There are only two ways to respond to the US presidential election, one cataclysmic and the other chock full of hope. You could look at what has happened in the election, and the turbulent and distressing four years since the last one and come to the discomfiting conclusion that America is disappearing. All that we […]
Why is is so hard to do what we know? Or what happens when I’ve hit the wall
There’s a lot of movement at the moment around questions of rebuilding after COVID (assuming there is an ‘after COVID’; I think this is with us for a while) especially in what is sometimes referred to as the “foundation economy” (health, social care, education, food – what Sydney University’s John Buchanan recently described as the […]
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 Dividend: will everything change, or nothing?
This is a short addendum to the recent piece on whether or not we can expect to see a significant Covid Dividend: A Covid Dividend is the value we will reap from the reforms, changes in behaviour and other innovations which were caused, prompted or dramatically accelerated by the COVID19 pandemic that deliver sustained improvements […]
Public Purpose 2019: the quick version
Public Purpose 2019: a brief review It’s been a pretty solid year and I wanted to thank the many friends and colleagues I have had an opportunity to connect and work with, drink quite a lot of coffee (and enjoy some good food and wine occasionally) to test and grow a mutual obsession with the […]
Are We There Yet? The Digital Transformation of Government and the Public Sector in Australia
Tomorrow (30 July) Peter Shergold, former head of the Prime Minister’s Department in Canberra and Chancellor of Western Sydney University launches a book that Deloitte Digital Director Simon Cooper and I have written about the digital transformation of government and the public sector in Australia. Your can buy the book here and here Over the […]
