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2 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
Peter Melican has been promoted to deputy chief counsel at the Australian Government Solicitor. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has appointed Adrian Lochrin first assistant secretary. Daniel Blacker is now deputy inspector general of water compliance at the Department of Climate Change, Clean Energy, the Environment and Water. The next assistant secretary for digital projects at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations is Ann Borg-Barthet.
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2 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
The United Kingdom has launched a new evaluation registry, a database of planned, ongoing, and complete government policy evaluations. The registry provides key information on the programs and policies that have been or will be evaluated across government, the methodological approaches used in these evaluations, and summaries of evaluation findings.
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2 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
Tony Fitzgerald has raised concerns about the appointment of a former Liberal party member to the Queensland Redistribution Commission (QRC). QRC will start redrawing Queensland’s electoral boundaries this year to account for population movements since the last redistribution in 2017.
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2 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
Queensland Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki has revealed early details of the state’s energy roadmap. Expected by December, the five-year plan focuses on the extensions of existing coal assets and the development of new gas generators. A $400 million commitment has been made to maintain our government-owned generators in 2024-25. This includes completing the refurbishment of the cooling tower at Tarong Power Station and upgrading the Callide B1 and B2 units.
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2 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
After two and a half years of work, Minister Katy Gallagher says Services Australia’s capacity is sufficient to meet current needs. Gallagher told the last round of Senate estimates that Services Australia had enough staff for the moment, but there would be ongoing conversations about agency resourcing. “We’ve put in 3,000 extra staff in Services Australia, but there are some reductions in this budget because they’ve dealt with some of the backlog and the pressures,” she said.
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2 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
The Victorian State of the Service report shows that state government plans to reduce public service headcount are already leaving a mark on the public service. As of June 2024, the Victorian government employed more than 382,000 people. This is about 10% of Victoria’s labour force, and 4.1% larger than last year (12,450 FTE). Almost all of this growth is in “frontline” roles like healthcare (41%) or government schools (26%).
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2 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
Submissions to a Victorian electoral matters inquiry have backed a major overhaul of the state’s upper house voting system. The electoral matters committee first proposed a new model of upper house voting in Victoria last October. It would see the state’s eight current Senate districts merged into a single state-wide upper house electorate, like in the NSW and federal systems. The number of Senators would remain 40.
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2 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
Scyne Advisory is making a second round of layoffs in less than two years, and the government consulting crunch continues to bite the professional services industry. The Australian reports that about 10% of Scyne’s staff will lose their jobs in a tech-focused restructure. This follows a restructure in July that dropped 90 generalist consultants, including 10 directors, and added about 60 technology grads.
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2 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
TV host and podcaster Abbie Chatfield didn’t need to publish electoral authorisations for friendly interviews with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Greens leader Adam Band, according to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). This is being reported as a massive coup for social media influencers against legacy media, “green lighting” their participation in elections without authorisation.
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3 weeks ago | 
themandarin.com.au | Dan Holmes |Daniel Holmes
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has begun hiring for more than 150 jobs to support Australians taking part in the upcoming census test. The jobs available include field managers, field officers, mobile field representatives, and community field officers for the August 5 test. Census general manager Jenny Telford said the extra workforce was crucial to supporting participation in the census test. “Before each census, it’s important to test how we will run it,” she said.
