THE IMAGE OF THE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR IN AUSTRALIA*

After the recent Federal elections, I am more confident in saying that I do not always believe the polls. In this instance, I have the feeling that the image of public administrators in Australia is probably worse than the surveys indicated. The latest bumper bar sticker in Canberra reads: “Fight inflation, run over a public servant today”. The Australian is running a series of articles critical of the size, efficiency and effectiveness of public services. The cup-of-tea image is a popular one and kick-a-public-servant-today has every possibility of developing into a national sport; the “fat cat” image has caught on.     

INADEQUACIES IN THE PROCESSES OF POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN AUSTRALIA

Abstract: Policy and policy development have received considerable attention in Australia over the last decade or more. This attention has resulted in many recommendations on policy in the series of major public service inquiries of the 1970s, in a number of books and journal articles on varied aspects of public policy, and in the considerable strengthening of the policy development capacities of many government agencies. This attention has to date been inadequate, because it has in almost all cases concentrated on the questions of where within the bureaucratic structure policy development should occur and what procedural mechanisms are needed to allow ministers or cabinet to choose between alternative policies and to facilitate the coordination of policies. These questions are of course important, but questions of how a well-considered policy option that can be considered by a cabinet or a minister is actually developed appear to have been almost totally ignored. In the public service inquiries, in the published literature, and in public accounts of the work of policy units, there appears to be virtually no analysis of the process of policy development. There is little or no discussion of how the standard formal models of policy development match or fail to match the techniques used in Australia, and although there have been many individual case studies of policy issues, there are no comparative case studies from which general observations might be drawn. Lastly, there are very few positive suggestions as to how policy development in Australia could be improved. Overcoming these inadequacies provides a major challenge to Australian policy workers.