Policy capability and capacity: What does good look like?
ABOUT THIS EVENT
On 5 September 2023 IPAA Queensland met with the authors of Australia’s public policy “bible”, including Professor Catherine Althaus (ANZSOG and UNSW Canberra), Peter Bridgman (Barrister and Consultant), and Dr Sarah Ball (University of Melbourne). The event was opened virtually by Handbook author Professor Glyn Davis AC (Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet).
This event brought together the authors of the latest edition of the Handbook in a conversation led by Assoc Prof Alastair Stark (School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland). This panel was also joined by Ben Gordon, Executive Director, Economic Policy, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Queensland, who brought a public sector perspective to the discussion. The discussion tackled essential questions addressed and raised by the Handbook, such as:
-
- What are the latest innovations and advancements that support better public policy?
- What are the emergent challenges for public servants in providing advice? How can these be overcome?
- How can we ensure independent and evidence-based policy advice in the public environment?
- What’s next for public policy?
Read some key highlights from the panel discussion here.
IPAA Queensland members can watch the entire event recording on the members portal.
ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN POLICY HANDBOOK
The Australian Policy Handbook is a unique contribution towards achieving better public policy in Australia. It describes the processes available to develop public policy, and the relationships between political decision-makers, public service advisers, and those charged with implementing the programs and services that result. In this latest edition, the authors have turned their depth of expertise and practice experience into a readable volume, and drawn on numerous contemporary case studies, that will enhance the knowledge of everyone involved in making decisions that impact every Australian’s life.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
Professor Glyn Davis AC,
Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Prior to his appointment, 
Professor Davisserved as Chief Executive Officer of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia’s largest charitable foundation with a mission to break the cycle of disadvantage.
In his academic life, Professor Davis has served as Vice-Chancellor at the University of Melbourne and Griffith University and, until recently, as Distinguished Professor of Political Science in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He remains a Visiting Professor at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College. He also holds visiting professorial appointments at King’s College London, Manchester University and the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne.
Professor Davis is a public policy specialist, with experience in government and higher education, who delivered in 2010 the Boyer Lectures on the theme ‘The Republic of Learning’. His community work includes partnering with Indigenous programs in the Goulburn–Murray Valley and Cape York, and service on a range of arts boards, including the Queensland and Melbourne Theatre Companies. In late 2021 he took on the role as Chair of Opera Australia.
His most recent book is On Life’s Lottery (Hachette, 2021), an essay on our moral responsibility toward those less well off.
Professor Catherine Althaus
University of New South Wales (Canberra) and Deputy Dean (Teaching and Learning) at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG)
Professor Catherine Althaus is the ANZSOG Chair of Public Service Leadership and Reform at the University of New South Wales in Canberra and Deputy Dean (Teaching and Learning) at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. She was previously Director of the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, post-doctoral fellow at the Australian National University and held policy posts as a practitioner in the Queensland government.
Her academic training is in economics, politics and public policy and she specialises in working with First Peoples communities across Canada, Australia, Aotearoa-New Zealand and South Africa focusing on the leadership contributions of Indigenous public servants and opportunities to learn from and enact Indigenous ways of knowing and being in policymaking. Her recent co-authored book Leading from Between: Indigenous Participation and Leadership in the Public Service is the first international comparative volume centring the voices, stories and insights of Canadian and Australian Indigenous public servants.
She is co-author of the popular textbook The Australian Policy Handbook, former editor of the Australian Journal of Public Administration, an IPAA Victoria Fellow, a University Medallist, an award-winning researcher, and an Australia Day Medallion winner for service to the Queensland Treasury department. She is Co-Director of the ANZSOG Executive Fellows Program, and teaches into programs with the Australian War College, Australian Department of Defence and Government of Samoa officials, and conducts senior delegations to Aotearoa-New Zealand and publishes on reform agendas associated with Indigenous public administration.
Catherine is an Adjunct Professor with the University of Victoria, Canada and Griffith University and was recently appointed an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria. She is also an Honorary Member of the South Asian Network for Public Administration (SANPA).
Peter Bridgman
Barrister and Consultant
Peter is a Barrister (Qld, NSW, High Court) 
handling matters in public law; policy design; legislation review; employment and industrial law; human rights; mental health; administrative and constitutional law; planning and environment; land and resources; commercialisation. He is a Nationally Accredited Mediator, registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner; and member of both the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) and the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).
Peter was commissioned to review Queensland’s public employment laws, by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. He delivered the Bridgman Review Report (A Fair and Responsive Public Service for All) in April 2019.
Peter has a First class Honours degree in Law (QUT) and First Class Honours in Psychology (UQ). He was registered as a psychologist from 1980-2011. Before commencing private practice, Peter directed Decisive Consultants, a boutique consulting company, and worked in senior roles in government and business. Peter was Corporate Counsel for the Department of Primary Industries and Deputy Director-General in Education and the Premier’s Department. He was Head of Arts Queensland and also served as the Cabinet Secretary.
He regularly writes and presents on public law, public policy, corporate governance and legal ethics. Peter practices in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast. He regularly provides pro bono legal services to a range of community organisations.
Dr Sarah Ball
Lecturer in Public Policy Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne
Dr Sarah Ball is a lecturer in public policy. She is currently working on an ARC Linkage Project titled ‘The new digital governance of welfare-to-work’ and an ESRC project exploring
‘Ethics and expertise in times of crisis: Learning from international varieties of ethics advice’.
Prior to this she completed her PhD at the Institute of Social Science Research at the University of Queensland. Her research explored the use of behavioural insights and experimental methods in the development of social policy in the Australian Federal Government. She has worked for both the Australian Public Service Commission and the Department of Social Services, where she developed a deep interest in public administration, knowledge sharing and evidence-based policy.
Associate Professor Alastair Stark
School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland 
Alastair is a public policy scholar, a crisis management expert and has an ongoing interest in the institutionalization of participatory modes of governance. His current policy research examines the role that institutional amnesia plays in the policy process, his crisis management research has been focused upon the relationship between public inquiries and lesson-learning, and in relation to participatory governance, he is currently examining the validity of different forms of deliberative democracy in the context of Australian environmental policy. Alastair has published widely in high-ranking international journals and is the recipient of the Mayer Prize (best paper in the Australian Journal of Political Science) and the Lasswell Prize (best paper in Policy Sciences). He has authored two books, won three large-scale Australian Research Council Discovery grants and is always looking for outstanding students who may be interested in completing PhDs in relation to the topics outlined above.
Thank you to our event partners –
School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland
