THE MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

One of the minor curiosities of public sector analysis in Australia is that rather little attention has been paid to the tools and instruments that could provide a more effective management of government research and development. Once government R & D is mentioned, we immediately think of the large statutory bodies such as CSIRO or the Atomic Energy Commission, but the subject extends widely beyond these two bodies. The Australian Government, federal and states, provides 70% of all the funds for Australian R & D, and the government itself performs, in its own laboratories and statutory authorities, 54% of the total R & D carried out in Australia Of OECD countries, these percentages of government activity are exceeded only by Iceland, New Zealand, Portugal and Turkey. Virtually every federal department and every department of each state government performs R&D. Apart from the "big two" of CSIRO and Atomic Energy, the Post Office, Defence, Health, Housing, and Minerals and Energy all have research laboratories, and the last major survey of Australian R & D in 1973 listed 22 federal departments and 130 organizations in the State Governments performing R & D. A recent article in this journal correctly noted a shift from "ends to means" in Australian science policy. The present article proposes a specific means of managing this almost unique public involvement in R & D in Australia.     

THE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT STRATEGY OF THE VICTORIAN COALITION GOVERNMENT

Abstract: This article reviews the budget sector financial management strategy of the Victorian Coalition government in the crucial period from its election in October 1992 up to the 1993–94 budget. The twin goals set by the Coalition were the elimination of the current account deficit, and the reduction of debt levels. Given infrastructure pressures, the debt reduction goal will be a difficult one to achieve. More precisely, it will be a difficult one to achieve without relying upon instruments such as assets sales, which the Coalition has viewed as artificial debt reduction techniques. The capital expenditure plans embodied in the 1993–94 state budget were not consistent with the debt reduction plans specified only months earlier by the Coalition. Victoria's debt levels are quite moderate even by OECD standards. What makes debt levels a real issue for the state is the narrowness of the tax bases of the Australian states, and the fact that Victoria is taxing at something like its maximum levels (at least, without coordinated multi-state tax increases). It is argued that, if the states could be confident that their revenue positions would hold firm (concretely, that revenue and grants as a proportion of GSP would remain constant), the appropriate debt policy goal for Victoria would be stabilisation — rather than reduction — of its debt/GSP ratio. However, the foreshadowed trend reduction of real commonwealth grants, as part of the so-called national savings campaign, makes it appropriate for Victoria — given the circumstances in which it finds itself — to target the reduction of debt/GSP levels.     

THE POLITICS OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE USSR

Book reviewed in this article:
Nathan Leites, The Soviet Style in Management (New York: Crane Russak, 1985).
Bruce Parrott, Politics and Technology in the Soviet Union (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1985).
Bruce Parrott, Trade, Technology and Soviet-American Relations (Bloom-ington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1985).     

THE DELIMITATION OF GOVERNMENT REGIONS AND STATISTICAL AREAS IN AUSTRALIA

Over the past decade State and Commonwealth governments in Australia have become increasingly concerned with the regional scale of activity where region, defined at its broadest, refers to an area which is larger than the Local Government Area (LGA) and smaller than the State. This concern arose in part with belief that "some programs and services of government are most efficiently and effectively planned, coordinated and delivered at a level intermediate to those of State and Local Government". This in turn reflected the growth in importance of the regional scale for the whole gamut of social and economic functioning. Rapid technological changes in transport and communication; the tremendous growth in personal mobility over the past 30 years; the rapid urban growth; the powerful organizing role of urban centres and the increasing interdependence of town and country have all made the regional unit a very significant spatial and functional entity which it is impossible to ignore when organizing activity of any sort. In particular this "shrinkage of space" has enabled both public and private sector activity to be organized effectively over much larger areas than previously, while technological changes have increased the scale at which many services, especially those involving physical plant, are most efficiently performed.     

PUBLIC SERVANTS AND THE BRIEFING OF PARTY COMMITTEES

Abstract: Politicians need information. In recent years the practice of public servants briefing party committees has been expanded to help fill that need. In part this was due to the increased influence of caucus committees under the Labor government, but the practice has continued. Public servants provide information and explanations of policy to government and opposition members, although in the latter case public servants have to tread carefully. In December 1976 the Prime Minister tabled guidelines to govern these briefings. This innovation has implications for the doctrines of public service neutrality, for ministerial responsibility and for the capacity of the opposition to develop workable policy. Despite the potential problems that may arise, it is a practice that, if used effectively, can only assist in the improvement of political debate.