The Mandarin

The Mandarin is designed for leaders and executives in the public sector, as well as the various stakeholders and suppliers involved in their efforts. Our goal is for The Mandarin to serve as a hub that connects public officials and assists them in enhancing governance in Australia. It aims to provide a platform for insightful presentations, discussions, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing about public service and the individuals and challenges that come with it.

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Articles

It’s only a poor institutional memory that works backwards

2 days ago | themandarin.com.au | David Schmidtchen

“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”~The White Queen, Through the Looking-GlassIn government, learning from the past is a ritualised expectation. Royal commissions, integrity inquiries, and lessons-learned reviews all signal the enduring faith in reflection as a path to reform.
AI, The Essential Eight, and why your security posture matters

5 days ago | themandarin.com.au | Joshua Gliddon

Joshua Gliddon Jun 23, 2025 6 min read There’s an old software developer term, usually reduced to a four-letter acronym to avoid causing offence, that still gets bandied around today when someone asks a technical question they could easily have answered themselves. That acronym? RTFM – Read The F–king Manual. What’s this got to do with the way agencies and departments approach The Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) Essential Eight, and the accompanying Maturity Models? Quite a bit, says...
Conquest’s Third Law and the quiet resistance of institutional reform

1 week ago | themandarin.com.au | David Schmidtchen

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has made it clear: Australia’s second-term economic agenda hinges on reviving productivity growth. “The first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity; the second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation.”While productivity is often framed in economic terms, another aspect that sometimes gets overlooked is the institutional systems through which national capability is delivered.
Digital sovereignty is tricky - but buying Australian is a step in the right direction

1 week ago | themandarin.com.au | Joshua Gliddon

Digital sovereignty is top of mind for many nations, including Australia. In part, this can be traced back to the supply chain collapse experienced during the pandemic and, more pertinently, the current fraught geopolitical landscape. The problem is, digital sovereignty is hard and, in many cases, infeasible.
Audit reveals poor performance reporting inside ACT government

1 week ago | themandarin.com.au | Tom Ravlic

The ACT Audit Office has given a clean bill of health to most of the territory government’s forward-planning documents. But some practices, such as performance reporting to stakeholders, leave much to be desired. A recent audit office report states that almost 71% of government long-term plans and strategies reviewed during the audit allocate roles and responsibilities of stakeholders.
Kate Boyd reveals NSW public service plan for centres of excellence

1 week ago | themandarin.com.au | Melissa Coade

As the head of the reinstated NSW Cabinet Office, comprising a team of legal, policy and governance advisers, the elevation of Kate Boyd to secretary has involved more than taking on a new public service leadership role. The former Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) general counsel has also been tasked with resurrecting an office capable of reviewing cabinet decisions and processes.
ABC chair confident Q+A axing will not curb appetite to speak truth to power

1 week ago | themandarin.com.au | Melissa Coade

Kim Williams maintains the ABC’s hunger to hold the nation’s decision-makers to account will not be dampened by the retirement of long-standing television news show Q+A . Commenting on the decision to cancel Q+A, which will mean a staff restructure and the loss of about 40 jobs, Williams said “nothing is forever”. “The core issue with a program like Q+A is [giving] public agency to question people in power.
Work digs for DPS staff to cost $67.8 million

1 week ago | themandarin.com.au | Tom Ravlic

The Department of Parliamentary Services signed a lease in 2022 for additional accommodation that will cost taxpayers $67.8 million over 11 years and 4 months, an answer to a Senate estimates question reveals. DPS officials were quizzed during the only day of Senate estimates after the March budget about the cost of the lease for the premises at West Block, intended to accommodate additional parliamentary staff.
Mandarins, service, and the burden of so much information

1 week ago | themandarin.com.au | Melissa Coade

It’s the age of cancel culture, social media saturation, fake news and information overload. How are governments and democracy coping with the shift? Public administrators have a lot to juggle in the modern world, and the pressures of knowing everything to respond appropriately and advise wisely are mounting. How mandarins work through and parse the churn of information they need to digest on any given day is also changing.
Murray Watt promotes Pacific resilience facility to deliver climate finance to regional communities

1 week ago | themandarin.com.au | Melissa Coade

Environment and Water Minister Murray Watt has spoken of the shared global leadership on international ocean policy between Australia and Pacific Island neighbours. This work was motivated by a desire to shape global responses to issues affecting the local region, Watt said, as well as to lead the transition to a sustainable global ocean economy. “We are custodians of the vast, blue Pacific continent — nearly 20% of the Earth’s surface,” Watt said.