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Nov 5, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Stephen Bartos |Kim Carr |Sean Innis |Cathy Fussell
The six months or so before an election is a testing time for public servants who deal with ministers or develop and implement new policies. Campaigning has not yet begun — officially. Prior to the caretaker period, governments can still take policy decisions and have every right to expect the public service to help them with their policy processes from ideas through to rollout.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Tom Ravlic |Kim Carr |Sean Innis |Cathy Fussell
Having public servants with similar but different roles can cause confusion during Senate estimates. This was the case when the Australian Public Sector Commission appeared before its inquisitors this week.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Kim Carr |Sean Innis |Cathy Fussell |Daniel Holmes
Senate opposition leader Simon Birmingham has suggested calling Anthony Albanese’s chief of staff before Senate estimates. Birmingham grilled Prime Minister and Cabinet staff about the Albanese’s role in the decision to rebuff a Qatar Airways bid to run more flights in Australia. Transport Minister Catherine King has previously responded to a question on notice, saying she spoke to ministerial colleagues about Qatar Airways, but made the decision herself.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Angus Crowther |Sally Hussey |Cathy Fussell
If 2024 was the year of elections, 2025 will be the year of questions. The start of the year will see governments across the world at the beginning of new terms, forced to respond swiftly to mounting economic, social, security, environmental and technological challenges. These issues would be difficult to address at any time, but today they come amid a turbulent geopolitical context — one that is seeing a disintegration of the post-war international order.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Taylor Hawkins |Kim Carr |Sean Innis |Cathy Fussell
Australians are culturally hardwired to aspire for a “fair go”. To collectively realise this vision, we must direct our resources and knowledge to ensure that future generations can enjoy a fairer society. Redirecting our attention from the short-term can help us address some of Australia’s most significant challenges, such as rising costs of living, income inequality, unequal healthcare access, declining education performance, and climate change.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Julian Bajkowski |Kim Carr |Sean Innis |Cathy Fussell
“Woo Hoo! I’ll process this Monday”Those are the words of a [redacted] employee in the Attorney General’s Department (AGD) to their relatively recently promoted deputy secretary, Simon Newnham, having scored an invitation to the exclusive Qantas Chairman’s Lounge. “Thanks. Interesting. SN” comes the possibly cautious reply.
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Oct 29, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Julian Bajkowski |Cathy Fussell |Abram El-Sabagh |David Adams
If you thought the fight to find a functioning automatic teller machine to dispense cash was getting a lot tougher, spare a thought for the Royal Australian Mint, which is expressly charged with the duty of stamping the nation’s coins, once the favoured currency of transit tickets, parking meters and vending machines.
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Oct 27, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Melissa Coade |Cathy Fussell |Abram El-Sabagh |David Adams
Supporters of conservative politics are being urged to hold their political representatives to account for policy ideas that are not evidence-based or thought through to their end point. Journalist Niki Savva joined a panel of peers, including Mark Kenny and Paul Sakkal, to discuss the future of conservative politics in Australia. They argued many half-baked ideas gaining momentum among Opposition ranks are part opportunity, part thoughtlessness, and part horse trading.
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Oct 24, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Sean Innis |Cathy Fussell |Abram El-Sabagh |David Adams
We will never know what Australia might have been like had proposals for constitutional change rejected by the people succeeded instead. We will also never know what other changes might have been proposed had Australians proved less cautious about change. Constitutional experts like George Williams and Anne Twomey see Australia’s record of change as problematic.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
themandarin.com.au | Stuart Kells |Cathy Fussell |Abram El-Sabagh |Liz Hobday
In my 2018 book with Ian Gow, The Big Four, we called out several myths about the international system of corporate oversight, including the idea that the four major accounting firms performed a systemically important, public-benefit function and that they were ‘too big to fail’. We noted that the four firms were facing a powerful confluence of forces — in technology, competition, regulation, integrity and the workforce — that made significant change inevitable.
