: Government Shaping of Community‐Based Advocacy
Authors: Sawer Marian , Jupp James
Published: March 2008

The interaction between government and community‐based advocacy organisations is becoming complex and highly structured. While some analysts seek to explain such interplay within neo‐Marxist or public choice frameworks, we argue the relationship is best understood as a two‐way street, full of tensions but neither a conspiracy against the public interest nor part of a larger design to deradicalise social movements. Drawing on a wide range of Australian examples, but focusing in particular on peak women's and ethnic communities' organisations, we explore how social movements have been able to exert independent influence on the policy agenda.
Testing the Policy Capacities of Budgetary Agencies: Lessons from Finance
Authors: Uhr John
Published: March 2008

The Commonwealth Department of Finance, together with the Treasury from which it was hived off in 1976, constitutes the central budgetary agency at the Australian federal level. For the purposes of this article, I identify Finance as a convenient working model of central budgetary agencies, at least in their traditional Australian incarnation. I accept that Finance is unlikely to be fully representative of all such Australian agencies, and I acknowledge that the federal government's annual budget is officially introduced into parliament by the Treasurer, and that the Treasury is deservedly regarded as the core budgetary agency. But my focus here is on Finance's special responsibility for the public management framework, and Finance's role in providing policy advice to government organisations on how to make the best use of budget funding. This article then presents the findings of a recent evaluation of selected policy‐advising activities with the department.
What Should be the Role of the Auditor‐General in the Context of Managerialist Government and New Public Management?
Authors: Taylor John
Published: March 2008

The role of an auditor‐general may be set out in somewhat dry terms as follows: providing expert, independent, public opinions on the financial affairs of government and its bodies and the efficiency, economy and effectiveness with which governments use the resources and power provided to them by taxpayers. This definition is relevant to any environment, managerialist or otherwise, for it is silent on the methods by which these opinions are reached. There will always be a requirement for some official with a duty to stand apart from executive government to review, independently assess and report to the people.

In my opinion an auditor‐general should always be mindful that his or her ultimate responsibility is to the people. For this reason the function appropriate to an auditor‐general will continue under some guise or other whatever the managerial form of government. To put it another way, our form of government is more likely to change than the functions of the auditor‐general. In the long run, stupidity or hubris in public administration is unlikely to long outweigh the practical, commonsense needs of society — despite the evidence of the last decade. In reviewing the auditor‐general's role any changes should only be made if they ensure that the independence, strength, institutional memory, adaptability and continued professionalism of the function is retained.
Competition, Productivity and the Cult of ‘More is Good’ in the Australian Health Care Sector
Authors: Braithwaite Jeffrey
Published: March 2008

Economic policy discussions emphasise growth, the maximisation of output, efficiency and the pursuit of rational self‐interest. Many policymakers, bureaucrats and managers in health care have been influenced by economists who believe that competition and the marketplace will provide maximum output and efficiency. Thus, for some, health care involves treating more and more patients for the same money. They argue for strategies such as reducing waste, lowering costs, increasing inpatient throughput and introducing competition between providers, especially hospitals, in order to stimulate productivity to achieve their aim. Yet in health care more is not necessarily good. Embracing the culture of the marketplace in a predominantly publicly funded system runs the risk of failing to distribute health care services equitably, and leads to more inappropriate and unnecessary care. An approach that merely strives to treat more patients and lower costs should be rejected in favour of a health system that values effectiveness, health outcomes, quality and the public good, and is patient‐centred not delivery system‐centred.
Are Prisoners Clients?
Authors: Weller Patrick
Published: March 2008

Public servants should identify their clients. As a statement of modern practice it seems unobjectionable. The emphasis of modern management has shifted from die inputs and processes to the outputs and recipients of government services. The language of the public sector has been infused with the rhetoric of the private, with discussion of customers and clients, rather than, as previously, recipients and patients. In many places the benefits are apparent, with officials less concerned with ensuring that every minute process is satisfied and more directed to the needs of those whom they service. My concern here is not to challenge the notion that a concentration on clients and customers is desirable; in places it clearly is. Rather I want to suggest that while a client focus may be applicable in some facets of public policy it is not universally so. There are instances where the attempt to classify everyone as clients may be counterproductive and strip the concept of useful meaning.
Public Service Renewal: Clues from the Commonwealth
Authors: Uhr John
Published: March 2008

Towards a Best Practice Australian Public Service. Discussion Paper issued by Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service, Hon Peter Reith. Canberra: AGPS, November 1996.
Reflections on AJPA and Other Public Administration Journals
Authors: Wettenhall Roger
Published: March 2008

I welcome the invitation of the current AJPA Editors, Glyn Davis and John Wanna, to write these reflections to accompany the decennial index and Catherine Althaus's article surveying what we have been talking about in AJPA over the past decade. In this endnote I want to say something about the mission of public administration journals (including AJPA), to offer a few comments about the editorial function, and also to refer to some exercises in comparing public administration journals. It may be appropriate to begin with a few facts about AJPA itself.
Local and Regional Governance: Back to Basics
Authors: Munro Angela
Published: March 2008

Local government has been transformed in Victoria — forceably amalgamated, stripped for a time of its democratic basis, required by law to embrace contracting out and greater private provision of services. This article describes this dramatic process, considers the implications and identifies a positive future for local and regional government.
Implementing the Contract State
Authors: Proust Elizabeth
Published: March 2008

The term ‘contract state’ can capture three different types of contractual arrangements:

*employment contracts

*intra public sector service contracts (often used in the health and education fields)

*public‐private service contracts or outsourcing.

Victoria, since the election of the Kennett government in 1992, has engaged in all three, but in particular, public sector change has been characterised by significant outsourcing. This article outlines the extent of outsourcing in Victorian state and local government, the managerial challenges of a contract state, and the need for continuous reflection on, and improvement of, the reform process.
Prisoners as Customers or Clients?
Authors: McGuire Linda
Published: March 2008

Is the market for prisons or prisoners? The question remains unresolved by the debate between Sue Vardon, former Director‐General, Department of Correctional Services, South Australia, and Patrick Weller, former Chairman, Corrective Services Commission, Queensland, in the March issue of this journal. Both asked whether prisoners are customers or clients of corrective service agencies. The distinction between clients as customers and clients as consumers in service delivery has important implications for the performance management of prisons, yet was ignored in the Vardon/Weller interchange. This distinction has implications for prisons and public services generally.
The Impact of the Coalition Government on the Public Service: Was Change Inevitable?
Authors: Schroder Philippa
Published: March 2008

Prime Minister John Howard has indicated that he wants to break down the welfare state as we know it and create a society that thrives on innovation and free enterprise. To do this will require a change in culture and attitudes in both the government and the community. The Coalition government argues that the state must withdraw its presence so market forces can be freed up to generate wealth, leading to greater prosperity for all Australians.

This article poses the questions: was change in the public service inevitable under the Coalition government? and have the Coalition thought through the consequences of the changes proposed? The evidence to date suggests a negative answer to both.
The Liberal‐National Government and Youth: ‘Training for Real Jobs’
Authors: Bessant Judith
Published: March 2008

The Liberal‐National party government is making major changes to a number of policy settings. It pledged a commitment to a strict program of budgetary restraint in its first Budget of August 1996. Its Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (1996) signified its intention to introduce a ‘revolutionary new era’ in Australian industrial relations. This involved introducing individual employment contracts, limiting the Australian Industrial Relations Commission's (AIRC) powers and reducing unions' role in enterprise bargaining. Less noticeable has been the government's pursuit of major reforms to Australia's education and training policies. These education and training initiatives are taking place in a context of seemingly permanent unemployment or what has been called ‘the end of work’ (Rifkin 1995). If such claims overstate the case, the training and education initiatives are occurring in the wake of ‘normal, autonomised processes of modernisation’ which are opening paths to a new post‐industrial order (Beck 1994: 3). But there are a number of questions to be raised about the extent to which a concern for equity and the protection of those most at risk in such a process may be compromised by complete faith in, and too eager a support for, market processes.
Defining Executive Power: Constitutional Reform for Grown‐ups
Authors: Sharman Campbell
Published: March 2008

Australia is well endowed with constitutions. It has seven, one for the commonwealth and each of the six states, and nine if the documents establishing self‐government for the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are included. This gives plenty of scope for constitutional reform: that is, changing the most important rules which specify how a political community is governed. In the event, public debate over constitutional reform in Australia has been sporadic and concentrated on a narrow range of issues. Perhaps this is as it should be. Constitutions should reflect broad public acceptance of the basic rules governing the operation of government, and if the system is running smoothly, there is little reason for change. Only when events occur that demonstrate that there are shortcomings in the structure of government should constitutional reform be considered.
Departmental Secretaries: Appointment, Termination and their Impact
Authors: Weller Patrick , Wanna John
Published: March 2008

This report examines the conditions of appointment and termination of departmental secretaries in the APS and considers the impact of these conditions on: the secretaries themselves; the potential pool from which secretaries are drawn; and the likely continuing influence on the way in which the APS operates.

The report is based on reviews of the literature on the appointments of departmental secretaries and of the legislative changes made in the last decades. It also draws from a series of interviews with 20 past and present secretaries. The interviews were conducted in October and December 1996, after a number of secretaries had been terminated by the new government but in most cases before the government paper on public service reform was released

The report is divided into two main sections: the first section analyses the changing conditions of service and tenure, the appointment and termination of secretaries and pay and conditions; the second section analyses the impact of the changes under three headings and explores the future implications.
Politicisation of Senior Appointments in the Australian Public Service
Authors: Mulgan Richard
Published: March 2008

The vexed question of politicisation and patronage in the Australian Public Service is explored in this article. Recent dismissals and appointments of department secretaries have raised concerns about political convenience, trends towards partisanship and the erosion of ‘frank and fearless’ advice. Alternatively, governments have come to insist on ‘partnership’ arrangements between ministers and secretaries, to enhance ‘political accountability’ and install new management teams to better implement government policy. But do such forms of politicisation risk drifting toward a new ‘spoils system’ most would want to avoid?
Creating a Performance Culture? Performance‐based Pay in the Australian Public Service
Authors: O'Donnell Michael
Published: March 2008

This article provides a critique of the operation of performance‐based pay in the Australian public service from 1992 to 1996 and questions proposals for further experimentation with such managerial initiatives. Performance agreements underpinning performance‐based pay were unable to measure adequately the performance of senior officers undertaking policy work. Appraisal reviews of these agreements also failed to increase performance feedback between supervisors and senior officers. The process of rating senior officers by supervisors, and the moderation of those ratings by senior agency management, proved to be inherently subjective and considerably increased the prerogatives of public service managers over senior officers. Linking pay to individual performance undermined teamwork and increased friction between those eligible for performance bonuses and junior officers excluded from the scheme. Yet the emphasis on individual employment relationships did not serve to undermine collective values, in particular workforce commitment to unionism.
The Impact of Electoral Reform on the Public Service: The New Zealand Case
Authors: Boston Jonathan , Levine Stephen , McLeay Elizabeth , Roberts Nigel S. , Schmidt Hannah
Published: March 2008

October 1996 marked the beginning of a new era in New Zealand politics, with the advent of a system of proportional representation based on the German model. This article explores the impact of electoral reform on the public service. First, it summarises the extensive public sector reforms during the mid‐to‐late 1980s and considers the preparations undertaken by the public service for proportional representation. Second, it outlines the concerns and expectations about the likely consequences of the new electoral system on the bureaucracy. Third, against this background, the article examines the extent to which the public service has been affected by electoral reform. It is argued that despite some notable changes to the political environment within which officials operate, the overall impact of proportional representation on the public service to date has been modest. The analysis presented here is based on a series of interviews conducted during 1997 with ministers, senior public servants, ministerial advisers and parliamentary officials, along with a range of secondary sources.
‘Political Correctness’: Pauline Hanson and the Construction of Australian Identity
Authors: Ahluwalia Pal , McCarthy Greg
Published: March 2008

In Australia there has been a great deal of discussion in recent years of something called ‘political correctness’. This term is an insidious phrase applied to academic humanists, who, it is frequently said, do not think independently but rather according to norms established by a cabal of ‘correct‐thinking’ leftists. These norms are supposed to be overly sensitive to racism, sexism and the like, instead of allowing people to debate in what is supposed to be an ‘open’ manner (Said 1994:58). This article asks why Australia has witnessed a backlash against ‘political correctness’ at this point of time. Why has Hanson been able to mount a sustained attack on ‘political correctness’ and why has John Howard's response been muted? The article suggests notions of identity and difference are at the centre of the recent debate — the rhetoric has highlighted the politics of division while obsuring the issues of those marginal to the mainstream.
Competitive Tendering and Contracting, and Auditing: The Implications of the High Court Judgment in Esanda Finance
Authors: Osborne Matthew
Published: March 2008

This article argues that the High Court has provided a timely warning of the legal dangers facing managers in their commercial dealings when engaged in competitive tendering and contracting (CTC). The Esanda case illustrates the increasingly close relationship between public administration and aspects of corporate governance.
Product Costing, Managerialism and Organisational Learning: Some Insights from a Case Study from the Tasmanian Health Sector
Authors: Hindle Don , Braithwaite Jeffrey
Published: March 2008

Much that is written on product costing is prescriptive. Such literature suggests normative ways to accomplish the tasks of identifying, classifying, determining and using product costs. Some critics might argue that this is managerialist, top — down thinking which should be rejected. Others might suggest that normative, prescriptive approaches ignore complex social factors such as the exercise of power and influence, or that the outputs of health, welfare and education are not products at all and are not therefore amenable to a product costing process. We explore some aspects of this debate through the analysis of a case study of the Tasmanian health sector in which a product costing process was conducted in three hospitals. We conclude that a number of benefits to identified stakeholders — in this case bureaucrats, hospital managers and clinical staff — can emerge from a product costing process. We briefly locate the discussion in the context of some characteristics of organisational learning.
Unions in Restructured States: Laborism in Australia and Economic Liberalism in the United Kingdom
Authors: Fairbrother Peter
Published: March 2008

There have been major reforms in the public sector in both Australia and the United Kingdom from the 1980s onwards. In each case, governments restructured their state sectors. These initiatives brought about not only widely acknowledged changes in organisation but also changes in the labour process and class relations as well as differing prospects for state sector trade unions.
Industrial Relations and Public Sector Reform: The Victorian Case
Authors: Teicher Julian , van Gramberg Bernadine
Published: March 2008

Few anticipated the radical program of public sector reform introduced by the Kennett government. A commitment to downsizing, markets and privatisation has transformed employment relations in the Victorian public sector. Familiar institutions have disappeared, major employment areas have been restructured, and jurisdiction for much public sector industrial relations has been transferred to the Commonwealth. Despite some industrial unrest, and occasional successes, public sector unions have been unable to fend off this ideological assault on traditional patterns of public sector employment.
A Paradigm Shift? Employee Relations in the Victorian Public Service Since 1992
Authors: Barrett Rowena , Backwell Jim
Published: March 2008

When Jeff Kennett was swept into office on 3 October 1992, one of his first priorities was to reform the Victorian public sector as one part of his broad strategy to get ‘Victoria on the Move’. Without losing much time, and with very little community or parliamentary debate, both the Public Sector Management Act 1992(Vic) and theEmployee Relations Act 1992 (Vic) were passed. These pieces of legislation have been the main instruments to regulate terms and conditions of employment for employees in the Victorian public service. Changes to the legislation will be examined in this paper and discussed in the context of whether a paradigm shift has occurred in managing employee relations in the Victorian public service.
More Queensland Exceptionalism: Public Sector Industrial Relations from New Labor to the Old Coalition
Authors: Hall Richard
Published: March 2008

Public sector change across Western economies produces broadly similar results for the state and for public employment relations. Yet local variations can matter, as governments choose how vigorously to pursue downsizing, constructing and decentralisation. As an example of such regional differences, this paper examines the form of public sector change introduced in Queensland under Labor and Coalition governments, and the implications of union strategy.
Managing Change: Focus on Improving Service Quality and Information Management
Authors: Zanetti Carmen
Published: March 2008

Then there are the organisations that want to shape the future. These companies learn to anticipate the possible directions the future may take and begin to blaze the new path without hesitation. The leaders of these companies encourage their people to challenge conventional thinking, to change the business dramatically, and to create continuous renewal and progress. These companies don't just want to survive — they want to lead. They want to write the rules that others will follow.
Learning from Difference: The New Architecture of Experimentalist Governance in the EU
Authors: Sabel Charles F. , Zeitlin Jonathan
Published: March 2008

Abstract:  This article argues that current widespread characterisations of EU governance as multi‐level and networked overlook the emergent architecture of the EU's public rule making. In this architecture, framework goals (such as full employment, social inclusion, ‘good water status’, a unified energy grid) and measures for gauging their achievement are established by joint action of the Member States and EU institutions. Lower‐level units (such as national ministries or regulatory authorities and the actors with whom they collaborate) are given the freedom to advance these ends as they see fit. But in return for this autonomy, they must report regularly on their performance and participate in a peer review in which their results are compared with those pursuing other means to the same general ends. Finally, the framework goals, performance measures, and decision‐making procedures themselves are periodically revised by the actors, including new participants whose views come to be seen as indispensable to full and fair deliberation. Although this architecture cannot be read off from either Treaty provisions or textbook accounts of the formal competences of EU institutions, the article traces its emergence and diffusion across a wide range of policy domains, including telecommunications, energy, drug authorisation, occupational health and safety, employment promotion, social inclusion, pensions, health care, environmental protection, food safety, maritime safety, financial services, competition policy, state aid, anti‐discrimination policy and fundamental rights.
Non‐motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Poewe W.
Published: March 2008

Although still considered a paradigmatic movement disorder, Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with a broad spectrum of non‐motor symptoms. These include disorders of mood and affect with apathy, anhedonia and depression, cognitive dysfunction and hallucinosis, as well as complex behavioural disorders. Sensory dysfunction with hyposmia or pain is almost universal, as are disturbances of sleep–wake cycle regulation. Autonomic dysfunction including orthostatic hypotension, urogenital dysfunction and constipation is also present to some degree in a majority of patients. Whilst overall non‐motor symptoms become increasingly prevalent with advancing disease, many of them can also antedate the first occurrence of motor signs – most notably depression, hyposmia or rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder (RBD). Although exact clinicopathological correlations for most of these non‐motor features are still poorly understood, the occurrence of constipation, RBD or hyposmia prior to the onset of clinically overt motor dysfunction would appear consistent with the ascending hypothesis of PD pathology proposed by Braak and colleagues. Screening these early non‐motor features might, therefore, be one approach towards early ‘preclinical’ diagnosis of PD. This review article provides an overview of the clinical spectrum of non‐motor symptoms in PD together with a brief review of treatment options.
New insights into the pathology of Parkinson’s disease: does the peripheral autonomic system become central?
Authors: Probst A. , Bloch A. , Tolnay M.
Published: March 2008

Recent studies in aged, neurologically unimpaired subjects have pointed to a specific induction site of the pathological process of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in the region of the dorsal glossopharyngeus–vagus complex as well as in the anterior olfactory nucleus. From the lower brainstem, the disease process would then pursue an ascending course and involve more rostral brainstem areas, limbic structures, and eventually the cerebral cortex. One barrier to the acceptance of the caudal medullary structures as the induction site of PD pathology is that not all parts of the nervous system have been investigated for the presence of PD‐associated lesions in cases of early asymptomatic PD. Using alpha‐synuclein immunostaining, we investigated the brain, the sacral, and thoracic autonomic nuclei of the spinal cord as well as several components of the peripheral autonomic nervous system in a autopsy cohort of 98 neurologically unimpaired subjects aged 64 or more. Our data indicate that the autonomic nuclei of the spinal cord and the peripheral autonomic nervous system belong to the most constantly and earliest affected regions next to medullary structures and the olfactory nerves in neurologically unimpaired older individuals, thus providing a pathological basis for early premotor autonomic dysfunctions at a prodromal stage of PD.
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN RETRACTED: Toll‐like receptor 3 contributes to spinal glial activation and tactile allodynia after nerve injury
Authors: Obata Koichi , Katsura Hirokazu , Miyoshi Kan , Kondo Takashi , Yamanaka Hiroki , Kobayashi Kimiko , Dai Yi , Fukuoka Tetsuo , Akira Shizuo , Noguchi Koichi
Published: March 2008

Toll‐like receptors (TLRs) play an essential role in innate immune responses and in the initiation of adaptive immune responses. Microglia, the resident innate immune cells in the CNS, express TLRs. In this study, we show that TLR3 is crucial for spinal cord glial activation and tactile allodynia after peripheral nerve injury. Intrathecal administration of TLR3 antisense oligodeoxynucleotide suppressed nerve injury‐induced tactile allodynia, and decreased the phosphorylation of p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase, but not extracellular signal‐regulated protein kinases 1/2, in spinal glial cells. Antisense knockdown of TLR3 also attenuated the activation of spinal microglia, but not astrocytes, caused by nerve injury. Furthermore, down‐regulation of TLR3 inhibited nerve injury‐induced up‐regulation of spinal pro‐inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin‐1β, interleukin‐6, and tumor necrosis factor‐α. Conversely, intrathecal injection of the TLR3 agonist polyinosine–polycytidylic acid induced behavioral, morphological, and biochemical changes similar to those observed after nerve injury. Indeed, TLR3‐deficient mice did not develop tactile allodynia after nerve injury or polyinosine–polycytidylic acid injection. Our results indicate that TLR3 has a substantial role in the activation of spinal glial cells and the development of tactile allodynia after nerve injury. Thus, blocking TLR3 in the spinal glial cells might provide a fruitful strategy for treating neuropathic pain.