Rising 'C' Levels - City, Regional & Local Collaboration
Community Engagement in Strategic City Planning: the Gold Coast Experience
Bold Future - A case study on sustainable practice:
An exercise in engaging the masses with strategic city planning
Cities all over the world are engaged in thinking about their long term futures. The Gold Coast is facing an increasingly challenging and competitive future on the climatic, financial and societal fronts. Unless we conceptualise and take action to achieve our preferred future, we will put at risk our city's success and desirability.
Bold Future aims to position Gold Coast as an international sustainable city of choice over the coming decades. New challenges have been identified based on work commenced in 1998 and include climate change and the rising price of fuel; they affect every aspect of our city's futures. These and other as yet unknown challenges must be addressed if the city is to be sustainable and preserve its unique lifestyle values for future generations.
There are many parallels between the Bold Future work here in Australia and the best practice work of other cities in the world. The approach has been an inclusive, citywide effort to guide the physical, economic, social, cultural and environmental development of Gold Coast over the next 30 years. Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) invited an Advisory Committee to champion and guide the development of the Vision, with wider engagement of partners and citizens from across the city. GCCC is a leader in the collaborative development, through ongoing public consultation and conversations, of its first community plan for the city.
The Bold Future exercise is establishing an ongoing adaptive management and community engagement framework for the city. The Gold Coast's many communities participated in the consultation via public forums, meetings, reference groups, online submissions, surveys, school forums and children's creative and art making activities.
For its part, in 2009, GCCC will be using Bold Future to develop its four year Corporate Plan and to direct the new Planning Scheme for the city.
About the speakers
Dr Alyson Ross, Gold Coast City Council
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Alyson managed the program that developed the Gold Coast's Bold Future Vision, a 30 year Strategic Vision and Blueprint for the city. She is an experienced senior manager who has worked as a Director in the British National Health Service and more recently as an Executive Program Manager with Gold Coast City Council. She has worked in both England and Australia to develop strategies for whole of community population issues. Her particular strengths in bringing together a wide array of stakeholders to achieve challenging and complex service change and development projects and initiatives have ensured that the Bold Future Vision successfully engaged the Gold Coast community, achieving over 11,000 separate submissions from the community.
Mr Chris Wake, Gold Coast City Council
Chris has a diverse range of local government experience. His professional career spans a variety of scientific, research, project management and strategic planning roles. Currently, Chris is the Senior Project Officer of Gold Coast City Council’s Bold Future Program - the highest level and most significant strategic planning program undertaken by Gold Coast City Council in recent times.
Just last month, 'Bold Future Vision' was awarded Best Practice in Local Government at the inaugural IPAA Queensland Public Sector Excellence Awards.
Collaboration Through Regional Governance
Across Australia, increasing attention is being given to the development of regional governance structures. These structures are invariably defined by their emphasis on collaboration, as they attempt to integrate effort across government agencies, between levels of government, and draw in key regional actors.
The increasing emphasis on regional governance is informed by an emerging recognition that regions are the most appropriate level at which to tackle many key economic, environmental and social challenges. Furthermore, the issues that need to be tackled are often cross-cutting, with complex intersections between economic, social and environmental issues. The new Australian regionalism is an evolving, pragmatic response to these challenges.
This paper will survey emergent forms of regional governance across Australia and will draw on Victoria as a detailed case study.
Victoria established Regional Management Structures in 2005 to facilitate collaboration between state government departments and local governments. They are now an established fixture of the Victorian public sector landscape, and have evolved beyond their formal beginnings to incorporate loose intersecting networks of groups based in and around the Forums themselves. The open, fuzzy and somewhat elastic boundaries of these groupings allow the extent of the region to vary or the right coalition to be established to address each issue.
Regional Management Forums and their associated groups are now playing a key role in the development of integrated regional strategic plans, which are aimed at aligning policy and guiding investment.
The experience of regional governance in Victoria and elsewhere points to a public sector future based on collaboration, flexibility and responsiveness. This will demand new responses from government departments as well as the public servants that work for them.
About the speaker
Mr Andrew Wear, Department of Planning & Community Development
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Andrew Wear leads strategy and policy development for the Community Development Group within the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development. In this role, Andrew has responsibility for Victoria's Regional Management Forums and the associated Regional Strategic Planning Initiative.
With over ten years in public sector roles, he has extensive experience leading cross-government policy development. He has also developed and implemented a number of programs, including as the highly successful Transport Connections program.
Andrew has degrees in political science, law, economics and public policy. He publishes regularly on a range of policy themes including community development, collaborativef governance and social exclusion. In recent years, Andrew has also been working with the OECD on a number of international initiatives and is a member of the Group of Experts for the OECD Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance.
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Survival of the Fittest - Public Sector Integrity: Getting on the Right Foot
Managing Moral Dilemma's in the APS
Do moral dilemmas faced by public servants change when forms of public administration change? Moral dilemmas arise when there is a necessity for action, such as in the form of a political decision, which may challenge existing ethical frameworks or codes for acceptable behaviour. A key assumption in examining the nature of work within the public sector is that responsiveness to new circumstances, whether created exogenously or endogenously, increases ambiguity for public servants as to what is an acceptable course of action. To test this assumption this paper explores contemporary dilemmas faced by those working in the Australian Public Service and contrasts that experience with moral dilemmas found in earlier eras of public administration, such as in the age of public sector mandarins and in the era of managerialism. For example, what kinds of dilemmas do public servants working in the contemporary era characterised as integrated governance face and does this suggest a necessarily more politicised and ethically ambiguous public service experience for practitioners than found in earlier forms of public administration?
Data collected from case law, public inquiries and reports over the period from the mid 1950s to the late 2000s is used to identify and analyse moral dilemmas faced by public servants at the national level of government in Australia. In doing so, the paper highlights differences and commonalities across the different eras of public administration and generates observations on both change and stability in addressing moral dilemmas faced by public servants. Arising from the analysis is a proposal to examine more closely the degree to which the permeability of boundaries between policy, administrative and political dimensions within executive government strengthen or weaken morally engaged public service.
About the speaker
Dr Chris Sadleir, University of Canberra
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Dr Chris Sadleir is a lecturer and researcher public management and organisation at the University of Canberra.
Chris teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in public management, organisational performance and governance at national, community and organisational levels.
Chris's research interests are in globalisation and national government, public policy and organisational performance.
His research and teaching interests builds on extensive experience as a public servant at State and national levels of government in Australia.
About the speaker
Dr Mark Lauchs
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Mark joined the School of Justice Studies as an Associate Lecturer in 2004. He has previously worked in policy, research and projects in the Queensland State Government. Mark worked in the departments of Premier and Cabinet and Justice and Attorney-Generals, including 18 months as head of the Ethics and Integrity Unit of the Office of Public Service Merit and Equity. He completed a PhD on the history of public sector ethics and accountability in Queensland. Mark also teaches in the "International Policing" program that forms the major component of the Bachelor of Justice Degree for the Singapore Police.
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Audience Questions
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Warming to Global Trends - Warmth in Cold Climates
Making Government More Effective;
The Government of Canada's Management Agenda
The Government of Canada is a key driver for the promotion and maintenance of the country's overall competitiveness and prosperity. Especially in this current global economic downturn, the management of government and the quality of its programs and services have important consequences for Canadian living standards.
From this context, the Government of Canada has developed a comprehensive Management Agenda to guide its efforts to better respond to a rapidly changing operating environment in order to meet the needs and goals of Canadians, both now and in the future. The ultimate objective of this Agenda is to make government more effective.
Building a more effective government requires efforts in a number of areas: ensuring funds are spent efficiently and are results-oriented, eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy that stifles innovation, and equipping government with the best people and systems to achieve its operational objectives. Effective government must also encourage measured and innovative responses, yet still ensure transparency and accountability to safeguard public resources.
The Government of Canada's Management Agenda signifies a new approach to management that is guided by a respect for foundational principles and shared values and ethics that define management expectations and support the exercise of sound judgement by managers. This paper will describe the core elements of the Government of Canada's approach to strengthening public sector management as well as the key challenges associated with these efforts.
Balancing the Ticket?
Program Evaluation in a Performance Measurement World
In the past 10 years, performance measurement and outcomes-focused performance reporting have become dominant features of performance management in Canadian jurisdictions. The ubiquity of requirements to measure outcomes have been matched by the expectation that performance results will figure in both decision-making and public accountability. The enthusiasm of advocates, including the accounting and the public auditing community in Canada, has given way to a more balanced and even skeptical view of the performance measurement enterprise. The Federal Government of Canada has embraced performance measurement and reporting for departments and agencies and continues to do so. But recently, there has been a concerted effort to rebalance the ticket – elevating program evaluation to some of its former status among assessment approaches supported by Treasury Board policies. This effort is mirrored in other jurisdictions in Canada where provincial governments are moving away from their reliance on performance measurement to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of programs and policies. But what are these jurisdictions moving towards? Program evaluation, as it was practiced in governments in Canada, in the 1980s and 1990s, required staff and support resources – evaluations consumed resources and took time. The resurgence that is happening looks different. Evaluations are expected to occur without new resources, and they are expected to contribute to real time decision-making. Is program evaluation up to this challenge? Do we have to re-think what program evaluation is in a performance measurement world?
About the speaker
Professor Jim McDavid, University of Victoria, Canada
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James C. McDavid is a Professor of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, British Columbia and Co-director of the Local Government Institute in the School of Public Administration. He specializes in program evaluation, performance measurement, performance management and the production of local government services. He has conducted research and evaluations focusing on Federal, state, provincial and local governments in the United States and Canada. His published research includes articles and books on program evaluation, performance measurement, performance management and comparisons of local government service production across Canada.
In 1996, he co-authored an article on local government contracting with Eric Clemens, which won the J.E. Hodgett’s Award for the best English language article in Canadian Public Administration. He was a University of Victoria Distinguished University Professor from 2004 through 2008. His textbook, Program Evaluation and Performance Measurement: An Introduction to Practice was published by Sage Publications in 2006.
He has just completed an SSHRC-funded research project to examine the ways the BC Legislators use the annual performance reports for ministries and Crowns that are mandated by legislation. Currently, he is heading up the Secretariat for the Consortium of Universities for Evaluation Education (CUEE) here in Canada. CUEE is a group of universities that are committed to increasing the availability of graduate evaluation programs and courses to students and practitioners in Canada. The Consortium is working with the Canadian Evaluation Society and Treasury Board Canada on this initiative.
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Audience Questions
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Sustainable Practice - Sustaining Transparency & Accountability - Building a Culture of Openness
About the speaker
Dr David Solomon AM, Integrity Commissioner
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Dr David Solomon AM was Chair of the Independent Panel appointed by the Bligh Government to review Queensland's Freedom of Information laws in 2007-8.
He retired from full time journalism at the end of 2005. He spent most of his career in Canberra, writing about politics and the law, for such newspapers as The Australian, the Financial Review and The Canberra Times. He came to Brisbane in 1992 to chair the Electoral and Administrative Review Commission, and, when that Commission was wound up, stayed and worked for the Courier Mail as a Contributing Editor.
He has degrees from the Australian National University in Arts and Law, and a Doctorate of Letters. He has written almost a dozen books books on parliament, politics constitutional law and the High Court.
About the speaker
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Mr Jack Waterford - Canberra Times
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Jack Waterford AM is a distinguished Australian journalist and commentator who is now Editor-at-Large of the Canberra Times. A law graduate from the Australian National University, Waterford is well-known for his investigative journalism using Freedom of Information legislation and for his work and advocacy on indigenous health issues and on the national trachoma and eye health program. He has delivered papers at many public forums and written book chapters on areas as diverse as press freedom, the High Court of Australia, public administration and the Petrov affair.
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About the speaker
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Mr William DeMaria - UQ Business School
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Dr Bill De Maria is a leading international contributor in the areas of government secrecy, corruption, whistle blowing and accountability. He works in these areas from an unfashionable critical or left position.
He has been a research fellow at the world headquarters of Transparency International and regularly works with governments. Recently he worked with the Japanese Cabinet Office on their whistle blowing policies and has recently returned from Ottawa as a guest of the new Canadian Office of Public Sector Integrity.
He is widely published and this year his research exposing flaws in the most popular measure of corruption in the world was awarded outstanding publication of the year. He did the first whistleblower research in Australia and the Queensland Whistleblower Action Group that he started during that research remains in existence to this day. Dr. De Maria is an unapologetic skeptic about the ethics industry and the willful incompetence of governments when they respond to communal demands for more official transparency and integrity.
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