Despite the recent rhetoric about transferring responsibilities back to the States and ensuring each jurisdiction has sovereignty in its own sphere of responsibilities including to raise the revenues needed to meet its spending commitments, reform of the Australian Federation will hopefully take a more pragmatic form, building on the growing demand for national policies - and growing range of international requirements - to guide public services, improving the way in which shared responsibilities are managed, while allowing service delivery to respond to local and regional needs and preferences. Such a pragmatic approach requires a degree of bipartisanship and political leadership at both Commonwealth and State levels; it also entails engaging with the Australian public, promoting steady reform in the national interest and avoiding short-term or ideologically-driven political fixes.

About the speaker

Professor Andrew Podger AO is an Hon. Professor of Public Policy at ANU. He has been at the University since 2005 and has published articles on social policy and public management and coordinated workshops of academic experts and practitioners on issues of contemporary relevance to government.

This talk was held as part of The Order of Australia Association (OAA)-ACT Branch/The Australian National University Lecture.