Joe Hockey’s second budget has two large deficits: the fiscal one, plus the lack of a coherent and creative plan for Australia. The Abbott government failed to ‘have a go’ at building the future.
The problems currently crippling the NHS and social care are not happening in a vacuum. The A&E crisis and the critical lack of beds are related to politicians’ love for large-scale, rapid and untested…
By 2017, some 16,500 public servants will have lost their jobs, or have been shuffled into other positions within the public service, in the government’s ongoing drive for budget savings. The long-standing…
Since the election of the coalition government in 2010, the UK has experienced a series of initiatives to reform the structure, funding and operation of the public sector. Under the umbrella of economic…
A fifth of UK workers are employed in the public sector. Though public sector work is obvious crucial – schools, hospitals, police and so on – measuring performance can be a challenge as output is not…
Firefighters have once again voted to go on strike in England and Wales, their fifth strike since September. This might seem like a high number of walkouts, but the Fire Brigades Union (FBU)‘s reputation…
Earlier this month, the Serious Fraud Office started a formal criminal investigation into Serco and G4S, who are accused of overcharging for electronic tagging contracts. Today, Serco issued a profit warning…
Matthias Finger, EPFL – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
Royal Mail has been privatised. Even after Margaret Thatcher’s frenzy in the 1980s, it was one of the last UK public enterprises left; now, the coalition government has sold 52% of Royal Mail. Whereas…
How efficient is Australia’s public sector? This question is difficult to answer with precision, but important to all of us. After all, this is our money being spent on us and the things we care about…
There has been much, and justified, criticism, of Tony Abbott’s decision to conceal the costings of his policies until two days before the election, when the electronic media blackout will be in place…
Swiss Post Chair in Management of Network Industries, EPFL – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne