This is a short submission (copied in full below) I made to the current rewrite of Australia’s digital strategy being curated by the Digital Transformation Agency. Its main message is that digital transformation needs to think bigger and take itself more seriously. No disrespect to the complex and difficult technical, often transactional work that is […]
Reflections on government and COVID19: expertise, the role of government, the new public work, social imagination and beating the binary #3
8 In my work in the public sector over the last 20 years or more, one of the most familiar tropes is the exasperated crusade so many engage in to find better ways to collaborate within and across governments and between governments and the wider community. The trouble is that aspiration and hope seem to […]
Reflections on government and COVID19: expertise, the role of government, the new public work, social imagination and beating the binary #2
5 Public work is work that results in solutions and services that are available and accessible to all, are usually paid for by some form of collective investment and effort and which are accountable and ethical in ways that everyone can easily see and understand. They are common, collective, legible and provide benefits that can […]
Reflections on government and COVID19: expertise, the role of government, the new public work, social imagination and beating the binary #1
1 It turns out that good government, done well and an effective, skilled and well-resourced public sector matter. They matter all the time, but they matter especially in times of crisis and danger. The trouble is, if you don’t think they matter all the time and mistreat them accordingly in the way you talk about […]
Covid, climate and change – pondering the dividend
I have spent the weekend, among other things, reading a remarkable set of 12 essays from Dan Hill, currently working in Stockholm for Vinnova, the Swedish Government innovation agency. I’ve known Dan for some time since we met in Sydney while he was at Arup and we discovered a mutual friend in Richard Allan (Lord […]
Can we declare a Covid Dividend?
One of the stories of this pandemic runs something like this. A microscopic bug released from an animal market in Wuhan has, in a matter of weeks, brought the world to its knees. As a recent edition of The Economist had it, “planet closed.” Melodrama, perhaps, and a great magazine cover, but not too far […]
