tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/public-service-4055/articlesPublic service – The Conversation2023-12-10T23:15:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189902023-12-10T23:15:09Z2023-12-10T23:15:09ZReturn of the ‘consultocracy’ – how cutting public service jobs to save costs usually backfires<p>It has been clear that change is coming to the New Zealand public service since the election campaign. Just what impact that change will have is less easy to predict now the new government is installed.</p>
<p>As part of its hundred-day <a href="https://www.national.org.nz/100dayplan">action plan</a>, the National Party initially pledged to “start reducing public sector expenditure by 6.5% on average” by cutting “back-office spending not critical to frontline services”.</p>
<p>While the phrase “start reducing” was ambiguous, one estimate put likely losses at around 6,500 full-time jobs. ACT Party leader David Seymour was more forthright, declaring an “absolute top” figure of 15,000 public service jobs could be at risk.</p>
<p>The final coalition <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/coalition-government-unveils-100-day-plan">government plan</a> seems to have changed considerably, however, with the policy being to “start reducing public sector expenditure, including consultant and contractor expenditure”.</p>
<p>While the scale is considerably less clear, now is the time to ask what the effects of these potentially drastic cuts might be. History and overseas experience suggests they will not necessarily lead to the outcomes the government intends, for a number of reasons.</p>
<h2>Job cuts don’t cut costs</h2>
<p>Firstly, there is no simple, direct correlation between numbers of public service jobs and the public purse. As one former senior civil servant and now expert guide to the British civil service has <a href="https://www.civilservant.org.uk/information-numbers.html">put it</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Changes in civil service numbers do not necessarily translate into parallel increases [or] decreases in public expenditure, nor in the size of the state.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Partly this is because job numbers are at the whim of other government policies. Brexit, for example, saw a massive increase in full-time equivalent (FTE) public service jobs from 375,000 in 2016 to <a href="https://www.civilservant.org.uk/information-numbers.html">475,000 by 2021</a>.</p>
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<p>More importantly, jobs can be reclassified rather than removed. For evidence of this we need look no further than Aotearoa New Zealand.</p>
<p>In 2009, John Key’s National-led government <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-caps-core-government-administration-and-pledges-better-performance">capped the growth</a> in public service staffing. The then State Services Commission was tasked with monitoring this, and departmental chief executives were expected to actively keep numbers down.</p>
<p>The initial cap of 38,859 FTE positions set in 2009 was reset to 36,475 in 2012. There was also a special focus on reducing the number of communications and public relations advisers.</p>
<p>The Labour government <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-reduce-reliance-consultants">removed the cap</a> in 2018. This followed a review that concluded the policy had led to the “gaming” of jobs through reclassification, a massive loss of institutional knowledge, and too much focus by managers on staffing levels rather than service delivery.</p>
<h2>Rise of the ‘consultocracy’</h2>
<p>Perhaps most tellingly, while the Key government’s cap did reduce the number of public service jobs, it didn’t reduce the number of jobs being paid for by the public purse.</p>
<p>Instead, the cap simply contributed to a new “consultocracy” culture, a phenomenon well established in <a href="https://www.ocai-online.com/blog/the-big-con-beware-of-the-experts">public policy research</a>. </p>
<p>Between 2007 and 2017, shortly before the cap was lifted, the use of contractors and consultants increased by nearly 200%. This contributed to an overall wage and salary <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/104922841/cap-on-public-servants-saw-spending-on-consultants-almost-double-to-550m-a-year">increase of 50%</a>.</p>
<p>Cutting jobs did not cut public spending on salaries – quite the opposite. There is no reason to expect today’s proposed cuts will not simply create the same perverse incentives as before.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/nicola-willis-warns-of-fiscal-snakes-and-snails-her-first-mini-budget-will-be-a-test-of-nzs-no-surprises-finance-rules-218920">Nicola Willis warns of fiscal ‘snakes and snails’ – her first mini-budget will be a test of NZ’s no-surprises finance rules</a>
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<p>We should also ask who and what the term “back-office spending” refers to. Does it include legal, finance and human resources professionals? These currently make up a mere 5% of the <a href="https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/research-and-data/workforce-data-public-sector-composition/workforce-data/">total public service</a>. Or perhaps it refers to clerical and administrative staff. They comprise 9% of the public service.</p>
<p>Definitions of “back-room” or “administrative” staff often lean towards simplistic dichotomies between “real” frontline workers and “made-up” office jobs.</p>
<p>But no organisation, private or public, can operate without administrative support provided by office managers, accountants, call centre operators, cleaners and security staff, advisers and policy analysts.</p>
<p>There is a choice between keeping these functions in-house or outsourcing them. Either way, there is no point pretending they don’t exist.</p>
<h2>High trust and low morale</h2>
<p>We might also ask who (outside of the government) is calling for a cull of public servants. </p>
<p>New Zealanders have a high level of trust in their public service: “80% […] trust public services based on their personal experience”, according to <a href="https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/research-and-data/kiwis-count/">September figures</a> from the Public Service Commission.</p>
<p>Indeed, the New Zealand public service stands out globally for trust and integrity. It consistently ranks highly in Transparency International’s <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/new-zealand">corruption perception index</a>.</p>
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<p>Finally, the effects of the cuts could have a chilling effect on public service motivation. People tend to join and remain in public service to contribute to society. Few enter for personal enrichment or even long-term career <a href="https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/research-and-data/workforce-data-working-in-the-public-service/workforce-data-spirit-of-service/">advancement</a>.</p>
<p>There is no doubt the public service can be made more efficient, and that saving public money is a good idea. But drastic job cuts will almost certainly not achieve this.</p>
<p>History shows it has the opposite effect, increasing spending through the use of consultants and contractors while demoralising those who remain. It would serve the new government well to remember this, before it ends up paying the private sector to provide public services.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karl Lofgren receives funding from the Swedish Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Allen and Michael Macaulay do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>History suggests the new NZ government’s pledge to cut budgets and jobs in the public sector will cost more in the long run – and damage morale in the process.Barbara Allen, Senior Lecturer in Public Management, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonKarl Lofgren, Professor of Public Administration, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonMichael Macaulay, Professor of Public Administration, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185922023-11-27T00:38:35Z2023-11-27T00:38:35ZMike Pezzullo sacked after scathing findings accusing him of misusing his position<p>The government has sacked the secretary of the Home Affairs department, Mike Pezzullo, after an inquiry found he had breached the Public Service Code of Conduct.</p>
<p>The inquiry found he used his position for personal advantage, gossiped disrespectfully about ministers, broke confidentiality, failed to act apolitically, and didn’t disclose a conflict of interest. </p>
<p>In September, Nine Entertainment revealed a trove of texts Pezzullo sent to a Liberal insider, Scott Briggs, who was close to prime ministers Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull. In the texts Pezzullo inserted himself into the political process, lobbying for his bureaucratic interests and his views. </p>
<p>A long-time public servant who served both sides of politics, Pezzullo also worked in the office of Kim Beazley when he was opposition leader. </p>
<p>A hawk on China policy and hard-line on national security issues, especially border protection, Pezzullo was a divisive figure in the bureaucracy. </p>
<p>While he was known for always being willing to express his views forthrightly, current and former senior colleagues were amazed at the overreach his texts represented, including his criticism of a then minister, Marise Payne, and of Julie Bishop when she put up her hand for leadership in 2018. </p>
<p>As soon as the texts were revealed, it was generally recognised in government and public service circles that Pezzullo would not survive. </p>
<p>The government stood him aside, on full salary, while the inquiry was done by Lynelle Briggs, a former public service commissioner. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday said Pezzullo’s termination had been recommended by the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Glyn Davis, and the Public Service Commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer. This followed a recommendation from Briggs that he be sacked. </p>
<p>Pezzullo had fully co-operated with the Briggs’ inquiry, Albanese said. He said the present acting head of Home Affairs, Stephanie Foster, would continue to act in the position until a permanent appointment was made. </p>
<p>In a statement the Public Service Commission said
Briggs found Pezzullo breached the public service code least 14 times in relation to five overarching allegations. Pezzullo </p>
<ul>
<li><p>used his duty, power, status or authority to seek to gain a benefit or advantage for himself</p></li>
<li><p>engaged in gossip and disrespectful critique of ministers and public servants</p></li>
<li><p>failed to maintain confidentiality of sensitive government information</p></li>
<li><p>failed to act apolitically in his employment</p></li>
<li><p>failed to disclose a conflict of interest.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>UPDATE TUESDAY: Foster new head of Home Affairs</h2>
<p>The Prime Minister has announced Stephanie Foster will become the new Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs. He said her public serrvice career included being acting Secretary and Associate Secretary of Home Affairs, and Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218592/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An inquiry found the Home Affairs secretary used his position for personal advantage, gossiped disrespectfully about ministers, broke confidentiality and didn’t disclose a conflict of interest.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2102682023-07-24T20:09:49Z2023-07-24T20:09:49ZPolitical staffers can make or break election promises – they deserve better management<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538880/original/file-20230724-194450-2itzt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1322%2C13%2C6025%2C2805&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Political parties and candidates spend most of their time proposing policies they promise will improve voters’ lives if elected to government. But actually delivering on those promises requires another kind of political operative: staffers.</p>
<p>These taxpayer-funded employees or advisers <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/unelected-lynchpin-why-government-needs-special-advisers">play crucial roles</a>, and yet they are often mismanaged. Staffers can be the hidden heroes – or villains – of the political process. When they occasionally <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/112494041/national-partys-emotional-junior-staffer-brian-anderton-resigns">make headlines</a>, it is almost invariably for the wrong reasons.</p>
<p>Parliamentary reviews in <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/set-standard-2021">Australia</a>, Britain and <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/visit-and-learn/how-parliament-works/office-of-the-speaker/corporate-documents/independent-external-review-into-bullying-and-harassment-in-the-new-zealand-parliamentary-workplace-final-report/">New Zealand</a> have documented various problems. Those who take on these jobs rarely receive effective training, work incredibly long hours, <a href="https://www.thepost.co.nz/a/politics/350019540/political-staffers-lacking-support-sacrificing-personal-lives-and-mental-health">sacrifice their personal lives</a> and <a href="https://www.thepost.co.nz/a/nz-news/350022502/kris-faafoi-it-s-a-fine-line-between-being-a-head-case-and-headstrong-at-parliament">experience high levels of stress</a> – if not outright <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/23/half-uk-mps-staff-clinical-levels-psychological-distress-study">clinical distress</a>.</p>
<p>Public servants themselves have taken the initiative, including offering advice to MPs on managing staff, establishing a <a href="https://pwss.gov.au/">Parliamentary Workplace Support Service</a> in Australia, introducing <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/respectful-workplace-policy-office-prime-minister-ministers-offices.html">respectful workplace policies</a> in Canada, and establishing <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/footer/about-us/parliaments-workplace-culture/behavioural-statements-for-the-parliamentary-workplace/">behavioural expectations</a> in New Zealand’s parliament.</p>
<p>However, my <a href="https://politicalmanagement.wordpress.com/hrm-political-staffers/">new research</a> – based on interviews with advisers to former prime ministers Scott Morrison (Australia), Boris Johnson (Britain) and Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), and Canada’s current leader Justin Trudeau – concludes that political parties need to take the lead if they want to deliver their agenda once elected.</p>
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<h2>Proper recruitment processes</h2>
<p>Better management of political staff requires better planning. As one longstanding chief of staff told me, reflecting on their eight years in government: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I could whisper in someone’s ear into the future, I’d say really take that time on organisation. How you set things up can make such a difference to your success at delivery.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>New governments have to fill a high number of posts all at once. They are a bit like a business start-up, except they are running a country. They often make problematic hires, or start without sufficient staff. As one UK staffer explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Parties need to give a lot more thought to year-round recruitment and talent identification, because you can’t just suddenly turn up at Downing Street and put a new machine together.</p>
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<p>Parties therefore need to identify potential talent before an election. They also need to look beyond the usual circles to find the right people. Campaign volunteers won’t automatically be suitable. Those with relevant skills may not be lifelong party members. </p>
<p>Scouting talent means having initial conversations followed by professional selection processes. Ultimately, it’s about ensuring those selected are capable of doing the actual job – not simply rewarding loyalty.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538881/original/file-20230724-233455-7bnydt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538881/original/file-20230724-233455-7bnydt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538881/original/file-20230724-233455-7bnydt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538881/original/file-20230724-233455-7bnydt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538881/original/file-20230724-233455-7bnydt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538881/original/file-20230724-233455-7bnydt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538881/original/file-20230724-233455-7bnydt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Seat of power: ‘You can’t just suddenly turn up at Downing Street and put a new machine together.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
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<h2>Managing the political workplace</h2>
<p>Those likely to be involved in managing staff need to be trained on best practice within a political workplace. This applies not only to chiefs of staff, but to anyone in a senior role or who heads a team. </p>
<p>For example, political staffers need ongoing feedback, and not merely when things go wrong. They also need help with managing the never-ending workload, identifying priorities and where best to focus their time.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/parliament-is-not-a-normal-workplace-anti-bullying-policy-must-start-with-ethical-leadership-and-accountability-193196">Parliament is not a normal workplace – anti-bullying policy must start with ethical leadership and accountability</a>
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<p>Maintaining wellbeing and avoiding burnout means instigating rules: limiting late-evening contact unless there’s a crisis, for example, and encouraging staff to take occasional but complete breaks from work.</p>
<p>Setting a clear shared purpose will also help people see the difference their work is making over time. One former staffer put it this way:</p>
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<p>Maintaining morale is a big part of political management […] things get bad and can get dark in offices.</p>
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<h2>Orientation and training</h2>
<p>Because there is often a lack of human resource management infrastructure for political staffers, parties need effective staff training systems. A senior staffer recalled to me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I remember walking into the office on the first day after the prime minister was sworn in, and it was empty. It was just me. No handover, nothing.</p>
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<p>Some of this is inevitable – parties and leaders just voted out are unlikely to provide much continuity. And the public service is wary of straying into partisan matters. But incoming parties need to take action to fill the gap.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nz-has-a-history-of-prominent-public-servants-who-were-also-outspoken-public-intellectuals-whats-changed-201370">NZ has a history of prominent public servants who were also outspoken public intellectuals – what’s changed?</a>
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<p>More experienced staffers would ideally spend time mentoring and supporting newer colleagues. Yet a party new to power won’t have many veteran staff to call on. They may need to find former senior staff willing to return and share their wisdom, or make use of relevant research.</p>
<p>Bespoke training programmes relevant to specific roles need to be created. These can include generic topics, such as maintaining respectful workplaces, time and project management, and maintaining resilience. But they should also have political context about advancing party policies and priorities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-political-staffers-are-vulnerable-to-sexual-misconduct-and-little-is-done-to-stop-it-155300">Why political staffers are vulnerable to sexual misconduct — and little is done to stop it</a>
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<h2>One community</h2>
<p>Finally, all political staffers need to be seen as one community, regardless of which office they work in. It’s much harder to instil positive workplace norms and practices if everyone exists in silos.</p>
<p>People will also support one other and learn from their peers if they are connected through regular events. These can build relationships between staffers in different offices. In turn, this helps advance policy in government.</p>
<p>Anyone serious about becoming prime minister or seeking political office should start thinking about those hidden heroes – political staffers – before an election, not after it. </p>
<p>Winning power is only the beginning, after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Lees-Marshment does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Having interviewed advisers to past and present prime ministers in Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, my new research shows how crucial it is to recruit and train staff – before an election.Jennifer Lees-Marshment, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2100502023-07-20T20:05:53Z2023-07-20T20:05:53ZMy 3-point plan to untangle the public service from consultants such as PwC<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538430/original/file-20230720-29-ajxsp6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C431%2C3109%2C1437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week the Albanese government produced a <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2758/F024_-_tabling_%282%29.pdf">detailed breakdown</a> of the A$3 billion it plans to save over four years by cutting the use of outsourced labour and consultants.</p>
<p>The savings, which begin this financial year, take about $600 million each from the departments of defence and social service, followed by about $450 million from the treasury, most of it to be reportedly <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/big-four-in-firing-line-for-1-6b-cuts-to-consultants-lawyers-20230718-p5dp37">from the tax office</a>.</p>
<p>They cover what the government describes as “savings from external labour, advertising, travel and legal expenses”. They are in line with the Labor’s election promise to cut its consulting and contractor bill by <a href="https://www.consultancy.com.au/news/5381/labor-pledges-to-slash-consulting-and-contractor-bill-by-3-billion">$3 billion</a> over four years, except that the starting year is 2023-24 instead of the expected 2022-23.</p>
<p>Given that Labor says it’s already cut <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/big-four-in-firing-line-for-1-6b-cuts-to-consultants-lawyers-20230718-p5dp37">$500 million</a> in its first year in office, they are set to take the five-year total to $3.5 billion.</p>
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<p>But the cuts won’t come easily, a point Finance Minister Katy Gallagher conceded in an interview with the <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/big-four-in-firing-line-for-1-6b-cuts-to-consultants-lawyers-20230718-p5dp37">Australian Financial Review</a>, saying it had</p>
<blockquote>
<p>become very clear just how entrenched the use of consultancies and external labour became in the public service under the former Coalition government.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with moderate use of consultants and contract labour. It’s been done by both sides of politics for decades. </p>
<p>More than 30 years ago, the then Labor government’s <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/commercial-support-program">commercial support</a> program outsourced defence functions, including cooking, cleaning, maintenance and guarding, to deliver services at a much lower cost than the military.</p>
<h2>Outsourcing weakens accountability</h2>
<p>The concern is the extent to which core public service functions – policy advice to ministers and delivery of welfare programs – have also been outsourced.</p>
<p>The public service has (or ought to have) a corporate memory of what works and what does not. Consultants hired on a one-off basis need not. </p>
<p>It is true that the public service does not always live up to its legislated standards, as has been found to have been the case <a href="https://theconversation.com/victims-now-know-they-were-right-about-robodebt-all-along-let-the-royal-commission-change-the-way-we-talk-about-welfare-209216">with Robodebt</a>. But it can be held accountable when it fails. </p>
<p>Accountability mechanisms for private consultants and contractors are weak by comparison, with failings often obscured by a veil of “commercial in confidence”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/blacklisting-pwc-wont-stop-outsourcing-here-are-3-reasons-it-has-become-embedded-in-the-australian-public-service-206772">Blacklisting PwC won't stop outsourcing: here are 3 reasons it has become embedded in the Australian public service</a>
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<h2>Why consultants seemed so attractive</h2>
<p>In The Conversation in June, <a href="https://theconversation.com/blacklisting-pwc-wont-stop-outsourcing-here-are-3-reasons-it-has-become-embedded-in-the-australian-public-service-206772">Richard Mulgan</a> expertly analysed the findings of the <a href="https://www.finance.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-05/Audit%20of%20Employment%20-%20Report_1.pdf">audit of employment</a> Labor commissioned shortly after taking office.</p>
<p>He listed three reasons why public servants like using consultants: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>they allow governments to bury advice they don’t like </p></li>
<li><p>they help persuade ministers who distrust the public service. This is especially important with Coalition ministers. </p></li>
<li><p>they maintain a revolving door for public servants to leave their job, collect their super and continue working on the same issues.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538422/original/file-20230720-17-e1ra34.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538422/original/file-20230720-17-e1ra34.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538422/original/file-20230720-17-e1ra34.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538422/original/file-20230720-17-e1ra34.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538422/original/file-20230720-17-e1ra34.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1211&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538422/original/file-20230720-17-e1ra34.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1211&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538422/original/file-20230720-17-e1ra34.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1211&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister’s XI at Manuka, Canberra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a fourth, more venal, reason – the millions of dollars consultants spend each year entertaining public servants. </p>
<p>One such prized invitation is to a private marquee at the annual Prime Minister’s XI cricket match at Manuka in Canberra.</p>
<p>There are hundreds of other dinners, lunches, private boxes at sporting events, theatre and concert tickets with which consulting firms seek to influence public service decision-makers. </p>
<p>The firms wouldn’t be spending that money if it didn’t win them business. </p>
<p>These constitute formidable obstacles. But there are three ways they could be overcome.</p>
<h2>1. End the free lunches</h2>
<p>One measure would be for departments to ban their staff from accepting gifts and hospitality from consulting firms. </p>
<p>If that is regarded as too much of an imposition, departments could publish all such gifts on their websites, disclosing the names of recipients and the value of what was received. </p>
<p>That would at least make what happens more open.</p>
<h2>2. Stop insider hiring</h2>
<p>Another would be to prohibit public servants from obtaining employment in a consulting firm with which their former department does business. </p>
<p>This could be done either through “<a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-5-australian-workers-have-non-compete-clauses-making-it-harder-to-get-better-paid-jobs-new-survey-207987">non-compete</a>” clauses (common in the private sector) or through departments excluding firms that employ former departmental staff from tenders. A reasonable time limit – for example between three and five years – could apply.</p>
<h2>3. Tender internally first</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.finance.gov.au/government/procurement/commonwealth-procurement-rules">Commonwealth procurement rules</a> could be amended to require departments, before calling for tenders from outside the public service, to advertise internally for public servants to do the work. </p>
<p>The work would then only be sent out to a consultant if no public servant could be found to do it. Who knows, that might even encourage some former public servants to return from consulting back to their old jobs. </p>
<p>Getting senior public servants to want to use their own staff instead of consultants might be an unintended benefit of the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-05/pwc-pricewaterhousecoopers-government-tax-leak-scandal-explained/102409528">PwC scandal</a>. </p>
<p>Until May this year – when PwC <a href="https://www.pwc.com.au/media/2023/open-letter-from-pwc-australia-acting-ceo-kristin-stubbins-230529.html">confirmed</a> one of its partners had shared confidential government information obtained while serving on a government advisory board – many public servants considered using consultants low-risk. </p>
<p>It has become clear it involves a much higher risk than hiring a public servant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Bartos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are formidable obstacles to changing a culture of outsourcing billions of dollars worth of decisions to the private sector. Here’s how to start getting back the public service we deserve.Stephen Bartos, Professor of Economics, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2073302023-06-14T20:09:57Z2023-06-14T20:09:57ZWho needs PwC when consultancy work could be done more efficiently in-house?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531840/original/file-20230614-15-oo2vcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C678%2C3183%2C2141&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/silhouette-group-people-meeting-concept-303174938">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Senate inquiry into the PwC scandal has prompted the New South Wales Legislative Council to launch an inquiry into the NSW government’s use of management consulting services.</p>
<p>While the PwC case highlights confidentiality risks and conflicts of interests, the Legislative Council inquiry targets a potential lack of value for money and the negative impact on the capability development of the public service.</p>
<p>As consulting expenditure by government has risen globally, so have questions about the efficiency of such expenditures. DIY consulting - the creation of internal consulting teams within the public service - can contribute to reducing consulting costs while future-proofing public service management.</p>
<p>Debates on the negative impact of consulting for the public service rage in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/world/europe/macron-france-consultants-mckinsey-campaign.html">faced severe criticism during his presidential campaign</a> regarding the use of consultants by his government.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/blacklisting-pwc-wont-stop-outsourcing-here-are-3-reasons-it-has-become-embedded-in-the-australian-public-service-206772">Blacklisting PwC won't stop outsourcing: here are 3 reasons it has become embedded in the Australian public service</a>
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<p>In Australia, the costs from the big four consulting firms (Deloitte, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young) increased by more than <a href="https://publicintegrity.org.au/research_papers/booming-business-for-big-four-comes-at-a-high-cost/">400%</a> in the 2012-22 period, leading to a national controversy.</p>
<p>The federal government pledged to reduce consulting costs dramatically and have begun to do so, with a <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2822710461/FB4CA0DFFF0411DPQ/1?accountid=17095">reduction of around one-third in consulting expenditure</a> in 2023. But now they have picked the low-hanging fruit, what comes next?</p>
<h2>Do we actually need external consultants?</h2>
<p>Management consulting firms sell themselves by spruiking that they provide specialised advice on complex issues, and temporary resources to accelerate change resulting in increased performance.</p>
<p>When it comes to backing these claims, there is ample anecdote but very little substantiating data.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Staff collaborate in meeting room" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531844/original/file-20230614-23-zdp3hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531844/original/file-20230614-23-zdp3hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531844/original/file-20230614-23-zdp3hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531844/original/file-20230614-23-zdp3hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531844/original/file-20230614-23-zdp3hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531844/original/file-20230614-23-zdp3hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531844/original/file-20230614-23-zdp3hb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Some businesses are using the expertise of their own staff instead of hiring external consultants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-businesspeople-having-discussion-boardroom-group-2142730999">www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>There is limited evidence of the positive impact of <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MRR-03-2018-0100/full/html">external management consulting on private companies’ performance</a>. However, the evidence is almost non-existent in the public service.</p>
<p>More alarmingly, there is emerging evidence of a negative impact. A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322357312_The_impact_of_management_consultants_on_public_service_efficiency">study conducted over six years</a> on 125 hospitals in the UK concludes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the average annual expenditure on consulting services for a hospital trust is considered (around £1.2 million), then each one would be roughly £10,600 worse off per annum (in addition to the consulting fees paid).</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/blacklisting-pwc-wont-stop-outsourcing-here-are-3-reasons-it-has-become-embedded-in-the-australian-public-service-206772">Blacklisting PwC won't stop outsourcing: here are 3 reasons it has become embedded in the Australian public service</a>
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<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jsc.603">Research</a> also shows that decision-makers and consulting firms generally only assess the impact of consulting projects through subjective measures or <a href="https://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/our-work/reports/nsw-government-agencies-use-of-consultants">not at all</a>. In the absence of hard evidence, this is likely to sanction further use with no real scrutiny.</p>
<p>Adding to this anecdotal assessment is the reality that consultants (particularly the big four) are very good at PR, sales and exploiting the pressure on executive performance to create an addiction whereby consulting begets more consulting.</p>
<p>Their networks become embedded with those of senior public servants, also providing a lucrative future career option for those who leave the public service.</p>
<p>While there is a case for some use of external management consulting, this should be restricted to temporary situations or cases in which a very specific expertise can’t be sourced elsewhere. </p>
<p>So, yes, there is a role for consultants in public service, but certainly a much more modest one.</p>
<h2>Doing more internally</h2>
<p>Public and private organisations including the World Bank, the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Department of Health, Telstra and NAB have dedicated departments or internal consulting teams that, on a daily basis, conduct the type of activities that can be outsourced to consultants.</p>
<p>Such teams deliver internally similar services to those that can be expected from management consultants. These include strategic planning, strategic project management, change management and digitisation initiatives.</p>
<p>The new <a href="https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/andrew-leigh-2022/media-releases/australian-centre-evaluation-measure-what-works">Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE)</a>, focused on evaluating key government programs across the Federal government, is a good (if small) start. While not all services can be managed internally, internal consulting teams could deliver a much broader range of benefits for federal and state governments.</p>
<p>The first obvious benefit, in light of the PwC scandal, is confidentiality. Public servants don’t have the type of conflict of interest that consultants have. They don’t face the same choices between the interests of their different clients, between their own interests and those of their clients, or between their ethics and their financial objectives.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pwc-scandal-shows-consultants-like-church-officials-are-best-kept-out-of-state-affairs-205560">PwC scandal shows consultants, like church officials, are best kept out of state affairs</a>
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<p>DIY consulting can also significantly reduce costs. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/puar.13612?af=R">Recent research shows</a> that the more management teams are involved in internal consulting, the less the consulting costs. There is thus a potential for substituting expensive outsourced work with less costly internal teams. Over time, such savings should offset establishment costs of internal teams.</p>
<p>DIY consulting can also contribute to future proofing the public service. One of the dangers of relying heavily on management consultants is that it results in a “hollowing out”, a process by which the public service progressively loses skills.</p>
<p>Creating internal consulting teams counters this by providing opportunities to rebuild skills and capabilities. This is especially important at a time where AI and automation will potentially endanger jobs or at the very least change the skills needed across the economy, including the public sector.</p>
<p>The recent outcry against management consultants in the public sphere has not been matched by an outpouring of ideas on how to change the situation.</p>
<p>Governments have become so addicted to consultants that cutting them off cold-turkey is not necessarily a workable solution given the skills and knowledge gaps that have been created. DIY consulting may just be a way for the public sector to weather the withdrawal symptoms and finally wean itself off its consultancy dependence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmanuel Josserand does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Using internal expertise instead of external consultants could save businesses money and avert potential conflicts of interest.Emmanuel Josserand, Professor of management, EMLV, Paris and Adjunct Fellow, University of Technology Sydney, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2059202023-05-19T05:56:31Z2023-05-19T05:56:31ZConsultants like PwC are loyal to profit, not the public. Governments should cut back on using them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527138/original/file-20230519-19-hgzees.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4288%2C2848&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/sydney/programs/drive/pwc-revelations/102359728">PwC scandal</a> reveals appalling behaviour by an individual consultant and his company that provided consulting services to the federal government.</p>
<p>PwC reportedly used its insider knowledge to advise multinational firms on how to continue to avoid tax when the legislation it advised on came into operation.</p>
<p>Confidentiality agreements were broken and the central objective of the contracted advice – to address tax avoidance by multinational companies – was directly subverted.</p>
<p>In light of this case, a Senate committee is <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/Consultingservices">investigating</a> the use of consultancy firms by the federal government.</p>
<p>While the terms of reference focus on conflicts of interest, committee members are also interested in the growth in the use of consultants and contractors in recent years, how they are managed by government, and the impact this is having on the public service. As a former Australian Public Service Commissioner, I appeared before the committee to discuss these wider issues on May 2 this year.</p>
<p>So far, no evidence has been provided that the PwC case is representative of widespread abuse among consulting firms of their contracted obligations, or of extensive and systematic failure to properly manage conflicts of interest.</p>
<p>But the scale of the use of consultants raises questions about how well conflicts are managed and, indeed, about value for money in the use of such external advice by federal government agencies.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1658772095566860289"}"></div></p>
<h2>Differing values and blurred boundaries</h2>
<p>In managing consultants, it’s essential the public service appreciates that the motives and values of the consultants are quite different from those of public servants. Their loyalty is to their employers and, while delivering what the contract for services requires, their interest is in their company’s profits.</p>
<p>What they deliver may be in the public interest, but the public interest isn’t their primary motivation.</p>
<p>The extensive use of consultants and contractors in recent years has sometimes blurred the boundaries between them and the public servants with whom they work. </p>
<p>The benefits of close working relationships can obscure the boundaries, leading to perceptions of working seamlessly together. But seamlessness is inappropriate and risks mismanagement of the different interests and values involved.</p>
<p>I was asked a few years ago to investigate a case in the defence department, in which a contractor was so embedded in the organisation, having high-level security clearances, that managers failed to see he was exploiting the relationship to gain further work without competitive processes.</p>
<p>He was also stealing intellectual property from a former employer to win new contracts. It was only after a court case, and my investigation, that the department accepted its mismanagement of the contractor.</p>
<p>The seamlessness of the relationship blinded them to the reality.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/consulting-firms-are-the-shadow-public-service-managing-the-response-to-covid-19-170436">Consulting firms are the 'shadow public service' managing the response to COVID-19</a>
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<p>Public servants need to recognise the commercial interests of the consultants and contractors, which might motivate these contractors to engage in activities such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>limiting the transfer of expertise to the public service so as to retain demand for that expertise externally into the future</p></li>
<li><p>tailoring advice to maximise the chances of new business, including by not providing advice that might not be welcome</p></li>
<li><p>further tailoring advice to recommend supplementary work, particularly where that might not be subject to competitive tender.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>When contracting consultants, governments should:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>have clarity about what is to be delivered</p></li>
<li><p>have a sound competitive process</p></li>
<li><p>carefully manage the consultancy to maximise the quality of the product and address any conflicts of interest</p></li>
<li><p>conduct a proper assessment of the product against the description in the requirement</p></li>
<li><p>and, where possible, publish the material delivered to expose it to external scrutiny.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Gone too far</h2>
<p>The use of consultants and contractors grew initially in the 1980s and ‘90s in the context of new public management reforms. The mantra of “management for results” increasingly incorporated the use of competitive markets to pursue greater efficiency whether in service delivery, corporate services or government business enterprises (or, later, policy advice).</p>
<p>Central to this use of competition was a focus on value for money and having an even playing field, testing whether outsourcing was warranted. There’s little doubt that, despite some mistakes, significant efficiency gains were delivered during this period.</p>
<p>Subsequently, the focus on demonstrating value for money has shifted. An ideological view emerged that the private sector was necessarily more efficient or that public service advice was more self-interested than private sector advice. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-restore-trust-in-government-we-need-to-reinvent-how-the-public-service-works-121634">To restore trust in government, we need to reinvent how the public service works</a>
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<p>The imposition of staff ceilings, in addition to budgetary ceilings, also led to the use of external labour even when departments knew it didn’t represent value for money. In addition, the scale of the shift to external providers undermined capabilities within the public service, including to be “informed purchasers” of externally sourced services.</p>
<p>There’s little doubt the extent of the use of consultants and contractors has gone too far in recent years. Not only beyond what could be fairly assessed as value-for-money, but also undermining critical capabilities in the public service.</p>
<p>This includes aspects of the core role of the public service, such as the provision of expert, disinterested policy advice drawing on its extensive administrative experience and its understanding of connections across the breadth of government policies.</p>
<p>There are welcome signs of attempts to wind back the use of consultants and contractors and to repair the damage to public service capability. This will take time.</p>
<p>This is not to deny the case for external assistance where expertise is required that the public service has no reason to maintain or where an external perspective is needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Podger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s little doubt the extent of the use of consultants and contractors has gone too far in recent years.Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2059052023-05-18T12:42:27Z2023-05-18T12:42:27ZFeinstein just the latest example of an old problem: Politicians have long been able to evade questions about their ability to serve<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526913/original/file-20230517-25-ct8my0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5991%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sen. Dianne Feinstein, in a wheelchair as she returns to the Senate after a more than two-month absence, May 10, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Senate%20Feinstein/de7f088c19ed478dad46dafebb75f624?Query=Feinstein%20wheelchair&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=19&currentItemNo=14">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/with-sen-feinstein-back-in-senate-3-of-bidens-judicial-nominees-move-forward">recently returned to the Senate after an almost three-month absence</a> that – because she could not vote remotely and the Senate is closely divided – <a href="https://apnews.com/article/feinstein-resign-senate-judiciary-committee-judges-shingles-c888eaa95acc390b8a4f50864e411ca7">left the Democrats’ agenda in limbo</a>. </p>
<p>Feinstein turns 90 in June and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/18/us/politics/feinstein-illness-shingles-senate.html">can barely walk on her own</a>, and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/dianne-feinsteins-missteps-raise-a-painful-age-question-among-senate-democrats">her mental acuity has been in question for many years</a>. Yet she is holding on to her seat and <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3962961-california-liberal-groups-call-on-feinstein-to-resign/">won’t resign</a> despite <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dianne-feinstein-senate-shingles-biden-judiciary-committee-49374eadf516a1fb521cac466bb5d18f">fervent pleas from some within her party</a>. </p>
<p>Politicians are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.40.5.822">vulnerable when they’re accused of almost any impropriety</a> real or imagined, but <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/05/dianne-feinstein-health-concerns">physical ailments and deteriorated health</a> may be the one topic for which politicians can escape scrutiny. </p>
<h2>Health, privacy and how to be trustworthy</h2>
<p>Most people expect that their health is a private matter. And for a politician or candidate, such disclosures can be used <a href="https://rollcall.com/2022/05/25/an-rx-for-politicians-full-medical-disclosure/">as political weapons by their opponents</a>. But when voluntarily entering the sphere of public service, does someone have an obligation to inform constituents about how well one is actually able to do the job?</p>
<p>Perhaps Feinstein – or her staff – knows that politicians can evade questions about their health practically with impunity. But politicians who are dodgy about their medical condition can put constituents at a disadvantage. </p>
<p>Ironically, according to my research, if Feinstein would come clean about her impairments, the media and public would probably be far more forgiving. But she seems intent on taking <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X15600732">politicians’ all-too-common route of engaging in deceptive evasion</a>. She loses trustworthiness when the public clearly sees her <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X17706960">dodging questions</a>. In <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/05/17/dianne-feinstein-absence-audio-benjamin-oreskes-cnntm-vpx.cnn">her most recent interaction with reporters</a> she was politely asked how she’s feeling. <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-16/feinstein-absence-senate-washington-health">She said</a> she’s fine except for a problem with her leg. </p>
<p>The reporter courteously asked what was wrong with her leg. She said “<a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/05/dianne-feinstein-health-return-to-senate.html">nothing that’s anyone concern but mine</a>.” Then she repeatedly asserted, falsely, “<a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/05/dianne-feinstein-health-return-to-senate.html">I haven’t been gone</a>” from the Senate, and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/05/17/dianne-feinstein-absence-audio-benjamin-oreskes-cnntm-vpx.cnn">her office appears to be further stonewalling when asked for follow-up or clarification</a>.</p>
<p>By overtly deflecting reporters’ questions – about her leg and her absences – she is probably causing people to think and obsess even more about her inadequacies as an elected official, based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz036">experiments I have conducted</a>. If Feinstein demonstrated a sincere, pleasant demeanor <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/dianne-feinsteins-return-is-a-ghoulish-spectacle.html">instead of glaring at reporters</a>, and provided transparent disclosures about her health, she would shift from being perceived as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/psq.12809">duplicitous</a> to being trustworthy, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211045724">based on experiments I have run</a>. </p>
<h2>Precedent for secrecy</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, the default position for public figures – especially politicians – seems to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X15600732">diversionary maneuvers to evade questions</a>. And the reason may not just be a complicit <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X17744004">partisan base that allows politicians to deceive with impunity</a>. The media have long allowed politicians’ poor health to stay hidden. </p>
<p>History is full of examples of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315499055">media’s covering up politicians’ medical problems</a>. That, in turn, exacerbates a common perception <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2020.1808516">that reporters are complicit</a> with politicians in concealing important information from the public. </p>
<p>Traditionally, reporters hate cover-ups. But the media seem to make an exception for health concerns. Reporters apparently consider it within the bounds of campaign job interviews to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00993853">ask a politician whom he is having sex with</a>, <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/a6c2432390bafa8f4a9efd1340e45caf/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=25289">what type of underwear he wears</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/-check-walker-acknowledges-giving-700-ex-denies-claim-knew-was-abortio-rcna52252">how many ex-girlfriends’ abortions he paid for</a> and <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/12/26/rep-elect-george-santos-admits-fabricating-key-details-of-his-bio/">precisely how gay he is</a>. </p>
<p>But reporters practically become snooty, high-brow puritans at the thought of asking politicians <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-009-9217-x">whether their health will allow them to show up to work</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512898/original/file-20230301-20-l24x25.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An older woman with black hair looking out from a desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512898/original/file-20230301-20-l24x25.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512898/original/file-20230301-20-l24x25.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512898/original/file-20230301-20-l24x25.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512898/original/file-20230301-20-l24x25.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512898/original/file-20230301-20-l24x25.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512898/original/file-20230301-20-l24x25.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512898/original/file-20230301-20-l24x25.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The press did not report for a long time that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, now 89 years old, had lost much of her mental sharpness and her memory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sen-dianne-feinstein-d-calif-attends-a-senate-news-photo/1246880948?phrase=Feinstein&adppopup=true">Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/For The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reporters in cahoots</h2>
<p>Sen. Strom Thurmond did not retire until he was 100 years old, and <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/14/joe-biden-shows-why-politicians-need-age-limits/">reporters largely kept</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/04/26/the-seniority-of-strom-thurmond/b0e1ed9d-f150-4261-b7c5-ed1f57dd1e06/">his cognitive ailments hidden</a>. <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article248666375.html">Like Feinstein</a>, Thurmond often showed evidence of cognitive decline when speaking.</p>
<p>An extreme example of this phenomenon of politicians deceiving is provided by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/02/02/george-santos-lies-psychology-bernie-madoff/">serial liar Rep. George Santos</a>. Unlike most politicians who lie about their health to sound as if they are impervious to maladies, the New York lawmaker took the opposite approach while campaigning for Congress. Santos listed all sorts of health problems he suffers from: acute chronic bronchitis, a brain tumor, an immunodeficiency and susceptibility to cancer. </p>
<p>Most of Santos’ claims about his life other than his health <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/01/george-santos-didnt-lie-about-being-an-early-covid-survivor.html">have been fact-checked</a>. After he was elected, the media thoroughly investigated and dispelled his claims ranging from <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/feb/22/george-santos/george-santos-said-he-never-claimed-to-be-jewish-b/">saying he was Jewish</a> to saying he had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/nyregion/santos-baruch-volleyball.html">played college volleyball</a>. But Santos’ statements about his own mental or physical abilities <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/george-santos-lies-drag-mugging-b2277226.html">seem to have gone unquestioned</a>. Santos was either lying or telling the truth about being unwell. </p>
<p>Either way, the public should have known.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512901/original/file-20230301-20-hi6apx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a dark jacket, red tie and white shirt raising his right hand and looking upward." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512901/original/file-20230301-20-hi6apx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512901/original/file-20230301-20-hi6apx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512901/original/file-20230301-20-hi6apx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512901/original/file-20230301-20-hi6apx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512901/original/file-20230301-20-hi6apx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512901/original/file-20230301-20-hi6apx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512901/original/file-20230301-20-hi6apx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite fact-checking many of Rep. George Santos’ assertions, the press didn’t check out his claims about his health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-congressman-elect-george-santos-speaks-during-the-news-photo/1245739587?phrase=George%20Santos%20candidate&adppopup=true">David Becker/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fit for office</h2>
<p>It may be time to consider a politician’s health – literal, physical fitness for the office – to be fair game for disclosure. Asking politicians whether they have the ability to serve in office should not be off-limits, nor considered evidence of “ableism.” </p>
<p>If civil discussions of mental and physical health impairments can be held – rather than treated like stigmas that must be hidden – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.3.474">democracy would be healthier</a>. The public should be able to expect their representatives to be able to show up to work and honestly serve their constituents. And that means reporters and the general public should ask the necessary questions of their elected officials.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/politicians-health-problems-are-important-information-for-voters-but-reporters-and-candidates-often-conceal-them-200513">article</a> originally published March 3, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205905/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David E. Clementson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Physical ailments and deteriorated health may be the one area in which politicians can escape scrutiny.David E. Clementson, Assistant Professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of GeorgiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047422023-05-02T20:17:54Z2023-05-02T20:17:54ZMore money for Canada’s public service workers won’t cure an unhappy workplace<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523846/original/file-20230502-2540-b9wqpt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4992%2C3083&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) stand at a picket line outside Place du Portage in Gatineau, Que., on April 28, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/more-money-for-canada-s-public-service-workers-won-t-cure-an-unhappy-workplace" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Although striking Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) workers <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-public-workers-reach-contract-agreement-with-federal-govt-ending-strike-2023-05-01/">have reached a tentative deal with Canada’s federal government</a>, the systemic workplace issues that create emotional stress, burnout and unhappy employees are still bubbling hot under the surface. </p>
<p>These issues have nothing to do with money.</p>
<p>The culture and conditions of the federal government workplace are regularly shared via the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/innovation/public-service-employee-survey.html">Public Service Employee Survey that canvasses the opinions of more than 180,000 Canadian federal government employees</a> in 87 federal departments. </p>
<p>Every two years, it asks almost 100 questions on topics ranging from leadership and management, workplace wellness factors and harassment.</p>
<h2>Negative rankings</h2>
<p>What do these in-depth surveys show? They routinely reveal that federal government employees rate the following workplace conditions as more negative than positive when it comes to workplace stress and the quality of their work:</p>
<ul>
<li>Too many approval stages</li>
<li>Constantly changing priorities</li>
<li>Unreasonable deadlines</li>
<li>High staff turnover</li>
<li>Lack of stability in my department</li>
<li>Overly complicated or unnecessary business processes</li>
<li>Unreliable technology</li>
<li>Having to do the same or more work, but with fewer resources</li>
</ul>
<p>That’s just a partial list, and some departments are far worse than others. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/innovation/public-service-employee-survey/2020.html">The 2020 public service employees survey</a> showed that 43 per cent of employees at Public Safety Canada, the place tasked with protecting Canadians from harm and danger, give a negative rating to “too many approval stages” while only 27 per cent give it a positive rating. Other findings included:</p>
<ul>
<li>44 per cent of workers at the Canada Border Services Agency feel their work suffers from “constantly changing priorities” </li>
<li>56 per cent of employees at Women and Gender Equality Canada also say their work suffers because of “constantly changing priorities” </li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2020.1807317">A mountain</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09769-0">peer-reviewed research</a> draws a strong correlation between the stressors cited in the Public Service Employee Survey to depression, <a href="https://doi.org/10.17161/kjm.vol1413424">lack of motivation</a>, poor decision-making and poor performance and motivation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man shouts while wearing a hoodie that reads Respect" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523851/original/file-20230502-1435-7tkm1y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523851/original/file-20230502-1435-7tkm1y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523851/original/file-20230502-1435-7tkm1y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523851/original/file-20230502-1435-7tkm1y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523851/original/file-20230502-1435-7tkm1y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523851/original/file-20230502-1435-7tkm1y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523851/original/file-20230502-1435-7tkm1y.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protester yells during a demonstration outside government buildings in Ottawa in September 2022 ahead of mediation for a collective agreement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A failing grade</h2>
<p>For years, the Public Service Employee Survey has regularly revealed that the federal government is failing when it comes to workplace emotional wellness. </p>
<p>Too many approval stages and unreasonable deadlines consistently rank high in many departments. The survey also indicates an “inability to manage change” is a significant problem in several departments, including the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Correctional Services Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. This is troublesome.</p>
<p>The new contract agreement for federal government workers is heavily focused on an extrinsic motivator — <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/05/01/will-federal-wage-deal-lead-to-a-domino-effect-of-strikes-in-canada.html">namely, money</a>. This is understandable as workers may be struggling to make ends meet in a time of uncertain interest rates, bouncing inflation and high housing costs.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118785317.weom110098">Extrinsic motivation</a> is defined as being motivated by money and other external factors such as “expected reward, expected evaluation, competition, surveillance, time limits, and external control over task engagement.” <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-intrinsic-motivation-2795385">Intrinsic motivation is generally described as more a psychological state</a> that involves a sense of self-determination that can enhance confidence and emotional well-being.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1650509369526689805"}"></div></p>
<h2>Creating a happier workplace</h2>
<p>It is often said that “money can’t buy happiness.” Perhaps. </p>
<p>But the federal government will clearly not deal with what the Public Service Employee Survey consistently shows could buy happiness, or at least emotional wellness, in the workplace. </p>
<p>The government should tackle the long list of failing workplace factors associated with efficiency and effectiveness so that employees stop feeling as though their concerns are ignored or disregarded.</p>
<p>Will an increase in wages make federal government employees happier and more efficient while administering key services related to immigration, taxation, public safety and a multitude of other daily and often frustrating issues? It’s unlikely.</p>
<p>That’s because without a priority on intrinsic motivators — including the ability to work from home and all the psychological benefits that presents — very little will have changed when federal government workers fill out the next Public Service Employee Survey.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204742/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eli Sopow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Will an increase in wages make federal government workers happier and more efficient while dealing with the public on taxation, public safety and a multitude of other daily and often frustrating issues?Eli Sopow, Associate Professor, MBA Faculty of Leadership & People Management, University Canada WestLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040082023-04-27T21:04:53Z2023-04-27T21:04:53ZPost-pandemic work in the public sector: A new way forward or a return to the past?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522885/original/file-20230425-26-va0dte.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5676%2C3855&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada picket outside a Service Canada office in Canmore, Alta., in April 2023. More than 150,000 federal public-service workers are on strike across the country after talks with the government failed. Remote work is a negotiation issue. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Three years after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, many <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/employers-face-resistance-as-they-seek-to-increase-office-days-1.6270940">public health restrictions have been lifted and organizations are requiring workers to return to the office</a>. </p>
<p>The desired return to pre-pandemic societal norms versus the pushback from employees who want to continue to enjoy the benefits of working from home has sparked debate about what the future job market will look like.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/canadian-employers-face-resistance-as-they-seek-to-increase-office-days-1.1881692">Hybrid and remote arrangements became commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic</a> and became vital tools for the continued functioning of society, the economy and all levels of government. </p>
<p>These arrangements enabled thousands of employees to keep their jobs, companies to remain operational and the public sector to continue providing essential goods and services to citizens. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two children sit at laptops while their mother sits at a desk looking at her own laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522890/original/file-20230425-28-sjoko6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522890/original/file-20230425-28-sjoko6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522890/original/file-20230425-28-sjoko6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522890/original/file-20230425-28-sjoko6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522890/original/file-20230425-28-sjoko6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522890/original/file-20230425-28-sjoko6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522890/original/file-20230425-28-sjoko6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schoolchildren participate in online lessons while their mother works from home in January 2022 in Mississauga, Ont.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dramatic changes to how we work</h2>
<p>Consequently, the pandemic caused sudden and profound changes to traditional work models. </p>
<p>While some thought these changes would be permanent, a partial and gradual return to the conventional workplace has begun. </p>
<p>Does this simply involve adapting the full-time, pandemic-fuelled remote work model to current times, or does it signal a complete return to the pre-pandemic way of working? </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/capa.12520">We’re exploring the behaviour and decision-making process of the government of Canada</a> in terms of remote and hybrid work environments before, during and after the pandemic.</p>
<p>Our analysis results from a thorough review of several official government documents, including new information released through access-to-information requests and additional informal observations and insights from the field.</p>
<h2>The evolution of remote work</h2>
<p>A year prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, the federal government started experimenting by offering <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-services-procurement/news/2019/06/gccoworking-new-flexible-alternative-workplaces-for-government-of-canada-employees.html">“new and flexible (shared) workplace solutions” for employees in 14 departments who could work remotely</a>.</p>
<p>But prior to 2020, the number of Canadian employees who worked at home full-time was statistically low: Statistics Canada’s General Social Survey 2016 reported that <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2021010/article/00001-eng.htm">less than four per cent of employees were working from home most of the time</a>. </p>
<p>This suggests that even though remote work was already recognized as a viable employment option by some organizations before the pandemic, it wasn’t used efficiently as a widespread work arrangement until COVID-19.</p>
<p>As a result of the pandemic, the government of Canada has provided guidance to departments and agencies to outline how the public sector can best provide remote and hybrid work arrangements to their employees in an effort to normalize this new way of working.</p>
<h2>No direct contact with citizens</h2>
<p>The pandemic has dramatically changed the way public sector employees work, especially in the federal government, where a wide variety of jobs don’t require direct interactions with the public.</p>
<p>As Evert Lindquist, a public administration scholar at the University of Victoria, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/capa.12493">has noted</a>, remote and hybrid work models were accelerated by the digitization of the government:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Many governments have instituted digital service agencies, established open data platforms, adopted social media channels, created innovation labs and proclaimed commitment to ‘open government.‘”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the public sector, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2020001/article/00026-eng.htm">remote work became a way for governments to continue functioning remotely</a> during COVID-19. </p>
<p>Once the pandemic stabilized, the government of Canada began a gradual, partial return to the designated workplace, initially giving departments considerable latitude to experiment with different hybrid models and the opportunity to make their own choices with few limitations.</p>
<p>But this strategy — based on flexibility and managerial discretion — didn’t last very long. </p>
<p>New rules were imposed by the Treasury Board Secretariat on departments in December 2022, <a href="https://pipsc.ca/news-issues/return-to-workplace">including a requirement for public servants to work 40 to 60 per cent of their regular monthly schedule at the designated workplace</a>. These rules <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/federal-public-service-return-office-hybrid-shared-space-1.6717454">have been criticized</a> by many who believe they mark the beginning of a return to the pre-pandemic way of working. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People sit at a long table in front of a row of Canadian flags while a man appears on screen. Empty chairs several feet apart sit in front of the long table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522888/original/file-20230425-4953-gj2sgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522888/original/file-20230425-4953-gj2sgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522888/original/file-20230425-4953-gj2sgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522888/original/file-20230425-4953-gj2sgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522888/original/file-20230425-4953-gj2sgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522888/original/file-20230425-4953-gj2sgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522888/original/file-20230425-4953-gj2sgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President of the Treasury Board Jean-Yves Duclos, shown on video, joins other public officials, including Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, in a COVID-19 briefing in January 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Remote work as a negotiation issue</h2>
<p>All these changes happening in a short period of time have created uncertainty and even distrust on the part of federal government employees toward their employers — so much so that <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9639952/kelowna-remote-work-federal-strike/">remote work is now a central issue in the negotiations for the new collective agreement with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC)</a> representing 120,000 employees. </p>
<p>The ability to continue to work from home is a point of contention, particularly pertaining to employees <a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1972409/greve-teletravail-fonctionnaires-federaux-afpc">who were hired during the pandemic since they don’t have a physical office and have only ever worked from home, especially those in rural areas.</a></p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1650509369526689805"}"></div></p>
<p>The federal government and federal employees are both navigating uncharted territories. </p>
<p>On the one hand, those who currently work remotely want to preserve as much flexibility as possible in their work patterns. </p>
<p>On the other hand, enshrining the right to work remotely in a collective agreement will significantly limit the employer’s ability to impose return-to-office mandates over the long term. It could also create inequality and competition among those whose jobs can easily be done remotely and those who provide direct services to the public. </p>
<h2>Multiple issues at play</h2>
<p>In addition, there’s uncertainty about the long-term impact on the quality of team work, the management and design of government buildings and the psychological impact of isolation on employees. There’s a lot more at stake in these negotiations than salary issues. </p>
<p>Although the rules have recently been tightened and are still a major focus of the current bargaining process, the government of Canada has shifted significantly when it comes to the role of remote and hybrid work before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>The crisis has irrefutably transformed the workforce in all sectors, and a complete reversal to pre-pandemic work models isn’t likely. </p>
<p>Even though many political and administrative decisions on remote work loom on the horizon, we argue that workplaces will continue to evolve in the months and years ahead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olivier Choinière is affiliated with the Centre on Governance (University of Ottawa). Olivier is a former Government of Canada executive (2018-2022). During this period, he held several responsibilities, including the Director of the Future of Work Office in a major department (2021-2022).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aracelly Denise Granja and Eric Champagne do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>COVID-19 transformed the workforce, including in the public sector. A complete reversal to pre-pandemic work models is unlikely, but there’s lots at stake as employers contemplate the future of work.Eric Champagne, Professeur agrégé, École d'études politique, Directeur, Centre d'études en gouvernance / Associate professor, School of Political Studies, Director, Centre on Governance, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaAracelly Denise Granja, Research Assistant, Centre on Governance, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaOlivier Choinière, Professor of Project Management, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2013702023-03-08T01:26:58Z2023-03-08T01:26:58ZNZ has a history of prominent public servants who were also outspoken public intellectuals – what’s changed?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514078/original/file-20230307-3276-syftap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5130%2C3510&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been a difficult time for senior public servants recently – at least it has been for those willing to express their political views publicly. One has been sacked, another offered his resignation, and yet another has been questioned by a parliamentary select committee. </p>
<p>In an election year perhaps we can expect heightened sensitivities around the principle of public sector neutrality. Especially so, given those in the spotlight are all ministerial appointees to crown entity boards, not career officials. </p>
<p>These appointments blur the supposedly clear boundary between elected office-holders and professional public servants.</p>
<p>The case of Rob Campbell, former chair of Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ and the Environmental Protection Authority, seems the most clear-cut. His LinkedIn post likening the National Party’s Three Waters policy to a “thin disguise for the dog whistle on co-governance” was one thing. But his <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/484947/high-profile-public-servant-rob-campbell-standing-by-criticism-of-national-over-water-infrastructure">refusal to accept</a> he’d done anything wrong was a bridge too far for the powers that be.</p>
<p>Things have gone better for former Labour MP Steve Maharey, who offered his resignation as chair of Pharmac, ACC and Education New Zealand for publishing what could be read as <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/300711880/the-2023-general-election-will-be-about-who-can-fix-things">politically partial views</a>. The <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/485538/steve-maharey-will-not-lose-jobs-despite-political-comments-hipkins">government has said</a> he will not lose his jobs.</p>
<p>And another former Labour MP, Ruth Dyson, now deputy chair of the Earthquake Commission and Fire and Emergency New Zealand, is also <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/485535/former-labour-mp-ruth-dyson-caught-up-in-political-neutrality-crackdown">under scrutiny</a> for apparently partisan Twitter comments. It’s safe to say the the nation’s newsrooms are now trawling the social media accounts of all senior civil servants and appointees.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1633206537236918272"}"></div></p>
<h2>Faceless bureaucrats?</h2>
<p>On the face of it, the <a href="https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/guidance/guide-he-aratohu/standards-of-integrity-and-conduct/">standards of conduct</a> for people employed in the state sector – especially at senior levels – are clear. They’re expected to act with neutrality and impartiality, and not to take sides with political parties – even (or especially) if they have a past association with one.</p>
<p>They should be able to continue to serve after a change of government. New Zealand doesn’t follow the <a href="https://www.acslaw.org/federal-executive-branch-appointments-project/guide-to-presidential-appointments/">American model</a> where an incoming president appoints about 4,000 civil servants. Instead, we rely on non-partisan professionals whose tenure isn’t tied to elections. </p>
<p>But these tensions and sensitivities about what people can and can’t say also exist in private enterprise. Any director or chief executive would be unwise to publish private opinions about political or economic affairs that might harm the reputation of the company.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-balancing-act-how-much-free-speech-should-our-public-servants-have-138118">The balancing act: how much free speech should our public servants have?</a>
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<p>Even a bottom-rung employee can <a href="https://www.employment.govt.nz/resolving-problems/types-of-problems/misconduct-and-serious-misconduct/employee-actions-outside-of-work/">face the sack</a> for commenting online about their employer. Free speech comes with conditions attached, especially so for the public service.</p>
<p>One counter argument is that public servants’ impartiality is only a pretence anyway. And, as <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/simon-wilson-why-they-sacked-rob-campbell-and-why-that-has-to-stop/SWNTDXOY2ZCINBBXO4WOUHAGMA/">one commentator put it</a> recently, “we should expect them to speak the truth to us, as they see it”. Indeed, we should criticise those who fail to do so, and not care if it upsets politicians.</p>
<p>That would be a major culture change for our Westminster-style system. But New Zealand has had prominent public servants who were admired as outspoken public intellectuals. The question is, where is the line and how do we define the terms? </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1632816974433603592"}"></div></p>
<h2>Public intellectuals</h2>
<p>One historical figure who rose high within the public service but expressed political views was
<a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2t48/tregear-edward-robert">Edward Tregear</a> (1846–1931). He was already a prominent intellectual when appointed the first secretary of the Labour Department by the Liberal government in 1891. </p>
<p>He drove pioneering labour and social reforms, but was often outspoken and found himself at odds with the government following the death of the prime minister, Richard Seddon, in 1906. He retired in 1910.</p>
<p><a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5b17/beeby-clarence-edward">Clarence Beeby</a> (1902–98) was a prominent psychologist and researcher with a strong commitment to public education and human rights when he was appointed director of education by Peter Fraser in 1940. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514076/original/file-20230307-14-g8lhhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514076/original/file-20230307-14-g8lhhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514076/original/file-20230307-14-g8lhhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514076/original/file-20230307-14-g8lhhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514076/original/file-20230307-14-g8lhhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514076/original/file-20230307-14-g8lhhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514076/original/file-20230307-14-g8lhhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514076/original/file-20230307-14-g8lhhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1012&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Clarence Beeby.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Labour’s educational reforms came to be identified with Beeby as much as with Fraser, which would have annoyed the prime minister. Beeby continued under the subsequent National government, however. Overall, his scholarship had wide influence and was recognised internationally.</p>
<p>The economist <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5s54/sutch-william-ball">Bill Sutch</a> (1907–75) worked under ministers of finance in the 1930s while also actively engaging in public life. He published two important books on New Zealand in the early 1940s (Poverty and Progress, and The Search for Security). </p>
<p>This independence caused some friction with Fraser, but Sutch worked for New Zealand at the United Nations. In 1958, he became permanent secretary for the Department of Industries and Commerce.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-restore-trust-in-government-we-need-to-reinvent-how-the-public-service-works-121634">To restore trust in government, we need to reinvent how the public service works</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The new rules</h2>
<p>Campbell’s online comments and Maharey’s op-ed columns probably aren’t at the same level of sustained achievement as those three exemplary civil servants’ publications. But they do raise important questions. Are today’s ministers and the public services commissioner too precious about political opinions? And are opposition MPs going to be hoist with their own petard once they’re in office?</p>
<p>Since the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1988/0020/latest/DLM129110.html">State Sector Act 1988</a>, our system has tried to draw a clear line between ministers, who set high-level policy and have to justify it publicly, and public servants, who advise ministers and implement their decisions. Public servants should provide ministers with free and frank advice, but publishing personal opinions isn’t on.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-high-court-ruling-on-public-servants-tweets-have-a-powerful-chill-on-free-speech-121556">Will the High Court ruling on public servant’s tweets have a 'powerful chill' on free speech?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There’s always a grey area, however. Campbell breached the code of conduct, but was sacking him in proportion with the offence? Those in a position to decide thought that it was. </p>
<p>Given the public controversy, Maharey did the right thing to pre-emptively offer his resignation. What distinguishes him from Campbell is that he recognised the awkward political problem.</p>
<p>But is it so big a problem that heads should roll? Is the country better or worse off for its intolerance of intellectual and political independence of thought in the state sector? </p>
<p>Whatever the answer, under present arrangements we won’t see public servants like Tregear, Beeby or Sutch again. But Campbell and Maharey can write what they like in retirement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Duncan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The sacking of senior public servant Rob Campbell and questions about the neutrality of others are a reminder of the line between robust policy debate and perceived partisanship.Grant Duncan, Associate Professor, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2004122023-02-27T13:24:45Z2023-02-27T13:24:45ZHow Jimmy Carter integrated his evangelical Christian faith into his political work, despite mockery and misunderstanding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512065/original/file-20230223-28-k80qo3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C24%2C5406%2C3612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former President Jimmy Carter has decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/JimmyCarterHospiceExplainer/3f1f640bf1fd4ec38d84c98340fdb6f1/photo?Query=jimmy%20carter%202023&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=29&currentItemNo=18">AP Photo/John Bazemore, File</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“I am a farmer, an engineer, a businessman, a planner, a scientist, a governor, and a Christian,” Jimmy Carter said while introducing himself to national political reporters when <a href="http://www.4president.org/speeches/carter1976announcement.htm">he announced his campaign to be the 39th president</a> of the United States in December 1974.</p>
<p>As journalists and historians consider Carter’s legacy, this prelude to Carter’s campaign offers insight into how he wanted to be known and how he might like to be remembered.</p>
<p>After studying Carter’s presidential campaign, presidency and post-presidency for years, which included examining more than 25,000 archival documents, media sources, oral histories and interviews, I wrote “<a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/jimmy-carter-marathon-media/">Jimmy Carter and the Birth of the Marathon Media Campaign</a>.” Along the way, I had the opportunity to interview former President Carter in October 2014, when we discussed his life, his presidency and his legacy. </p>
<p>Based upon this experience, one observation is certain – Carter was a man of faith committed to a vision of the nation that aligned with his views of Jesus’ teachings. </p>
<h2>A campaign cloaked in a message of love and justice</h2>
<p>In the fall of 1975, after his initial announcement failed to elicit much national attention for his candidacy, the still relatively unknown Georgia governor published the campaign biography, “<a href="https://www.uapress.com/product/why-not-the-best/">Why Not the Best?</a>”</p>
<p>Within the book, he told the story of his wholesome childhood on his family’s peanut farm in Archery, Georgia, and of achieving his childhood dream through his appointment to the Naval Academy in 1943. </p>
<p>He wrote of his dedication to his family as a loyal son, husband and father and his duty-bound career transition to manage his family-owned peanut farm, warehouse and store after his father <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/02/20/jimmy-carter-nuclear-reactor-navy/">Earl Carter’s premature death</a> from pancreatic cancer in 1953. He also shared his lifelong commitment to community and public service. </p>
<p>Moreover, he offered himself as a public servant who could bridge the chasm between the American people and the government that had emerged after the revelations of presidential corruption amid Vietnam and Watergate. </p>
<p>“Our government can and must represent the best and the highest ideals of those of us who voluntarily submit to its authority. In our third century, we must meet these simple, but crucial standards,” he wrote in the <a href="https://www.uapress.com/product/why-not-the-best/">campaign biography</a>. </p>
<p>Though Carter cloaked his campaign in Jesus’ teachings about love and justice, most national reporters did not give Carter’s faith much attention until he became the Democratic Party’s front-runner in advance of the North Carolina primary in 1976.</p>
<h2>‘Lust in my heart’</h2>
<p>When national reporters finally turned their attention to his faith, what campaign director Hamilton Jordan referred to as Carter’s “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Jimmy_Carter_in_Search_of_the_Great_Whit.html?id=YEGPAAAAIAAJ">weirdo factor</a>,” the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=gHNAAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA967&lpg=PA967&dq=jimmy+carter">evangelical politician acknowledged</a> that he had “spent more time on my knees in the four years I was governor … than I did in all the rest of my life.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A number of people gather around a table, taking notes, as the person at the head of the table speaks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512070/original/file-20230223-28-g60o0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jimmy Carter meets with news editors at the White House on April 15, 1977.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PresidentJimmyCarter/088bda28886f4ec894452646737ff8d7/photo?Query=jimmy%20carter%20press&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2316&currentItemNo=37">AP Photo/Charles Bennett</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Carter continued to share his understanding of the gospel with journalists and their audiences in a plain-spoken manner, even though it was not always advantageous to his political fortunes. For instance, after continued probes about his faith that summer from Playboy Magazine correspondent Robert Scheer, <a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/jimmy-carter-marathon-media/">Carter launched into a sermon on pride, lust and lying</a> that would haunt him later. </p>
<p>“I try not to commit a deliberate sin. I recognize that I’m going to do it anyhow, because I’m human and I’m tempted … I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust,” Carter, believing he was off the record, said in attempting to clarify his religious views. “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Playboy_Interview.html?id=EXNmAAAAMAAJ%22%22">I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times</a>.” </p>
<p>Carter referred to <a href="https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Matthew-5-28/">Matthew 5:28</a>, the biblical passage in which Jesus shares this interpretation of the Seventh Commandment, with the words: “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”</p>
<p>Uninterrupted, Carter continued his salty explanation of the verse: “Christ says don’t consider yourself better than someone else because one guy screws a whole bunch of women while the other guy is loyal to his wife.”</p>
<p>“We have heard Jesus’ words all our lives ever since we were 3, 4 years old, and we knew what it meant,” Carter later explained to me. “But, obviously, the general public, when I said, ‘lust in my heart,’ that was a top headline, it looked like I was – like I spent my time trying to seduce other women. Rosa(lynn) knew that wasn’t true.” </p>
<p>Though Carter’s comments were “<a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/jimmy-carter-marathon-media/">on solid theological ground</a>,” according to many people of faith, up-and-coming leaders of the religious right, such as televangelist Jerry Falwell, castigated Carter. And, in the end, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UXuKo8zOdD0C&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q&f=false">many folks agreed</a> with well-regarded columnist Mary McGrory – the interview “should have been an off-the-record conversation with God, not one taped by Playboy.”</p>
<h2>Crisis of confidence</h2>
<p>Despite the erosion of support among the emerging religious right after the Playboy gaffe, Carter remained steadfast in his commitment to his Christian values and a faith-inspired vision for the nation that advanced human rights at home and abroad. He called it a “<a href="https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/assets/documents/speeches/inaugadd.phtml">new beginning</a>.” </p>
<p>Carter beseeched his American brethren to chart a new course during his inaugural address in January 1977: “Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved; the powerful must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced.” </p>
<p>Carter had achieved what Time magazine hailed as one of the most astonishing “<a href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19770103,00.html">political miracles</a>” in the nation’s history because of his rapid ascension from a virtual unknown politician to the presidency. But many citizens, suffering from an emerging <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimmycartercrisisofconfidence.htm">crisis of confidence</a> in the American dream and faith in its institutions and leaders, had already begun to tune out Carter’s political sermons about the looming energy crisis, stagflation and international conflicts.</p>
<p>Moreover, in the coming years, they would become indignant toward the man who had condemned the corruption of his predecessors and promised to never tell a lie on the campaign trail, yet remained loyal to one of his oldest advisers, the Office of Management and Budget Director Bert Lance, who was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/08/11/archives/lancegate.html">accused of unethical banking practices</a>. </p>
<h2>Long-lasting commitment to public service</h2>
<p>In the end, Carter stood accused of failing to live up to his campaign promises from the vantage point of many American citizens amid domestic crises and foreign conflicts.</p>
<p>Amid news coverage of these events and his dwindling public support, Carter lost his reelection campaign, and his administration was hailed by many journalists, political insiders and average Americans alike as a “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/10/17/white-house-cooling-to-the-idea-of-running-against-mondale/4e7bdbe7-ef4c-4eae-8e6d-e5186507c0ff/">failed presidency</a>.” </p>
<p>Nevertheless, Carter remained committed to his religious convictions. “I have spoken many times of love, but love must be aggressively translated into simple justice,” he invoked his audience when he <a href="https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/assets/documents/speeches/acceptance_speech.pdf">accepted the Democratic nomination</a> in July 1976. </p>
<p>For the remainder of his life, he attempted to model the translation of Jesus’ love into action through his life of public service. His post-presidential commitments involved <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/">The Carter Center’s</a> initiatives of fighting disease and seeking international peace and his private efforts of building homes for <a href="https://www.habitat.org/volunteer/build-events/carter-work-project">Habitat for Humanity</a> and teaching <a href="https://jimmycarter.info/plan-your-visit/president-carters-teaching-schedule-marantha-baptist-church/">Sunday school</a>. </p>
<p>In the end, Carter will leave this world with <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/20/politics/jimmy-carter-iran-hostages/index.html">only one acknowledged regret</a>: “I wish I’d sent one more helicopter to get the hostages and we would have rescued them and I would have been re-elected,” he said referring to the April 1980 military rescue attempt of the 53 U.S. hostages <a href="https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2021/11/29/the-iran-hostage-crisis/">held by Iranian revolutionaries</a>. </p>
<p>In Carter’s final days, his words from his presidential <a href="https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/assets/documents/speeches/farewell.phtml">farewell address</a>, which remain true today, are worth remembering:</p>
<p>“The battle for human rights – at home and abroad – is far from over. … If we are to serve as a beacon for human rights, we must continue to perfect here at home the rights and values which we espouse around the world: A decent education for our children, adequate medical care for all Americans, an end to discrimination against minorities and women, a job for all those able to work, and freedom from injustice and religious intolerance.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lori Amber Roessner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A media scholar who studied Carter and interviewed him explains how he attempted to translate Jesus’ teachings into action through his life of public service.Lori Amber Roessner, Professor in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1876082022-08-08T20:03:12Z2022-08-08T20:03:12ZTax office whistleblowing saga points to reforms needed in three vital areas<p>Last Friday’s twist in the long prosecution of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/aug/05/prosecutors-seek-suppression-orders-in-case-against-tax-office-whistleblower-richard-boyle">Australian Taxation Office whistleblower Richard Boyle</a> – now headed for its fifth year – brings into relief the serious flaws in our nation’s whistleblowing laws.</p>
<p>Boyle aired his concerns about oppressive debt collection by the ATO in a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/mongrel-bunch-of-bastards/9635026">joint ABC–Fairfax media investigation</a> released in 2018. But he went public only after raising his concerns within the ATO and later with the inspector-general of taxation (IGT).</p>
<p>Various reviews confirmed his complaints under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 – the whistleblower protection law for federal public servants – were reasonable. Despite dismissing his original complaint, the ATO ensured the suspect practices, which it <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/ato-garnishees-a-misunderstanding-inquiry-hears-20191018-p5320j.html">claimed</a> resulted from “miscommunication” and “misunderstanding”, were fixed.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/19/whistleblower-went-public-after-tax-offices-superficial-inquiry-into-concerns">Senate committee</a> labelled the ATO’s initial investigation into Boyle’s complaint as “superficial”. The IGT found merit in the matters Boyle raised but had <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/ato-garnishees-a-misunderstanding-inquiry-hears-20191018-p5320j.html">no jurisdiction to intervene</a> because it is not a “disclosure recipient” under the 2013 Act.</p>
<p>These events make the Boyle prosecution an important test case. Under the act, the key test of whether he has a defence against charges of making unauthorised recordings and disclosures is whether he believed “on reasonable grounds” the ATO investigation into his first disclosure was “inadequate”.</p>
<p>In Friday’s Kafkaesque twist, the ATO and Commonwealth prosecutors have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/aug/05/prosecutors-seek-suppression-orders-in-case-against-tax-office-whistleblower-richard-boyle">sought suppression orders</a> to prevent media reporting of Boyle’s efforts to assert that defence, in case it prejudices the trial. (Delays have already pushed the trial itself back to October 2023.) It’s the ultimate illustration of how current public interest disclosure laws can end up undermining their own primary purpose.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/dreyfus-ends-prosecution-of-lawyer-over-alleged-leaking-about-australian-spying-in-against-timor-leste-186555">Dreyfus ends prosecution of lawyer over alleged leaking about Australian spying in against Timor-Leste</a>
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<p>Add the time, costs and negative impacts on <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/ato-whistleblower-richard-boyle-s-court-case-a-shakespearean-tragedy-20220723-p5b3zv">Boyle’s life and health</a>, the resources invested by the ATO and Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, the case’s impact on the Australian government’s reputation and the messages it sends to other potential whistleblowers, and we see just how badly the federal approach to whistleblowing needs an overhaul.</p>
<p>The law needs urgent reform to ensure that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>whistleblower protection thresholds are more workable and consistent </p></li>
<li><p>when they apply, the protections themselves are worthwhile</p></li>
<li><p>new institutions are created to enforce the laws — especially a whistleblower protection commissioner to short-circuit the legal quagmire and make sure the public interest is efficiently served.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Crossing the threshold</h2>
<p>The right thresholds are important because it is easy and normal for organisations to <em>not</em> see employees’ actions as covered by whistleblower protections, simply because other disputes and processes are also in train. The whistleblowing complaint might also include an employment dispute, for example, or a policy disagreement. Or other public interest factors – like national security – might need to be weighed up.</p>
<p>In fact, <a href="http://www.whistlingwhiletheywork.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Clean-as-a-whistle_A-five-step-guide-to-better-whistleblowing-policy_Key-findings-and-actions-WWTW2-August-2019.pdf">our research</a> shows this complexity is the norm. Our study of more than 17,000 employees across 46 large and small public and private sector organisations found that up to half (47%) of all disclosures involve a mixture of public interest issues and personal grievances. Only 20% were solely “public interest”.</p>
<p>The law needs to be clearer that the other 30%, purely personal grievances, belong in other processes. But clear and properly implemented thresholds are the key to whether most whistleblowers will get any protection at all.</p>
<p>Recently, Labor Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus intervened to stop the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-07/attorney-general-orders-charges-dropped-against-bernard-collaery/101217272">prosecution of Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery</a> for disclosing confidential information about the Australian government’s alleged commercial bugging of the Timor-Leste cabinet room.</p>
<p>But the actual whistleblower in that case – Witness K, the spy who took his internal complaints about the bugging to Collaery – missed out, because he, too, didn’t fit the thresholds. He had already been <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-richard-boyle-and-witness-k-to-media-raids-its-time-whistleblowers-had-better-protection-121555">forced to plead guilty</a> for revealing the wrongdoing because, no matter how heinous the crime, the mere fact it involved national intelligence left him with no chance of a defence at all.</p>
<h2>Ensuring effective protections</h2>
<p>Even if the thresholds are met, what value are current protections?</p>
<p>Prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison started to lift the bar in the private sector in 2019, <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/whistleblowing-reforms-in-australia-show-the-way">amending the Corporations Act</a> to surpass the 2013 public sector whistleblowing laws in key ways.</p>
<p>But even if the public sector laws catch up, problems remain. A whistleblower can only receive compensation for the personal and professional impacts of their disclosures if those impacts were, in effect, punishment or payback motivated by awareness of a disclosure.</p>
<p>While okay for a criminal offence, that principle means any whistleblower will struggle to secure compensation if the damage flowed from simple negligence, collateral employment actions or breakdowns in organisational support. No whistleblower has yet succeeded in winning such compensation.</p>
<p>And some whistleblowers deserve justice even if the detriment was beyond anyone’s control. In 2017, the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Corporations_and_Financial_Services/WhistleblowerProtections">Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services</a> recommended Australia should establish a reward scheme that would share with the whistleblower some of the penalties imposed on wrongdoers or the money saved thanks to a disclosure, irrespective of fault. The United States and Canada are just two countries with such schemes.</p>
<h2>Creating the right institutions</h2>
<p>But who would administer such a scheme, or even take on the existing job of ensuring that legal protections for whistleblowers deliver justice, consistently across the public and private sectors? Does anyone have the job of investigating whether a whistleblower was properly treated, or of actively helping federal agencies sort out these often messy cases?</p>
<p>The short answer is no. The Commonwealth ombudsman and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission can require organisations to set up internal disclosure systems, but have little scope, in law or practice, to enforce protections.</p>
<p>The 2017 <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Corporations_and_Financial_Services/WhistleblowerProtections">parliamentary joint committee</a> recommended a whistleblower protection authority or commissioner to fill this stark gap. Since 2018, federal crossbench MPs including <a href="https://cathymcgowan.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/National-Integrity-Commission-Bill-2018.pdf">Cathy McGowan</a>, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6787">Helen Haines</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/10/greens-to-seek-changes-to-labors-integrity-commission-legislation-to-protect-whistleblowers">Adam Bandt</a> and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/our-democracy-will-be-better-for-it-empowering-whistleblowers-key-to-effective-anti-corruption-reform-20220718-p5b2c2.html">Andrew Wilkie</a> have proposed this function be included in the Albanese government’s planned <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/06/labor-urged-to-bolster-federal-icac-plan-with-more-protection-for-whistleblowers">National Anti-Corruption Commission</a> reforms.</p>
<p>This makes sense because the new agency will become the most obvious place in Australia for people to safely take complaints about serious wrongdoing and be listened to, or referred to the right place, with the necessary protections applying.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-a-border-dispute-and-spying-scandal-can-australia-and-timor-leste-be-good-neighbours-121553">After a border dispute and spying scandal, can Australia and Timor-Leste be good neighbours?</a>
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<p>The need for an agency to coordinate a one-stop-shop process rather than a bureaucratic “pass the parcel” has been identified by no less than four statutory or parliamentary inquiries. These include the 2016 <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/about-us/publications/review-public-interest-disclosure-act-2013">Moss Review</a> and 2017 <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/select_integritycommission">Senate Select Committee on a National Integrity Commission</a>, but stretches right back to a 1994 <a href="http://navigatesenatecommittees.senate.gov.au/events/select-committee-on-public-interest-whistleblowing/23">Select Committee on Whistleblowing</a> chaired by Tasmanian Liberal Senator Jocelyn Newman.</p>
<p>Just as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/11/government-reveals-plan-to-reform-australias-whistleblowing-laws">outgoing Coalition government</a> was proposing further changes to whistleblowing laws, it is welcome news that <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7811624/attorney-weighs-up-whistleblower-laws/">Dreyfus</a> is keeping at least some of that reform on the agenda.</p>
<p>For Australia to retain its record of pursuing world’s best practice in recognising, managing and protecting the role of whistleblowers, it will be vital for that agenda to include all three major elements of overdue reform.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187608/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A J Brown has received funding from the Australian Research Council and all Australian governments for research on public interest whistleblowing, integrity and anti-corruption reform through partners including Australia's federal and state Ombudsmen, Australian Securities & Investments Commission, and other Commonwealth and State regulatory agencies, parliaments, anti-corruption bodies and private sector peak bodies (see most recently 'Whistling While They Work 2: Improving Managerial and Organisational Responses to Whistleblowing in the Public and Private Sectors' (<a href="https://whistlingwhiletheywork.edu.au/">https://whistlingwhiletheywork.edu.au/</a>). He was a member of the Commonwealth Ministerial Expert Panel on Whistleblowing (2017-2019) and is also a board member of Transparency International, globally and in Australia.</span></em></p>Labor is committed to changing the law for the better. Here’s what needs doingA J Brown, Professor of Public Policy & Law, Centre for Governance & Public Policy, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843862022-06-06T03:57:43Z2022-06-06T03:57:43ZOur new environment super-department sounds great in theory. But one department for two ministers is risky<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467079/original/file-20220606-58478-csrz5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3982%2C2245&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Good news, Australia – the environment is back. Our new government has introduced a new super-department covering climate change, energy, the environment and water. </p>
<p>But while the ministry move sounds great in theory, it’s risky in practice. Having one super-department supporting two ministers – Tanya Plibersek in environment and water, and Chris Bowen for climate change and energy – is likely to stretch the public service too far. </p>
<p>If a policy area is important enough to warrant its own cabinet minister, it also warrants a dedicated secretary and department. This is especially true for the shrunken environment department, which has to rebuild staff and know-how after having over a third of its <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/auscon/pages/5148/attachments/original/1513033223/ACF-WWF_Pre-Budget_Submission_2018-19.pdf?1513033223">budget slashed</a> in the early Coalition years.</p>
<p>Supporting two cabinet ministers stretches department secretaries too thinly. It makes it hard for them to engage in the kind of deep policy development we need in such a difficult and fast-moving policy environment. </p>
<h2>What are the politics behind this move?</h2>
<p>Tanya Plibersek’s appointment last week as minister for the environment and water was the surprise of the new ministerial lineup. </p>
<p>Even if Plibersek’s move from education in opposition to environment in government was a political demotion for her, as <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/richard-marles-says-tanya-pliberseks-environment-and-water-portfolio-is-critical-and-front-and-centre-of-labors-agenda/news-story/c32b9b7e14778676ab763430428974c4">some have suggested</a>, placing the environment portfolio in the hands of someone so senior and well-regarded is a boon for the environment. </p>
<p>Having the environment in the broadest sense represented in Cabinet by two experienced and capable ministers is doubly welcome. It signifies a return to the main stage for our ailing natural world after years of relative neglect under the Coalition government. </p>
<p>It also makes good political sense, given the significant electoral gains made by the Greens on Labor’s left flank. While ‘climate’ rather than ‘environment’ was the word on everybody’s lips, other major environmental issues need urgent attention. Threatened species and declining biodiversity are only one disaster or controversy away from high political urgency. </p>
<p>When released at last, the 2021 State of the Environment Report will make environmental bad news public. Former environment minister Sussan Ley sat on the report for five months, leaving it for her successor to release it. </p>
<h2>Now comes the avalanche of policy</h2>
<p>Both ministers have a packed policy agenda, courtesy of Labor’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/20/labor-to-set-up-independent-environmental-protection-agency-and-restore-trust-and-confidence">last minute</a> commitment to creating an environmental protection agency, as well as responding to the urgent calls for change in the sweeping [2020 review] of Australia’s national environmental law <a href="https://epbcactreview.environment.gov.au">(https://epbcactreview.environment.gov.au/resources/final-report)</a>. </p>
<p>That’s not half of it. Bowen is also tasked with delivering the government’s high-profile 43% emissions cuts within eight years, which includes the Rewiring the Nation effort to modernise our grid. He will also lead Australia’s bid to host the world’s climate summit, COP29, in 2024, alongside Pacific countries. </p>
<p>Plibersek also has to tackle major water reforms in the Murray Darling basin and develop new Indigenous heritage laws to respond to the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Northern_Australia/CavesatJuukanGorge/Interim_Report">parliamentary inquiry</a> into the destruction of ancient rock art site Juukan Gorge by Rio Tinto.</p>
<h2>Can one big department cope with this workload?</h2>
<p>Creating a super-department is a bad idea. That’s because the agenda for both ministers is large and challenging. It will be a nightmare job for the department secretary tasked with supporting two ministers. It’s no comfort that the problem will be worse elsewhere, with the infrastructure department supporting <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/ministry-list-20220601.pdf">four cabinet ministers</a>.</p>
<p>Giving departmental secretaries wide responsibilities crossing lines of ministerial responsibility encourages them to reconcile policy tensions internally rather than putting them up to ministers, as they should. </p>
<p>The tension between large renewable energy projects and threatened species is a prime example of what can go wrong. Last year, environment minister Sussan Ley ruled a $50 billion renewable megaproject in the Pilbara <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/wa-slams-feds-premature-rejection-of-pilbara-renewable-hydrogen-hub/">could not proceed</a> because of ‘clearly unacceptable’ impacts on internationally recognised wetlands south of Broome. </p>
<p>Ley’s ‘clearly unacceptable’ finding stopped the project at the first environmental hurdle. That’s despite the fact the very same project was awarded ‘major project’ status by the federal government in 2020. </p>
<p>The problem here is what might have been the right answer on a narrow environmental basis was the wrong answer more broadly. </p>
<p>If Australia is to achieve its potential as a clean energy superpower and as other renewable energy <a href="https://suncable.energy/">megaprojects</a> move forward, we will need more sophisticated ways of avoiding such conflicts. This will require resolution of deep policy tensions – and that’s best done between ministers rather than between duelling deputy secretaries.</p>
<p>Super-departments also struggle to maintain coherence across the different programs they run. While large departments bring economies of scale, these benefits are more than offset by coordination and culture issues. </p>
<p>An early task for Glyn Davis, the new head of the prime minister’s department, will be to recommend a secretary for this new super-department of climate change, energy, the environment and water. In addition to the ability to absorb a punishing workload, the successful appointee will need high level juggling skills to support Plibersek and Bowen simultaneously.</p>
<p>Ironically, in dividing time between two ministers, she or he will be the least able to accept Plibersek’s call for staff of her new department to be <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7765333/minister-flags-big-shift-in-relations-with-dept-but-it-comes-with-a-warning/?cs=14264">‘all in’</a> in turning her decisions into action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Burnett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Can one department adequately tackle climate change, energy, the environment and water? It’s unlikely.Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1833612022-05-18T07:38:53Z2022-05-18T07:38:53Z‘A lazy cost-saving measure’: the Coalition’s efficiency dividend hike may mean longer wait times and reduced services<p>On the eve of the election, the Coalition has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-17/cuts-public-sector-spending-coalition-policy-costings-election/101072270">said</a> it will impose a higher “efficiency dividend” on public service agencies over the next four years in an effort to cut public service spending and address the budget deficit.</p>
<p>An efficiency dividend is a measure, first introduced by Labor in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-more-bang-for-public-bucks-is-the-efficiency-dividend-efficient-24803">late 1980s</a>, that reduces the budgets of public sector agencies by a certain percentage.</p>
<p>The current efficiency dividend is 1.5%, but the Coalition has promised to boost the figure to 2% for the next three years, with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-17/cuts-public-sector-spending-coalition-policy-costings-election/101072270">saying</a>:</p>
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<p>What we are doing is offsetting that spending with an increase in the efficiency dividend by half a per cent, which will raise more than A$2.3 billion […] The annual departmental bill across the Commonwealth is about $327 billion. What we’re saying is it will be reduced to about $324 billion, as a result of this additional measure.</p>
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<p>Across-the-board cuts to the public service via the so-called efficiency dividend represent a blunt instrument to achieve budgetary savings. </p>
<p>They have been used by both sides of politics over the years. They allow politicians to avoid taking responsibility for cuts on the pretence they are only about efficiency and that the public sector agency heads can manage them with no impact on services to the public.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/elections-used-to-be-about-costings-heres-what-changed-183095">Elections used to be about costings. Here's what changed</a>
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<p>But many reviews, including by <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2012-2013/EfficiencyDividend">parliamentary committees</a>, have revealed the efficiency dividend often does impact the level and quality of services, particularly for smaller agencies and particularly over time.</p>
<p>It can lead to increased charges, reduced services (for example, the Bureau of Statistics’ Year Book no longer comes out annually) and increased waiting times. </p>
<p>While Labor has strongly criticised the Coalition’s proposed increase in the dividend, its criticism is a little hollow as it has <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7742402/labor-vows-no-spending-cuts-to-aps/?cs=14230">said</a> it will retain it.</p>
<p>Labor is also <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/187834-election-2022-labor-will-cut-3b-from-aps-consultant-spend-and-hire-more-staff/">proposing</a> an additional cut in spending on administrative expenses through cuts to funding of consultants, contractors and labour hire – only some of which will be redirected to new public service positions.</p>
<h2>The Thodey report</h2>
<p>Of course, taxpayers should expect the public service to pursue efficiencies and increased productivity – administrative expenses should not be automatically increased in line with increases in input costs. In particular, there is scope to use technology better to drive down costs and improve service provision.</p>
<p>But this requires new investments as recommended by an <a href="https://www.apsreview.gov.au/news/final-report-independent-review-released">independent review</a> of the Australian public service, led by David Thodey AO.</p>
<p>Following the Thodey report’s release in 2019, the government agreed to an audit of its current IT investments but we are yet to see that audit. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/sports-rorts-shows-the-government-misunderstands-the-public-service-130796">'Sports rorts' shows the government misunderstands the public service</a>
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<p>Nor has any mention been made of new investments that might deliver the efficiencies the government expects, let alone achieve the improved services Thodey was looking for.</p>
<p>In the absence of a more nuanced and targeted approach to efficiency gains, there a the risk of further reducing the capability of the public service. </p>
<p>It is likely to mean further reducing resources for longer-term research and being less able to enhance public service wages where there is a need to attract key skills (such as in information technology).</p>
<h2>A lazy cost-saving measure</h2>
<p>While Labor and the unions are highlighting the likely impact on public service numbers, I would be less concerned on that score if the measure was genuinely about efficiency.</p>
<p>The concern I have is that this is not only a lazy cost-saving measure: it also reflects antipathy towards the public service as an institution.</p>
<p>We have seen this before with the <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/independent-review-aps.pdf">imposition of staffing caps</a>, in addition to the caps on administrative expenses. These have forced greater use of consultants and labour hire, even where this is less efficient than using public servants.</p>
<p>And we have seen it in the <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7535285/senate-committees-report-a-missed-chance-for-real-reform/">rejection</a> of key Thodey report recommendations, not only about removing the staffing caps but also about enhancing the role of the public service commissioner. This would have ensured more merit-based senior appointments and a more appropriate way of setting pay and conditions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Podger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many reviews over the years have revealed the efficiency dividend often does impact the level and quality of services, particularly for smaller agencies and particularly over time.Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1808632022-04-07T10:40:15Z2022-04-07T10:40:15ZGrattan on Friday: A new government would bring changes for the bureaucrats in the Canberra ‘bubble’<p>With a change of government a real prospect according to the opinion polls, public servants are starting to gossip about what an Albanese administration would mean for them. </p>
<p>For Canberra’s bureaucrats, it’s been a cold climate in the Morrison years. The prime minister told them early on to concentrate on implementation, not advice – at least not advice of any freewheeling kind. </p>
<p>Morrison’s notion of the “Canberra bubble”, with its negative connotation of being separate from the real world, embraces public servants as well as journalists. His government’s view of the bureaucracy is also influenced by Canberra being a Labor town – all three House of Representatives seats have ALP members. Ministers know the bureaucrats that come to their offices are likely Labor voters.</p>
<p>Admittedly, the pandemic softened the government’s attitudes to a degree. In particular, it was heavily reliant on treasury advice as it battled to keep the economy afloat. </p>
<p>A majority of public servants would likely view a Labor government positively (or at least welcome a change), although there would be some high-profile losers. </p>
<p>The occupant of the most powerful public service job in the country – secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – would change quickly. </p>
<p>Phil Gaetjens, the present secretary, who was a former chief of staff to Morrison, and then head of treasury, has been highly controversial in the position. </p>
<p>Morrison has used him essentially for political jobs, such as the investigation into who in the PM’s office knew what when about the Brittany Higgins rape allegation (an inquiry which never ended, at least publicly). </p>
<p>The secretary of PM&C is seen as having a responsibility to stand up for the public service generally, as well as the role of serving the PM. Gaetjens’ critics would say he has failed to do the former. </p>
<p>Presumably Gaetjens would quit of his own accord, not waiting to be sacked, if Labor won. </p>
<p>One name speculated as a possible replacement is Mike Mrdak, a former secretary of the infrastructure department under both Labor (when Anthony Albanese was his minister) and the Coalition. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gains-for-labor-in-three-post-budget-polls-as-budget-has-weak-response-compared-with-historical-record-180673">Gains for Labor in three post-budget polls, as budget has weak response compared with historical record</a>
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<p>Mrdak was one of a batch of secretaries given their marching orders in late 2019, when he headed the communications department, and he’s now in the private sector. </p>
<p>If Mrdak was appointed secretary of the PM’s department it would be a sort of parallel with the experience of Martin Parkinson, who was sacked as Treasury secretary by Tony Abbott, and later appointed by Malcolm Turnbull to head PM&C. </p>
<p>While Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy is mentioned by some as a possible head of PM&C, Jim Chalmers, who’d be Labor’s treasurer, would be anxious to keep him – and it would be counterproductive for Albanese to move him out of such a vital position in uncertain economic times. </p>
<p>The position of secretary of the finance department will be vacant whoever wins – Rosemary Huxtable has been intending to retire for some time. </p>
<p>A strong contender would be Jenny Wilkinson, a deputy secretary in Treasury, who previously headed the Parliamentary Budget Office. Her appointment would have the incidental advantage of replacing a woman with a woman. Also mentioned is David Fredericks, who is secretary of the industry department.</p>
<p>Eyes would be on what happened to the secretary of the foreign affairs and trade department, Kathryn Campbell. She came to her present role after being embroiled in the Robodebt disaster. It’s unlikely that Penny Wong, who would be foreign minister, and Campbell would be simpatico. </p>
<p>At Senate estimates last week, Wong pointedly asked Campbell, who was appointed last year, how she saw “the role of both foreign policy and diplomacy” in “advancing Australia’s interests and values”, in a probing inquisition that appeared rather uncomfortable for the secretary.</p>
<p>And what about Brendan Murphy? He was brought in as secretary of the health department by minister Greg Hunt, and was on the frontline of the vaccine rollout, of which Labor was very critical. Labor sees Murphy as politicised and anyway would probably be inclined to someone with a stronger policy background.</p>
<p>The implications for the public service of a change of government would be far wider than the fate of individuals. </p>
<p>Labor has said it would cut back on the use of outside consultants and contractors for public service work. The Morrison government uses these extensively, for a range of reasons – both ideological and as a way of containing public service numbers (although not necessarily costs, because outsourcing can be very expensive). In some cases, it is also a matter of handing work to mates. </p>
<p>Given how squeezed the bureaucracy is, less outsourcing would inevitably mean an increase in public service numbers. A Labor government would be expected to be less tough on wage rises, although tight finances would constrain it. </p>
<p>Labor would also go back to the Thodey review on public service reform. The Morrison government rejected key recommendations that would have put some guard rails around its behaviour in relation to the senior levels of the public service. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-election-expert-antony-green-on-the-election-map-180676">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Election expert Antony Green on the election map</a>
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<p>Andrew Podger, a former public service commissioner, urges that a Labor government should “strengthen the degree of independence of the public service” (recognising that independence can’t be unlimited, because it is there to serve the government of the day).</p>
<p>Public service independence has been undermined by the pressures of “professional politics”, Podger says. These include the role of ministerial staff, the pressure on senior bureaucrats to “please” their ministers, and the control by ministerial offices over the bureaucracy’s communications and publications and its engagement with external organisations including academia.</p>
<p>But would Labor want to dramatically change these things, which would mean ceding some of the tight control their ministers’ offices would otherwise have? </p>
<p>As Podger observes, “You can see the professional politics as much on the Labor side as the Liberal side”, with frontbenchers having had roles in political offices where they were in effect “apprentice politicians” waiting for seats. </p>
<p>Podger nevertheless welcomes comments by the shadow minister for the public service, Katy Gallagher, that Labor would revisit Thodey recommendations including to strengthen the role of the Public Service Commission. </p>
<p>He also hopes some on the Coalition side holding more traditional conservative views would support measures to strengthen the Westminster institution of the civil service.</p>
<p>But under a continued Morrison prime ministership any fundamental change of attitude would seem improbable.</p>
<p>When the election is called, the government goes into caretaker mode, during which by convention major decisions are not taken (except in consultation with the opposition). </p>
<p>Once the caretaker period starts the public servants begin compiling the “red” and “blue” books – the bureaucratic advice on the implementation of the opposition and government’s policies. If Labor wins, the new ministers will find those red books on their freshly polished desks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180863/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With a change of government a real prospect according to the opinion polls, public servants are starting to gossip about what an Albanese administration would mean for them. For Canberra’s bureaucrats…Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1780122022-03-02T18:40:59Z2022-03-02T18:40:59ZVolodymyr Zelensky’s appeal lies in his service to Ukrainians above all else<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449313/original/file-20220301-13-3a4tmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4170%2C2862&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to supporters after the second round of presidential elections in Kyiv, Ukraine, in April 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/volodymyr-zelensky-s-appeal-lies-in-his-service-to-ukrainians-above-all-else" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>To gain popular appeal among voters, political elites routinely cast themselves in the role of a servant leader — that is, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310380462">someone who sets aside self-interest in favour of serving others</a>. For the servant leader, the office they occupy is not intended to capture and maintain power, but rather to advance the interests of the constituents they serve.</p>
<p>There’s no better example of this at the moment than Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.</p>
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<p>His commitment to Ukraine and Ukrainians is at odds with many recent examples from across the ideological spectrum of political elites claiming to function as servant leaders while exhibiting wholly contradictory behaviours.</p>
<p>Take California Gov. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/us/elections/french-laundry-newsom.html">Gavin Newsom’s decision to attend a group dinner at the tony French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic</a>, when he was advising his state’s residents to stay home as a public health precaution. Or British Prime Minister <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-59577129">Boris Johnson’s attendance at a party when the country was under a stay-at-home order</a>.</p>
<p>These examples suggest that although they may claim otherwise, political leaders consider themselves to be part of a distinct, elite class for whom the rules that govern ordinary citizens do not apply. Indeed, their behaviour is predicated on the underlying belief that constituents ought to do as leaders say and not as they do.</p>
<h2>Courage of his convictions</h2>
<p>Not so for Zelensky, who’s captured the admiration of the world in large part by aligning his rhetoric with his actions during the Russian invasion of his country.</p>
<p>Comparing Zelensky’s words with his conduct in recent years shows how he’s the quintessential servant leader even under the most precarious of circumstances.</p>
<p>In May 2019, in his inaugural address after being elected president, Zelensky alluded to the importance of political office-holders performing as servant leaders. Under his leadership, he hoped to establish Ukraine as a country where, <a href="https://en.hromadske.ua/posts/full-text-of-volodymyr-zelenskyys-first-speech-as-president-of-ukraine">in his words</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Everybody is equal before the law and where the rules of the game are honest and transparent [and] are the same for everyone. And for this to happen, people who want to serve the nation need to take office.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While political leaders often make such lofty claims, rarely are they practised through their actions.</p>
<p>When Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, his intention was clear: to overthrow Zelensky’s democratically elected government and establish a puppet regime in favour of the Kremlin. With this objective in mind, the Russian military set its sight on Kyiv, and Zelensky immediately became “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/25/russia-ukraine-president-zelensky-family-target/">Target No. 1</a>.” </p>
<p>In a show of moral fortitude and unwavering courage, Zelensky refused to flee Kyiv. As the violence crept closer to the capital in the days that followed, and with Zelensky’s life under threat, U.S. President Joe Biden offered to evacuate him from Ukraine. Rejecting the offer, the Ukrainian president responded with his now famous line: “<a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/world/i-need-ammunition-not-a-ride-zelensky-turns-down-u-s-evacuation-offer">I need ammunition, not a ride</a>.”</p>
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<img alt="A man in a T-shirt is seen talking on a screen in a large meeting hall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449319/original/file-20220301-19-2o320r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449319/original/file-20220301-19-2o320r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449319/original/file-20220301-19-2o320r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449319/original/file-20220301-19-2o320r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449319/original/file-20220301-19-2o320r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449319/original/file-20220301-19-2o320r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449319/original/file-20220301-19-2o320r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Volodymyr Zelensky addresses European parliament in Brussels on March 1, 2022, from Kyiv, where he has remained throughout Russia’s invasion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)</span></span>
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<h2>Placing himself at risk</h2>
<p>Zelensky’s decision to remain in Kyiv is both exceptional and profound. There are few recent examples of political elites willing to put themselves at risk personally for the collective good — <a href="https://leadx.org/articles/servant-leadership-definition-examples-characteristics/#:%7E:text=You%20don't%20have%20to,of%20the%20most%20well%2Dknown.">Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa are some servant leaders of the past</a>. His decision exemplifies the spirit of servant leadership. </p>
<p>Zelensky has asked Ukrainian men and women to confront the invaders and to defend their country. In a last-ditch attempt to dissuade Putin on the eve of the invasion, he said: “When you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs.”</p>
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<p>Consistent with servant leaders who relegate their own self-interest in order to protect the interests of the people they serve, Zelensky stayed put to be part of the country’s resistance. He asked nothing of citizens that he wasn’t determined to do himself.</p>
<p>To be sure, many ordinary Ukrainians have heeded the call to defend their country against the invasion from the military superpower. Their individual and collective heroism should not be negated. </p>
<p>But for the citizenry’s resolve to resist and persevere against the Russian occupation, it’s critical to have a political leader who is standing alongside the people, serving them in leading by example. During the country’s darkest hours, Zelensky has shown himself a man for the people, of the people — not just in rhetoric, but more importantly, in action.</p>
<p>The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. While the Ukrainian president’s fate remains uncertain, one outcome is clear: Zelensky’s embodiment as a servant leader during this time of crisis means he will either live on as a hero or die a martyr. He has shown the world what it means to be a leader whose foremost commitment is to the citizens he serves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ajnesh Prasad receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canada Research Chairs program.. </span></em></p>During Ukraine’s darkest hours, Volodymyr Zelensky has shown himself to be a man for the people, of the people — not just in rhetoric, but more importantly, in action.Ajnesh Prasad, Canada Research Chair, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1769442022-02-24T15:12:42Z2022-02-24T15:12:42ZJournalism has changed. Education must reflect the reality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446241/original/file-20220214-97814-ojdbvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C52%2C528%2C325&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Traditional media, particularly print, are in decline as audiences move online.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick Meinhardt / AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For more than a century, journalism education prepared young people for the role of full-time professionals employed by sizeable news organisations. But the advertising-based business model that sustained journalism is collapsing because of new technology, and jobs of the old kind are becoming scarce. The educational model, too, must change to accommodate the new realities. </p>
<p>Traditional media – particularly print – are in decline as audiences move online and revenue streams follow them to platform giants like Google and Facebook. As a result, titles have had to close and journalists have been retrenched. Sub-Saharan Africa, too, is affected by these global trends, as reflected in recent reports <a href="https://journalism.co.za/resources/state-of-the-newsroom/">on South Africa</a>, <a href="https://internews.org/wp-content/uploads/legacy/2021-03/KMAReport_Final_20210325.pdf">Kenya</a> and <a href="https://medialandscapes.org/country/nigeria">Nigeria</a>.</p>
<p>The demand for journalism graduates is shrinking, while non-professionals play an increasing role in supplying society with information. As I argue in a <a href="https://shorensteincenter.org/disrupted-media-disrupted-academy-rethinking-african-j-schools/">new paper</a>, journalism schools need to reorientate their courses to new kinds of students and adjust the curriculum for the new post-professional world of journalism. If they do not, they risk becoming irrelevant – if they do, a host of new opportunities present themselves.</p>
<h2>Teaching for a professional role</h2>
<p>Historically, journalism teaching emerged just over a century ago as journalists began to claim the status of professionals. The first journalism school in the US was founded in <a href="https://journalism.missouri.edu/the-j-school/the-j-school-legacy/">1908 at the University of Missouri</a>. Since then, students have enrolled in journalism courses expecting to obtain the necessary skills and knowledge to work as full-time professionals in a newsroom. </p>
<p>In Africa, too, journalism and communication schools have become common.</p>
<p>Researcher Alan Finlay writes in the introduction of <a href="https://journalism.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Mapping-Africa-Training-Centres-V6_09122020.pdf">a recent mapping study</a>: </p>
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<p>Journalism education and training in sub-Saharan Africa is flourishing.</p>
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<p>The study counted a total of 127 education providers in 19 countries, though he acknowledges that the exercise was limited. </p>
<p>But today’s journalism students are less likely to find full-time jobs as professional journalists. In the Global North, journalism has become “post-industrial, entrepreneurial and atypical”, as Dutch scholar <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Deuze2/publication/318780756_What_journalism_becomes/links/5bf8086ea6fdcc53881544cf/What-journalism-becomes.pdf">Mark Deuze</a> puts it. </p>
<p>The industrial age of journalistic media, with news produced by full-time professionals, looks like it is ending. Journalists are more likely to have to behave like entrepreneurs in the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0950017018785616">gig economy</a>, moving from one short-term contract to the next. It is a precarious existence.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/false-story-about-decuplets-was-a-low-point-for-journalism-how-to-fix-the-damage-163814">False story about decuplets was a low point for journalism: how to fix the damage</a>
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<p>In Africa, journalism has been precarious for longer and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/tanzania-lifts-ban-four-newspapers-2022-02-10/">for other reasons</a>. Political pressures and fragile media economies mean that working for independent media is often freelance, with low and uncertain pay.</p>
<p>However, new opportunities emerge if journalism is thought of less as a profession, but rather as a practice. <a href="https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8N01JS7">A report from the Tow Centre</a> says </p>
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<p>the journalism industry is dead but … journalism exists in many places.</p>
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<p>Journalism, in the sense of finding, sifting and sharing important information, remains of crucial importance. But it is no longer under the sole control of professional journalists. News organisations remain important, but have to accept they are no longer information monopolies. Reliable information remains essential for societies to work, but it is produced by a range of people, not all of them in traditional newsrooms. </p>
<p>Others contribute kinds of journalism to the information ecosystem: a South African maths teacher, Sugan Naidoo, for instance, has made it his business to publish daily summaries of COVID-19 data <a href="https://twitter.com/sugan2503">on Twitter</a>. There is no indication he sees himself as a journalist, but his posts are more journalistic than some stories – such as that about <a href="https://theconversation.com/false-story-about-decuplets-was-a-low-point-for-journalism-how-to-fix-the-damage-163814">South Africa’s fictional decuplets</a> last year – and some other material published by mainstream media.</p>
<p>The quality of the information published matters a great deal – one of the challenges of the social media world is the amount of misinformation available. The difficulty of telling rubbish from worthwhile information has bred distrust of journalism. And that is where the crisis offers journalism schools in Africa – and arguably elsewhere – an opportunity.</p>
<h2>Reimagining journalism training</h2>
<p>Young people wanting to become full-time journalists are no longer the only people who want and need to learn journalistic skills. Others include people in community media, media entrepreneurs and “accidental journalists” – people who don’t see themselves as journalists but who contribute worthwhile information. At the same time, there is a substantial need for working journalists to update their skill sets for a rapidly changing world.</p>
<p>As the shrinking job market in many countries discourages young people from entering the field, there are also practical reasons for identifying new types of potential students. New groups of students bring fee income from new directions into cash-strapped universities.</p>
<p>Journalism schools also need to think about the curriculum. There is a need for old-school skills like verification and the ability to work out what is publicly important or “newsworthy”. There is a need for new technical skills, from <a href="https://datajournalism.com/read/handbook/one/introduction/what-is-data-journalism">data journalism</a> to podcasting and artificial intelligence. </p>
<p>Importantly, an expanded approach to journalism education is not just about technical skills, it must include critical thinking and self-awareness, while centring on established values of independence and public service. Journalism may emerge in all kinds of contexts, but unless it contributes value to public discussion it is simply noise. That is what sets it apart from other forms of communication.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/decolonising-peace-journalism-and-putting-it-to-work-in-east-africa-139219">Decolonising peace journalism -- and putting it to work in East Africa</a>
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<p>Overall, journalism schools have obligations that go beyond producing the next generation of young journalists. They can and should consider much more broadly what they can do to sustain and improve the health of the information systems around them. In African countries, the responsibility is particularly acute as there may be few other institutions able to play such a role. Research and an involvement in public discussion of media issues are just some of the ways they can contribute, and many already do so.</p>
<p>New opportunities and challenges will continue to emerge, and the task of reinvention will be ongoing. To remain relevant, journalism schools need to combine flexibility with a firm sense of society’s central and continuing need for reliable information.</p>
<p><em>This article is based on <a href="https://shorensteincenter.org/disrupted-media-disrupted-academy-rethinking-african-j-schools/">a paper</a> written as a fellow of the <a href="https://shorensteincenter.org/">Shorenstein Centre</a> for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Governance.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research for this paper was supported through a fellowship from the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Governance._</span></em></p>Today’s journalism students are less likely to find full-time jobs as professional journalists. The craft has become ‘post-industrial’, entrepreneurial and atypical.Franz Krüger, Adjunct Professor of Journalism and Director of the Wits Radio Academy, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1720572021-11-24T19:04:35Z2021-11-24T19:04:35ZBullying and harassment are rife in the public service: here’s what to do about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433312/original/file-20211123-15-s34nuo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bullying and harassment can happen in any workplace, and the law is clear about the obligations on both managers and workers to avoid it. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www7.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fwa2009114/">Fair Work Act</a> defines workplace bullying as repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker that creates a risk to health and safety. It does not include performance management carried out in a reasonable manner. </p>
<p>Bullying doesn’t only damage the mental and physical health of employees. There is also strong <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0090261609000722?via%3Dihub">evidence</a> that it weakens institutions, undermines productivity and innovation, and poisons workplace culture. When bullying happens in a public sector workplace, it undermines the ability of public services to deliver for government.</p>
<p>In a paper published on the Institute for Public Administration Australia I explore bullying and harassment in public sector workplaces across Australia <a href="https://www.ipaa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Harassment-and-bullying-in-the-public-sector-in-Australia_FIN.pdf">link text</a> . </p>
<p>States and territories provide a lot of information about their jurisdictions and their strategies to address bullying. In recent years, the Commonwealth has started doing the same. In a positive step for transparency, the Australian Public Service Commission has uploaded the 2020 <a href="https://www.ipaa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Harassment-and-bullying-in-the-public-sector-in-Australia_FIN.pdf">staff census results</a> for 70 Australian Public Service departments and agencies to its website. </p>
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<h2>Bullying is rife, but public servants are reluctant to report it</h2>
<p>The vast majority of public servants behave respectfully and civilly to their colleagues. But the surveys show bullying is significantly more widespread than codes of conduct or workers’ compensation claims suggest. </p>
<p>In the Australian Public Service, for example, at most only one public servant in every 1,500 has a code of conduct finding against them for bullying or harassment. But almost one public servant in five says they have been (or may have been) bullied or harassed in the past year.</p>
<p>Staff identify three types of bad behaviour. By far the most common is verbal abuse, such as offensive language, derogatory remarks, being ignored, and shouting.</p>
<p>This is followed by interference in work tasks, such as withholding needed information, undermining or sabotage. </p>
<p>The third most common form is the unfair application of work policies or rules, such as performance management and access to leave or training. </p>
<p>Many public servants have a story about the yelling or bullying colleague or boss. </p>
<p>The pattern is similar across states and territories. There is variation, depending on the jurisdiction and agency. Staff who identify as having a disability, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander or as LGBTIQ+ and those working in front-line jobs or in regional locations are overrepresented. </p>
<p>The state results show staff experience bullying from their peers, immediate manager and senior leaders. However, most do not report it. That’s because they think it won’t change things, or will upset the workplace, or hurt their careers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cyberbullying-widespread-amongst-public-servants-53281">Cyberbullying widespread amongst public servants</a>
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<h2>What needs to happen?</h2>
<p>These rates of bullying are unacceptable and public service commissions are actively working to reduce it, with some success. Yet there is scope to do more, especially in a public sector workforce that is exhausted from COVID-19 and needs to recruit and retain talent to meet government and community expectations.</p>
<p>The place to start is to acknowledge the problem and put respect in the workplace in a major campaign. By committing to at least halve rates of bullying within five years, public service commissions would signal they are serious about improving behaviour and attracting new talent. They could also ensure accessible and confidential support for those who experience bullying, regardless of whether they make a formal complaint.</p>
<p>The next step is to identify and celebrate respect and civility. Some jurisdictions are underdone in terms of engaging about what sort of behaviour and interaction is right in the workplace, and how to manage staff and teams. The codes being developed by Safe Work Australia, formal management training, and events and awards celebrating good behaviour are all opportunities to change this.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-brittany-higgins-will-the-foster-review-prevent-another-serious-incident-at-parliament-162182">After Brittany Higgins: will the Foster review prevent another 'serious incident' at parliament?</a>
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<p>The third step is to make organisational changes that strengthen incentives for respect. These include full 360-degree performance assessment of all managers, with explicit separate ratings in every public servant’s performance assessment of the outcomes they achieved and how those outcomes were achieved. People who perform poorly in how they achieve outcomes should be denied promotion.</p>
<p>Public service commissions need to inquire into agencies with consistently or materially above-average rates of bullying, and use an independent person or body to take informal and formal complaints about bullying outside the normal institutional hierarchy. Unless the system applies to everyone, it won’t be effective.</p>
<p>The fourth step is to follow through with rewards and sanctions. When public servants sees people who systematically behave badly not being promoted, getting demoted or losing their job, behaviour will change.</p>
<p>Finally, all this needs transparency and collaboration. Being clear about which institutions are behind and how they can change, and providing public analysis, will have impact.</p>
<p>These suggestions would lift respectful behaviour within the public service. It is also worth extending to public servants the counselling, reporting and resolution processes adopted by the <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/review-parliamentary-workplace-responding-serious-incidents-final.pdf">Commonwealth Parliament</a> in relation to serious incidents of harassment in the parliamentary workplace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gordon de Brouwer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New data show bullying is widespread in the public service, with many reluctant to report it. There are several key ways to change this.Gordon de Brouwer, Professor of Economics (Crawford School of Public Policy and the College of Business and Economics) and National President IPAA, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1704362021-11-10T16:18:35Z2021-11-10T16:18:35ZConsulting firms are the ‘shadow public service’ managing the response to COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431185/original/file-20211109-27-jcqn06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3936%2C2292&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As governments depend on multinational consulting firms not just for advice on COVID-19 but for core policy-making functions, we should question the extent to which such partnerships have really augmented government capacities — or hollowed them out. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/consulting-firms-are-the--shadow-public-service--managing-the-response-to-covid-19" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>In March 2020, as governments were implementing lockdown mandates at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the consulting firm McKinsey <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2021/02/09/mckinsey-won-1-6-million-contract-after-cold-call-to-premiers-office/">made a call</a> to someone in the Ontario premier’s office. Soon after, the firm was put in charge of setting up the Ontario government’s pandemic command structure — at a price of $1.6 million. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A woman with dark hair sits at a desk behind a microphone with a large binder in front of her and flags behind her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431183/original/file-20211109-19-s5ev38.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431183/original/file-20211109-19-s5ev38.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431183/original/file-20211109-19-s5ev38.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431183/original/file-20211109-19-s5ev38.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431183/original/file-20211109-19-s5ev38.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431183/original/file-20211109-19-s5ev38.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431183/original/file-20211109-19-s5ev38.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bonnie Lysyk, auditor general of Ontario, answers questions during a news conference on her annual report in December 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span>
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<p>The story drew public attention months later when the auditor general of Ontario published a <a href="https://www.auditor.on.ca/en/content/specialreports/specialreports/COVID-19_ch1EMO_en20.pdf">damning report</a>, arguing that the pandemic response was being led by political staff instead of public health experts. The reliance on consultants, she maintained, resulted in needlessly complex structures, delays and a totally fragmented response. </p>
<p>This has happened a lot, more often than Canadians are aware. Since the start of the pandemic, the federal and provincial governments have turned to private consultants, who have little or no prior expertise in public health, granting them substantial responsibility and influence in managing the pandemic response. </p>
<p>Indeed, spending on consultants increased dramatically with the onset of the pandemic. In March 2021, <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/costs-for-consultants-hired-by-government-rise-by-6-billion-under-liberals">the federal government estimated annual spending on third-party consultants would rise to $16.4 billion</a> per year by 2022, up from $10.4 billion in 2016. </p>
<p>Two months later, <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/third-party-consultancy-fees-paid-by-federal-government-to-leap-another-1-3-billion">the estimate was revised</a> to $17.7 billion, signifying a further increase in the already ballooning costs spent on consultancy services.</p>
<h2>Taking stock following crises</h2>
<p>It’s perhaps not surprising that consulting firms have played such a key role during the pandemic. After a major crisis, governments often turn to consulting firms to take stock, assessing how they might do things better. </p>
<p>Along these lines, governments across Canada have commissioned these firms to provide advice on issues such as the impact of the pandemic on <a href="https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-20-00915494">Canadian industry</a>, the capacities of the national <a href="https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/award-notice/PW-21-00944821-001">biomanufacturing sector</a>, as well as assessing the <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/after-delay-alberta-releases-third-party-review-into-first-wave-pandemic-response">first wave response</a> of governments and the governance of <a href="https://archive.news.gov.bc.ca/releases/news_releases_2020-2024/2021HLTH0019-000129.htm">long-term care homes</a>.</p>
<p>Yet what’s distinctive about these firms today is the sheer scope and the scale at which they are intervening in policy-making.</p>
<p>Beyond providing ad hoc advice to governments, these firms are increasingly engaged in core aspects of governance, including developing the strategies and implementing the structures and processes through which the pandemic response has been organized.</p>
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<img alt="A pedestrian walks past a blue and white Deloitte sign." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431182/original/file-20211109-13-n8gk9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431182/original/file-20211109-13-n8gk9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431182/original/file-20211109-13-n8gk9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431182/original/file-20211109-13-n8gk9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431182/original/file-20211109-13-n8gk9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431182/original/file-20211109-13-n8gk9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431182/original/file-20211109-13-n8gk9f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A pedestrian walks past a Deloitte sign in downtown Ottawa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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<p>For example, while McKinsey developed Ontario’s pandemic response command structure, Deloitte has played a major role in setting up Québec’s COVID-19 <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/covid-19-screening-quebec-dube-health-minister-1.5772541">screening system</a>, developing the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-19-vaccine-task-force-deloitte-consulting-1.5909515">vaccination campaign</a> in Ontario and, perhaps most noteworthy, managing the vaccine rollout federally in a lucrative <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-deloitte-to-track-canadas-vaccine-efforts/">$16 million contract</a>.</p>
<p>The changing scale of consulting operations is also notable, with <a href="http://www.cba.org/cba/cle/PDF/constr10_swick_paper.pdf">sole-sourced contracts</a> going to transnational professional service firms with immense organizational footprints. Indeed, the so-called Big Four firms — Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and Ernst & Young (EY) — have significantly extended their range of operations as they’ve pivoted from advising to professional services and IT infrastructures. </p>
<h2>Consulting firms now tech companies</h2>
<p>As noted in <a href="http://www.canadian-accountant.com/content/business/why-deloitte-canada-won-ottawa-s-lucrative-vaccine-platform-contract"><em>The Canadian Accountant</em></a>, Deloitte’s vaccine contracts show these firms “are no longer strictly auditors but technology companies as well.” </p>
<p>And while the field remains diverse, <a href="https://www.ibisworld.com/canada/market-research-reports/management-consulting-industry/">there is evidence</a> these firms have been able to consolidate their influence through <a href="https://medium.com/evergreen-business-weekly/scale-as-competitive-advantage-when-scale-is-your-ultimate-weapon-and-how-to-use-it-917d0d0c58d5">scale advantages</a>, changing procurement practices and mergers and acquisitions. </p>
<p>As of 2020, Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and EY employed more than <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/250503/big-four-accounting-firms-number-of-employees/">1,148,000 people</a> in 150 countries. Through operating at such a scale, they command a significant degree of power and are capable of mobilizing personnel around the world.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431184/original/file-20211109-27-epl2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ernst & Young is spelled out vertically in red neon lights on the side of a building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431184/original/file-20211109-27-epl2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431184/original/file-20211109-27-epl2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431184/original/file-20211109-27-epl2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431184/original/file-20211109-27-epl2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431184/original/file-20211109-27-epl2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431184/original/file-20211109-27-epl2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431184/original/file-20211109-27-epl2tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The headquarters for Ernst & Young (known as EY) accounting firm in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)</span></span>
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<p>They form a “<a href="https://pipsc.ca/news-issues/outsourcing">shadow public service</a>” instrumental in designing and implementing policies, according to a report from the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, but there is almost <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-makes-its-own-rules">no oversight or accountability</a>. </p>
<p>The organization also notes these firms play by “an entirely different set of rules: they are not hired based on merit, representation, fairness or transparency; they are not subject to budget restraints or hiring freezes; and they are not accountable to the Canadian public.” </p>
<p>Currently, many governments are refusing to disclose either the contracts or the services produced by these firms in response to access-to-information requests. For instance, in response to our requests to the province of Ontario in June, we were informed that McKinsey contracts and deliverables were being withheld on the basis of cabinet discretion (Sec. 12 of the <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90f31/v47#BK24">Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act</a>). </p>
<h2>‘Scant expertise’ in public health</h2>
<p>So we’re unable to determine the reasoning behind why these firms — with scant expertise in public health — came to assume responsibility for managing the pandemic response, or to understand the nature of the services they’re providing, often through sole-sourced contracts. </p>
<p>The evidence is not very promising. </p>
<p>For instance, Alberta’s $4.3 million contact-tracing app was launched by Deloitte in May 2020, despite major <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/12/trump-vaccine-tracking-system-412968">documented problems</a> with the firms’ work on a similar system in the United States. That raises questions about why Deloitte won the contract.</p>
<p>As of October 2021, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/158-albertans-with-covid-19-reported-their-illness-to-province-s-multimillion-dollar-app-1.6202636">just 158 people</a> out of 306,000 had reportedly entered positive test results into the app.</p>
<p>As governments come to depend on these firms not just for advice but for core policy-making functions, we should question the extent to which such partnerships have really augmented government capacities — or hollowed them out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170436/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since the beginning of the pandemic, governments in Canada have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on outside consulting firms like McKinsey, Deloitte and EY with almost no public oversight.Chris Hurl, Assistant Professor, Dept of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia UniversityLeah Barrett Werner, Research Assistant, Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1668282021-09-16T20:09:23Z2021-09-16T20:09:23ZChief health officers are in the spotlight like never before. Here’s what goes on behind the scenes<p>Until COVID-19, few people knew anything about Australia’s chief medical officer or the state and territories’ chief health officers. Now they are front and centre of the news cycle.</p>
<p>But media coverage misses the nuances of the role. We see people with particular skills and personalities. Yet, each of the offices and officers is embedded in a particular institutional and historical context, which drives their role.</p>
<p>We are involved in <a href="https://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2021/08/17/jech-2021-216850.abstract">an international study</a> to look at their role during the pandemic in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada. Here’s what we’ve found so far from the Australian data.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-year-as-victorias-deputy-chief-health-officer-on-the-pandemic-press-conferences-and-our-covid-future-166164">My year as Victoria's deputy chief health officer: on the pandemic, press conferences and our COVID future</a>
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<h2>Remind me, who are they?</h2>
<p>In Australia, the chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, is the principal medical adviser to the federal health minister and health department. So he has the overarching bureaucratic responsibility for Australia’s federal health response to the pandemic.</p>
<p>For the states and territories, the chief health officers have that overarching responsibility.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has seen all assuming regular slots in press conferences. They are constantly under the microscope of the millions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/now-everyones-a-statistician-heres-what-armchair-covid-experts-are-getting-wrong-144494">epidemiologist wannabes</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1400230255529381891"}"></div></p>
<p>COVID-19 has shown how contested their roles are. Are they public servants who act on behalf of the government? Or ought they be independent from politics, shaping policy to protect public health? Or must they balance the contradictions that come with being both a health professional and a public servant? </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/now-everyones-a-statistician-heres-what-armchair-covid-experts-are-getting-wrong-144494">Now everyone's a statistician. Here's what armchair COVID experts are getting wrong</a>
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<h2>Their legal powers can help or hinder</h2>
<p>Legislation in each jurisdiction gives the chief health officer varying degrees of institutional power. This not only affects their role, but how outbreaks are defined and managed.</p>
<p>In some jurisdictions (<a href="https://www1.health.nsw.gov.au/pds/ActivePDSDocuments/PD2019_007.pdf">New South Wales</a>, Queensland, Tasmania, Western Australia) the chief health officers become public health emergency “controllers” for pandemic management.</p>
<p>Qld gives its chief health officer the most power (possibly the most, even internationally). This is partly due to also serving as deputy director-general (a senior position in the bureaucracy). Qld’s chief health officer is also the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-15/queensland-coronavirus-borders-whos-in-charge/12753776">final decision-maker</a> on public health restrictions (most notably borders) “in consultation” with the premier. NSW also holds the director-general position but the premier is the final decision-maker. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1352745248162603008"}"></div></p>
<p>In comparison, Victoria’s chief health officer has neither the deputy director-general role nor “controller” oversight of emergency procedures. </p>
<p>An inquiry into <a href="https://www.quarantineinquiry.vic.gov.au/reports-0">Victorian hotel quarantine</a> concluded this prevented the chief health officer from fulfilling the “controller” position. As a result, certain infection control details <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-16/brett-sutton-victorian-coronavirus-hotel-quarantine-inquiry/12668398">were overlooked</a>, resulting in the outbreak that led to the state’s second wave.</p>
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<p>The chief medical officer at the federal level has arguably the least legislative power of all given the jurisdictional autonomy of the states. The power of this role during the pandemic has mainly come through chairing the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/committees-and-groups/australian-health-protection-principal-committee-ahppc">national committee</a> of state and territory chief health officers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-chief-medical-officer-brendan-murphy-on-covid-19-133362">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy on COVID-19</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>They work with politics, policy and evidence</h2>
<p>Chief medical and health officers work at the interface of politics, policy and health evidence. They are unelected, yet are accountable to ministers, the premier and parliament. They work with the relevant secretaries and ministerial offices. </p>
<p>Whatever their remit, ultimately the buck stops with them. As we’ve seen under COVID-19, they have the power to “stop the nation”. </p>
<p>However, our analysis provides practical insight about how health evidence during the pandemic intersects with political realities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/contrasting-nsw-and-victoria-lockdown-coverage-reveals-much-about-the-politics-of-covid-and-the-media-163482">Contrasting NSW and Victoria lockdown coverage reveals much about the politics of COVID – and the media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>They must be strategic and media savvy</h2>
<p>These officers work within formal pathways to gather and interpret the best available evidence, from say, the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/committees-and-groups/australian-technical-advisory-group-on-immunisation-atagi">Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation</a>.</p>
<p>But communicating evidence is an entirely different matter. More than acting as “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/honest-broker/A41AD4D7D14077165807DBE057B5FAF9">honest brokers</a>” of evidence to policy, their use of evidence needs to be strategic if they are to have influence. And this requires <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-019-0232-y">political acumen</a>.</p>
<p>Elected politicians need to be seen to be in control. When presenting evidence, not all of which will be popular, chief health and medical officers need to anticipate political responses. </p>
<p>They must also be media savvy. The much-watched daily COVID-19 press conferences (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/10/nsw-covid-update-gladys-berejiklian-to-abandon-daily-press-conferences-despite-record-new-cases">recently disbanded in NSW</a>) are well orchestrated. In times of crisis, clarity of messaging is as important as evidence. Image is too. Displaying collegiality across government is necessary visual messaging despite robust negotiations behind the scenes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/calling-brett-sutton-a-chottie-is-not-objectification-but-its-not-feminism-either-144134">Calling Brett Sutton a 'CHOttie' is not objectification – but it's not feminism either</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>They must be bureaucrats, networkers</h2>
<p>As public servants, chief health officers must be excellent networkers and departmental managers. They delegate authority while holding ultimate responsibility for their legislated role. </p>
<p>In their agencies each has put into place management systems to deal with the complexities of the pandemic. Their networks extend to other sectors and agencies. For example, one chief health officer we interviewed explained having to unexpectedly collaborate closely with the police enforcement of public health restrictions. </p>
<p>Quarantine is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-19/who-is-responsible-for-quarantine-in-australia/13070108">under the constitution</a> a federal government responsibility but was agreed to be managed at state level. This source of outbreaks challenged the effectiveness of chief health officers because the mix of public and private involvement compromised effective quarantine management. </p>
<p>Relationships with other chief health officers matter. The virus does not respect state boundaries, however much political leadership claims the contrary.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1301786085182156800"}"></div></p>
<p>Collective decisions, often with massive ramifications, must be made. Trust in the skills and decision making of fellow chief health officers in different jurisdictions is fundamental. </p>
<p>Experience helps, demonstrated by those in NSW and Qld who have held the role the longest. But being relatively new brings dynamism. The early goal of zero transmission was championed by a chief health officer with less experience.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/right-wing-shock-jock-stoush-reveals-the-awful-truth-about-covid-politics-and-media-ratings-164489">Right-wing shock jock stoush reveals the awful truth about COVID, politics and media ratings</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What happens next?</h2>
<p>An unprecedented pandemic has thrust previously faceless bureaucrats and their representatives onto our screens and devices in ways unimaginable even two years ago. </p>
<p>Ultimately, chief health officers have shown they need to balance the mix of public servant and health professional with a nuanced approach to politics. </p>
<p>But individuals are never the whole story. Investment in public health (putting hospitals aside) remains <a href="https://www.phaa.net.au/documents/item/5029">inadequate</a>, for instance. New variants of COVID-19 are also testing a coordinated public health response like never before, chief health officers included.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Harris receives funding from CIHR on a joint project with Canadian and Scottish colleagues called "Senior public health leadership during the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak: Comparative approaches to mitigating the spread of infectious disease and its social consequences in Canada and abroad" . Patrick is the President of the NSW Branch of the Public Health Association of Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aryati Yashadhana receives funding from CIHR on a joint project with Canadian and Scottish colleagues called "Senior public health leadership during the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak: Comparative approaches to mitigating the spread of infectious disease and its social consequences in Canada and abroad.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evelyne de Leeuw receives funding from CIHR on a joint project with Canadian and Scottish colleagues called "Senior public health leadership during the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak: Comparative approaches to mitigating the spread of infectious disease and its social consequences in Canada and abroad" </span></em></p>But media coverage misses the nuances of the role. This is what we found when we spoke to them.Patrick Harris, Senior Research Fellow, Deputy Director, CHETRE, UNSW SydneyAryati Yashadhana, Research Fellow, UNSW SydneyEvelyne de Leeuw, Professor, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1622572021-07-08T14:57:01Z2021-07-08T14:57:01ZWhy payroll fraud in the DRC’s education sector will be hard to fix<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407644/original/file-20210622-28-9b31dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pupils wear face masks in their classroom while a teacher writes on the board at a school in Kinshasa on August 10, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The primary and secondary education sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces massive challenges. These include insufficient budgets, payroll fraud, a lack of infrastructure and teaching material, and poor opportunities for teacher professional development. Educational officials aren’t being held accountable for policy failures.</p>
<p>One of the biggest hurdles has to do with the teacher payroll. In general, the country’s teachers – more than 500,000 – work under dire conditions. In particular, a significant number of school teachers in the DRC have gone <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/teachers-observe-strike-in-dr-congo/2011572">without</a> government pay for several years. Since the early 1990s, parents have been <a href="https://globalpressjournal.com/africa/democratic-republic-of-congo/drc-students-drop-parents-struggle-pay-rising-required-teachers-bonuses/">called upon</a> to step in to support teachers and schools financially by paying substantial school fees. Providing quality education <a href="https://educationanddevelopment.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/cyril-owen-brandt-masterthesis-teachers-struggle-for-income-in-drc1.pdf">isn’t always</a> at the top of teacher priorities as they struggle to supplement their income with other activities. </p>
<p>Two years ago, the government decided to abolish primary school fees. The idea was that the government would pay all teachers. However, drawing on our long engagement with the DRC’s education sector and political system, we believe that this will be a challenge because of political, budgetary and administrative issues. </p>
<p>In April this year, Tony Mwaba, one of the most ferocious critics of corruption in the education sector, was appointed the new minister of education. This followed the <a href="https://www.radiookapi.net/2021/04/30/actualite/justice/rdc-willy-bakonga-condamne-3-ans-de-servitude-penale">conviction</a> of former education officials, including the former minister of education, for corruption and money laundering. </p>
<p>Is this the start of a serious reform of the battered education sector? </p>
<p>We believe that sustainable change in this system would require a thorough restructuring of the mechanisms of political accountability. In the meantime, we can only expect a realignment of existing patronage networks to the political agenda of the current president.</p>
<h2>Patronage networks</h2>
<p>In November 2020, the DRC’s auditor general published a <a href="https://www.mediacongo.net/article-actualite-79332_secope_l_enquete_de_l_igf_revele_la_dilapidation_de_62_milliards_cdf.htm">report</a> which revealed the depths of the payroll crisis. Masses of teachers remained unpaid while new ones were being added to the payroll. There was also an influx of administrative staff, diverting resources from teacher salaries. The report revealed the embezzlement of 62 billion Congolese francs (about US$30 million) and other forms of payroll fraud.</p>
<p>Payroll fraud <a href="https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20210324-la-rdc-recense-ses-fonctionnaires-pour-lutter-contre-les-cumulards-et-emplois-fictifs">permeates</a> the public sector, and this has been a persistent problem in the DRC. The report <a href="https://actualite.cd/2020/11/18/rdc-ligf-decouvert-lexistence-de-faux-arretes-de-recrutement-des-agents-et-de-creation">implicated</a> senior civil servants and staff from the ministries of budget and finance, education and the teachers’ payroll agency. The issue reverberated in the provinces as well. Several officials were <a href="https://actualite.cd/2021/02/09/lomami-le-directeur-provincial-du-secope-aux-arrets">placed under</a> arrest.</p>
<p>The boundary between “state” and “society” has become a twilight area in the DRC, whose dynamics are governed by specific social pressures, economic rents and political considerations. For example, relationships with politicians, due to party affiliation or origin, increase a school’s chances of being added to the payroll. Another example is the attempted removal of 1,179 schools from the payroll. As <a href="https://www.radiookapi.net/2021/04/15/actualite/education/rdc-600-ecoles-conventionnees-catholiques-desactivees-de-la-liste-de">reactions</a> by educational leaders suggest, some of these schools have properly functioned for decades. In the past, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2017.1367920?journalCode=crea20">masses</a> of other schools have obtained their decree via informal processes, void of any educational planning. What is the difference between schools functioning on “false” decrees, and schools functioning on decrees based purely on patronage without any technical preparation and monitoring?</p>
<p>Government actors who benefit from the current structures have few incentives to clean up the payroll. However, teacher union politics also partially explains these continued dynamics. There’s a <a href="https://www.ei-ie.org/fr/item/25128:an-online-union-academy-made-in-dr-congo">lack</a> of strong, independent unions and a lack of trust between teachers and unions. Also the political co-option of union leaders, for example by mobilising them as consultants or by inviting them into party politics, has weakened the unions’ impact. Out of 40 unions, only a handful can be considered to be functioning properly. With a dozen pseudo-unions and a high number of unions which hardly function, Congolese teacher unions have been effectively silenced.</p>
<h2>Possibility of reform?</h2>
<p>Trying to reform human resource and payroll management means taking away a massive resource of patronage and electoral politics from hundreds of bureaucrats and politicians.</p>
<p>Public statements to fight against payroll fraud seem to materialise at strategic moments. In 1979, the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Zaire), Mobutu Sese Seko, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/22/archives/mobutu-says-imf-will-give-zaire-aid-asserts-in-paris-after-talks.html">stated</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re going to wipe out the imaginary schools and the fake teachers who exist only on paper. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Mobutu, it was a way to attract World Bank funding. </p>
<p>So, what was the reason for the most recent announcement? The investigations, and Mwaba’s appointment, are nested within Congolese political dynamics, and it is necessary to look beyond the education sector. </p>
<p>For 15 years, according to our sources, the education ministry functioned as a cash cow for long-term ruler Joseph Kabila’s party. When Félix Tshisekedi was elected president in 2019, in what is seen as a <a href="https://africanarguments.org/2019/01/10/drc-election-results-analysis-implausible/">rigged election</a>, he formed a coalition with Kabila. The investigations and sentences of high-level educational officials sit within Tshisekedi’s much wider use of “<a href="http://democracyinafrica.org/making-sense-of-dr-congos-stunning-political-turnaround/">judicial harassment</a>” against key persons from Kabila’s camp. </p>
<p>Given that Tshisekedi’s coalition remains unstable and based on members of parliament who will “<a href="http://democracyinafrica.org/making-sense-of-dr-congos-stunning-political-turnaround/">condition their support upon payments or extractive opportunities</a>”, he will need all possible sources to gather funds. This is all the more the case as the DRC looks forward to a new round of elections in 2023.</p>
<p>So this is the situation in which the president finds himself: while the judicial investigations and new appointment indicate that using the payroll for patronage purposes is being addressed, now that he’s completely in power himself, Tshisekedi might be tempted to deviate from the norms through which he won his position. </p>
<p>With an education sector struggling to cope through patronage politics and informal arrangements, and with all of the high level dynamics at play, can the new education minister bring much needed change? We truly hope so, but he would have to swim against a strong tide. </p>
<p><em>For a longer French version of this article, please see <a href="http://congoresearchgroup.org/blog-invite-fraude-dans-leducation-en-rdc-le-nouveau-ministre-peut-il-changer-la-donne/?lang=fr">here</a></em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162257/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stylianos Moshonas receives funding from the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders), through a fundamental research project entitled 'Understanding the political economy of Congo's civil service recruitment and remunerations system', in which he works as a postdoctoral researcher.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cyril Owen Brandt, Gauthier Marchais, Jacques Taty Mwakupemba, and Tom De Herdt do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Public statements against payroll fraud seem to materialise at strategic moments.Cyril Owen Brandt, Associate Researcher, Institute of Development Policy, University of AntwerpGauthier Marchais, Research Fellow, Institute of Development StudiesJacques Taty Mwakupemba, PhD candidate, Université catholique de BukavuStylianos Moshonas, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of AntwerpTom De Herdt, Professor, University of AntwerpLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1614482021-06-01T15:10:14Z2021-06-01T15:10:14ZKenya’s civil service is ageing, but adjustments aren’t being made<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402847/original/file-20210526-17-pxn9sj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The demographic profiles of countries like Kenya, where a <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/demographic-dividend">high percentage</a> of people are young, would suggest that it’s swiftly renewing its workforce with fresh talent. </p>
<p>But this doesn’t seem to be the case.</p>
<p>We conducted a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-01-2015-0002">study</a> in a public sector organisation three years ago. We found that the bureau had an ageing workforce. More than half of its staff were 50 years old and above. The majority of employees were aged between 51 and 60. This suggests that, in general, Kenya’s civil service is skewed to older people. </p>
<p>The problem hasn’t been helped by the fact that <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/money-careers/article/2001394826/no-extension-of-retirement-age-from-next-year-says-psc">Kenya changed the retirement age</a> from 55 to 60 years in 2009. </p>
<p>Our analysis focused on the <a href="http://www.knbs.or.ke/">Kenya National Bureau of Statistics</a>. The study presents a microcosm of the wider Kenyan public sector environment. </p>
<p>Our study broke new ground because it explored diversity in the workplace from the perspective of age rather than gender and ethnicity as has been the case with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451311320477">prior studies</a>.</p>
<p>The main focus of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-01-2015-0002">our study</a> was to look at the recruitment and retention strategies at the bureau. </p>
<p>We concluded from our findings that the bureau faced a serious demographic challenge in the makeup of its workforce and that the problem could be addressed by developing a strategic workforce plan for employees. This included having a clear understanding of recruitment, progression and retention processes that are all inclusive – taking into consideration demographics such as age, gender and to some extent ethnicity. </p>
<p>But this would need to be developed collectively by key parties within the organisation.</p>
<p>More broadly, our research shows that there’s an urgent need for Kenya’s public service to address the problem.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>The main purpose of the study was to investigate organisational sub-groups at the bureau and to tease out the multiple team perspectives as experienced in their everyday lives within the organisation. </p>
<p>We asked a sample of employees the following questions: how had the bureau managed the ageing workforce within its ranks? To what extent could it develop a plan to deal with the challenges posed by an ageing workforce within the organisation? And finally what were the current (recruitment) strategies for developing sustainable employee relations within the inter-generational workforce at the bureau? </p>
<p>At the time of the survey more than half of the bureau’s staff was over 50 years of age. Those aged 40 and below accounted for just over 15% of the workforce while 34% were between the ages of 41 and 50. </p>
<p>This demographic profile was far from optimal. We found that it was affecting the day-to-day activities in the organisation, in particular how people communicated with each other and shared information. For example, older people didn’t regularly use the internet and email, but younger members of the workforce did. The implication of this is that important work updates and news on social media could be easily missed.</p>
<p>The age profile also suggested that the bureau urgently needed to put in place recruitment and retention strategies. We found that most of the older workers at the bureau were retiring. This meant a loss of talent and skills because experience and skills hadn’t been passed along to younger workers. </p>
<p>We found that the bureau had not put in place opportunities for younger members of its workforce to learn from work shadowing, mentorship or apprenticeship as well as leadership development. This is important for continuity.</p>
<h2>Some answers</h2>
<p>Undoubtedly, workplaces face challenges, even with the best laid out plans.</p>
<p>One of the biggest is the question of ensuring that there is a talent pool to replace the current workforce as they approach retirement. This is also known as accession of the younger generation into the workplace. This is particularly pressing in the context of an ageing workforce.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Understanding+Y-p-9780730313816">Research</a> has pointed out that management should be aware of the characteristics of the different generations (notably <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/">Generation Y</a>, also known as the millennials, which refers to a group of people born from the early 1980s through to the turn of the millennium) even though it may also bring about inter-generational conflict in the workplace. </p>
<p>The answer lies in making sure that each generation’s unique values and office expectations are managed. This can be through job rotation, team-bonding, equality and diversity training sessions and the opportunity and space for sharing experiences.</p>
<p>Organisations should also have clearly defined roles and responsibilities to all staff without discrimination to ensure that all employees work in harmony.</p>
<p>For its part, the bureau needed to design a future workforce composition through detailed succession planning and talent management.</p>
<p>There seemed to be some degree of optimism about this among the respondents in our research. Many believed that the bureau would indeed make headway in recruiting in ways that ensured the percentage of young people – as well as women – would increase. They also believed that this would lead to a greater tolerance for minorities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Nnamdi Madichie is affiliated with the Unizik Business School, Awka, Nigeria, Coal City University, Enugu, Nigeria and the Bloomsbury Institute London. His is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.</span></em></p>Kenya faces the dilemma of an ageing workforce. The problem can be addressed by developing a strategic workforce plan for employees.Nnamdi O. Madichie, Professor of Marketing & Entrepreneurship, Nnamdi Azikiwe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1598772021-05-07T12:42:54Z2021-05-07T12:42:54ZPolice academies dedicate 3.21% of training hours to ethics and other public service topics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399015/original/file-20210505-13-vs9xky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C4874%2C3290&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Los Angeles County police graduation ceremony, Aug. 21, 2020 in Monterey Park, Calif.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/graduates-of-los-angeles-county-sheriffs-department-academy-news-photo/1267562794?adppopup=true">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Police academies provide little training in the kinds of skills necessary to meet officers’ growing public service role, according to my <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0275074021999872">research</a>. </p>
<p>Highly publicized cases of police violence – such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-this-trial-was-different-experts-react-to-guilty-verdict-for-derek-chauvin-159420">2020 murder of George Floyd</a> in Minneapolis and 2014 shooting of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53603923">Michael Brown</a> in Ferguson, Missouri – often raise questions about police training, and whether officers are prepared to do the job that is expected of them. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=G2DSDDgAAAAJ&hl=en">public administration researcher</a> who conducts leadership training for law enforcement supervisors across the country, I set out to investigate what future police officers learn in basic training – specifically, whether they are taught the kind of public service skills that many people expect them to display on the job.</p>
<h2>How police are trained</h2>
<p>Police officers, like their counterparts in other government agencies, are public servants. Unlike most public servants, however, officers have the legal power to deprive citizens of their freedom in a split-second decision, at their own discretion, possibly while pointing a gun.</p>
<p>Given their extraordinary powers, it would be reasonable to expect that officers are thoroughly trained on the values of public service – especially, how to make ethical and unbiased decisions when dealing with civilians.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0275074021999872">My recent study</a> compared state-mandated basic police training curricula across the 50 U.S. states. I found that police recruits in the U.S. spend an average of 633 hours completing the basic academy, a training program that certifies them as licensed police officers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399242/original/file-20210506-17-1s3lqjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Police car from Honolulu police parked in a parking lot near the beach with an officer standing in front of it; in the backgroundn a couple looks out at the ocean" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399242/original/file-20210506-17-1s3lqjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399242/original/file-20210506-17-1s3lqjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399242/original/file-20210506-17-1s3lqjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399242/original/file-20210506-17-1s3lqjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399242/original/file-20210506-17-1s3lqjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399242/original/file-20210506-17-1s3lqjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399242/original/file-20210506-17-1s3lqjs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hawaii is the only U.S. state that has no statewide legally required minimum police training standards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-wait-for-people-to-return-to-their-cars-before-news-photo/1227793315?adppopup=true">Ronen Zilberman/AFP via Getty Image</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of those 633 hours, only 20 hours are dedicated to what is defined in my study as “public administration training” – knowledge and skills that are not law enforcement-specific but rather relevant to all public service professions such as city administrators, educators and social workers. That means 3.21% of the basic academy curricula is dedicated to public administration training.</p>
<p>Specifically, I found that the average police recruit in the U.S. receives 5.5 hours of ethics and boundaries training, 7.3 hours of human relations and interpersonal communications training, 6.1 hours of cultural competency training, 5.6 hours of procedural justice training and another 4.3 hours of training on other public service core values, such as effective problem solving and the use of discretionary powers. </p>
<p>The sample size for each topic area was different, as each state’s police training differs.</p>
<p>The remaining 613 hours, on average, focus on tasks and knowledge relevant only to the profession of law enforcement. These topics include, but are not limited to, report writing, driving skills, patrol procedures, defensive tactics, criminal and constitutional law, traffic stops and firearms training.</p>
<p>That means that most U.S. police cadets spend about 20 hours of their entire basic training learning the kind of knowledge and skills that are <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/972349">considered foundational</a> for all other public service professions.</p>
<h2>States train police differently</h2>
<p>States varied widely in both the length of basic police training and the public service content of their training curricula.</p>
<p><iframe id="5ZJEm" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/5ZJEm/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Georgia ranks the lowest nationwide in compulsory minimum training hours for police recruits, with only 408 hours compared to the national average of 633 hours. Only 10 of those 408 hours of training are dedicated to public administration, and just one hour of that focuses on ethics. </p>
<p>Rhode Island requires the highest minimum training for its police of any other state: 953 hours. However, the state requires below-average public administration training for future police – 2.3% of its curriculum, or 22 hours. </p>
<p>With 640 compulsory minimum training hours, Oregon is right at the national average for total training time but requires the most extensive public administration training for police recruits: 46.5 hours of Oregon’s curriculum, or 7.26%, are dedicated to teaching public service values, with specific emphasis on human relations and interpersonal communications.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/07/hawaii-ignores-deadline-to-create-new-standards-for-cops/">Hawaii</a> is the only U.S. state that does not have any legally required minimum standards for basic police training.</p>
<h2>Prepared for battle, not building trust</h2>
<p>The data reported in my study shed new light on the misalignment between how police officers are trained to work and what the American public expects of them on the job. </p>
<p>The role of the modern-day police officer has changed. Research on community expectations of police show that the U.S. public expects officers to be honest, respectful – and even to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mazck5oAAAAJ&hl=en">provide emotional comfort when needed</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399025/original/file-20210505-23-xiwcxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Group of uniformed police stand with a sign welcoming back students in front of the school, on a sunny day" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399025/original/file-20210505-23-xiwcxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399025/original/file-20210505-23-xiwcxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399025/original/file-20210505-23-xiwcxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399025/original/file-20210505-23-xiwcxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399025/original/file-20210505-23-xiwcxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399025/original/file-20210505-23-xiwcxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399025/original/file-20210505-23-xiwcxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police personnel greet students returning to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida after a 2018 shooting there.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-personnel-are-seen-as-students-return-to-marjory-news-photo/925730870?adppopup=true">Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In other words, the public expects police officers to demonstrate principles of “<a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/prodceduraljustice">procedural justice</a>” – a big concept in policing that basically means citizens should have a voice when interacting with police, that officers are transparent and resolve conflicts in a fair and impartial way.</p>
<p>One police training official I interviewed said “most rookies fresh out of the academy” have “no idea” what procedural justice is. They think procedural justice is “about white cops [not] shooting black people.” It is not, he said – it is about “building partnerships with the community [and] about trust.”</p>
<p>Yet police academies still use the traditional, <a href="https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/ijpbl/vol10/iss1/2/">para-military training model</a> that trains officers to be soldiers ready for combat with “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10999922.2004.11051270?casa_token=yj3IUvcKiTcAAAAA:UTt8e-UhwvvqkTJhGFKkOrLWd17WWsFUItYNPlG_axxZch5q9zFl_DZ4wBg4lFxhcLe1Z3A71C8Zrg">the enemy</a>” – not culturally competent public servants ready to engage civilians in difficult dialogues. </p>
<p>Even officers themselves know this is a problem. When I conduct police training, police supervisors often tell me that the first thing they say to a rookie on their first day on the job is “forget everything you learned in the academy, this is real police now.” </p>
<p>These seasoned cops know that the training recruits get in the academy is largely irrelevant to the reality of day-to-day police work. As my study shows, police recruits leave the academy armed with plenty of tactical skills but relatively few communications and cultural competency skills – the skills, veterans of the force know, officers most need to use throughout their day. </p>
<p>Some people in the U.S. may not be happy with the police they have – but they are getting the police they train.</p>
<p><em>A mathematical error in this story has been corrected to accurately convey the total number of hours dedicated to training police in law enforcement-related topics.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159877/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Galia Cohen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Police are sworn to protect the public, but cadets are still trained for battle – not public service – according to a new study examining all 50 US state police academy curricula.Galia Cohen, Assistant Professor, Director of the Division of Public Administration, Tarleton State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1549162021-02-21T12:05:28Z2021-02-21T12:05:28ZA ‘French malaise’ is eroding bilingualism in Canada’s public service<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383568/original/file-20210210-13-1jghuza.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C32%2C4385%2C2835&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">According to a recent survey of public servants by the Commissioner of Official Languages, more than 44 per cent of French-speakers are uncomfortable using French at work. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There will always be a historical distinction between anglophones and francophones in Canada, but this cultural and linguistic diversity should contribute to a society based on equity and inclusion. For this to happen, proficiency in both official languages is important.</p>
<p>According to a recent survey by the <a href="https://www.clo-ocol.gc.ca/en/publications/studies/2021/linguistic-insecurity">Commissioner of Official Languages</a> of 10,828 federal public servants in five administrative regions (Ottawa-Gatineau, New Brunswick and bilingual regions in Quebec and Ontario), more than 44 per cent of francophones feel uncomfortable using French at work, while only 11 per cent of francophones feel the same way about using English at work.</p>
<p>Of those 44 per cent of francophones, more than 37 per cent feel uncomfortable using French at work during meetings. While we might assume this discomfort is the product of linguistic insecurity related to speaking French in a predominantly English environment, it actually has more to do with organizational difficulties that make it difficult to work in French.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, Minister of Official Languages Melanie Joly <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/corporate/publications/general-publications/equality-official-languages.html">tabled a report</a> that would ultimately overhaul the Official Languages Act to “counter and remedy” the decline of French in Canada.</p>
<h2>Fear of being misunderstood</h2>
<p>Just under 90 per cent of francophones cited their anglophone colleagues’ lack of fluency as the main reason they avoided speaking French. Thirty eight per cent stated that French is not often used in their workplace. However, 32 per cent of respondents also expressed a fear of being perceived as “troublemakers” if they spoke French. In addition, 19 per cent of French-speakers surveyed were reluctant to ask for supervision in French. The most cited reasons were that their supervisor is not comfortable enough speaking French, or they fear being perceived as a troublemaker, or they do not want to disturb their supervisor.</p>
<p>In short, francophone public servants feel uncomfortable expressing themselves in French because their anglophone colleagues are not sufficiently fluent in the language. Some of them fear that if they “dare” to ask for supervision in French or take the risk of expressing themselves in their first language during meetings, their colleagues will label them troublemakers.</p>
<p>The survey does not explain why such a large number of French-speakers experience these feelings in a so-called bilingual workplace. Is it because they have been considered troublemakers at some point? Or have they simply internalized the fact that the French language does not have the same status as English in Canada, meaning it is better to avoid “getting into trouble” by working in English?</p>
<h2>Insecurity among anglophones</h2>
<p>This difficult linguistic context raises issues that go beyond the unequal balance of power between Canada’s two official languages.</p>
<p>More than 39 per cent of anglophones surveyed said they do not feel comfortable expressing themselves in French. Around 70 per cent cited a lack of practice speaking French while 61 per cent feared having their accent and mistakes judged and corrected. Forty two per cent also reported feeling embarrassed when their francophone colleagues reply in English after they have tried to express themselves in French.</p>
<p>The reasons cited show that the anglophones surveyed also experience <a href="https://doi.org/10.29173/af29376">linguistic insecurity</a> when using French. Linguistic insecurity affects language practices and “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-3314">influences the choice to speak one language rather than another or one variety (different accent) rather than another, as well as the decision to either speak or to remain silent</a>.”</p>
<p>The embarrassment felt by English speakers when speaking in French in front of their co-workers is caused by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. A person may think their French is not good enough, or fear that others will make offensive remarks about their accent or the quality of their French. While lack of practice in French feeds the linguistic insecurity of English speakers, this linguistic insecurity, in turn, leads them to use more avoidance strategies to keep from practising French.</p>
<h2>A reversed balance of power</h2>
<p>It can be difficult for anglophones to practise their French if francophone colleagues judge, correct or ignore their efforts and carry on the discussion in English. The balance of power between the two language groups seems to be reversed here. The following situation might exist in the public service: a Francophone may hesitate to speak French because they fear being considered a troublemaker, yet they will not hesitate to correct an Anglophone colleague who tries to speak French. So, how should this problem be considered and what can be done to overcome it?</p>
<p>There seems to be a general uneasiness or “malaise” about French among both francophones and anglophone public servants in administrative regions where bilingualism is required. In defence of anglophones who want to improve their competence in French, but who are experiencing linguistic insecurity, “<a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/Le-reveil-Nouveau-Brunswick/segments/entrevue/59167/insecurite-linguistique-france-accent">French is a very prescriptive language, governed by the Académie française, which has established the norms of standard French and dictates that anything deviating from the norm can be considered less legitimate</a>,” Lisa Savoie-Ferron, a graduate student in sociolinguistics at the Univesity of Ottawa told Radio-Canada.</p>
<p>While French-language training and opportunities to practise French must be better harmonized in a work context where English is predominant, francophones also have a part to play in being more inclusive when it comes to French-language learners. In other words, anglophones who want to learn and practise French must be able to do so without running the risk of discrimination. The same must be true for francophones who want to communicate and work in French.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-geoeconomie-2010-4-page-57.htm">Languages reflect the identity of a people. They are an integral part of cultures</a>,” wrote Trang T.H. Phan, who studies globalization and “la francophonie.” Official languages and their respective cultures define Canada. Linguistic diversity in Canada, starting with a better recognition of French, should not implicitly or explicitly view the “francophone difference” as a problem.</p>
<p>The freedom to speak French in the public service must be a recognized and applicable right that is exercised without fear of being considered a French-speaking rebel. Ultimately, the goal must be to promote the use of French in a context where English occupies a very important place in the Canadian public service. The federal government’s decision to update the Official Languages Act is an important and positive announcement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154916/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian J. Y. Bergeron ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>A recent survey reveals a general uneasiness about using French among both francophone and anglophone public servants in administrative regions where bilingualism is required.Christian J. Y. Bergeron, Professeur en sociologie de l’éducation, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1472492020-11-03T13:26:21Z2020-11-03T13:26:21ZOnly the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes – and they bragged about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365945/original/file-20201027-20-pwxxbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3610%2C1964&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In ancient Athens, only the richest people paid taxes on wealth, and they were happy to do it. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liturgy_(ancient_Greece)#/media/File:Peplos_scene_BM_EastV_cropped.JPG">Twospoonfuls via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In ancient Athens, only the very wealthiest people paid direct taxes, and these went to fund the city-state’s most important national expenses – the navy and honors for the gods. While today it might sound astonishing, most of these top taxpayers not only paid happily, but boasted about how much they paid.</p>
<p>Money was just as important to the ancient Athenians as it is to most people today, so what accounts for this enthusiastic reaction to a large tax bill? The Athenian financial elite felt this way because they earned an invaluable payback: public respect from the other citizens of their democracy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365941/original/file-20201027-20-kzsxs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting of the Acropolis in ancient Athens." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365941/original/file-20201027-20-kzsxs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365941/original/file-20201027-20-kzsxs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365941/original/file-20201027-20-kzsxs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365941/original/file-20201027-20-kzsxs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365941/original/file-20201027-20-kzsxs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365941/original/file-20201027-20-kzsxs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365941/original/file-20201027-20-kzsxs0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ancient Athens was a thoroughly modern city in its large public funding needs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Athens#/media/File:Akropolis_by_Leo_von_Klenze.jpg">Leo von Klenze via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Modern needs, modern finances</h2>
<p>Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. had a population of free and enslaved people topping 300,000 individuals. The economy mostly <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/article/115/trade-in-ancient-greece/">focused on international trade</a>, and Athens needed to spend large sums of money to keep things humming – from supporting national defense to the <a href="https://built-in-art.com/articles/fountains-greece.php">countless public fountains</a> constantly pouring out drinking water all over the city.</p>
<p>Much of this income came from publicly owned farmland and silver mines that were <a href="https://doi.org/10.2972/hesperia.85.1.0153">leased to the highest bidders</a>, but Athens also taxed imports and exports and collected fees from immigrants and prostitutes as well as fines imposed on losers in many court cases. In general, there were no direct taxes on income or wealth.</p>
<p>As Athens grew into an international power, it developed a large and expensive navy of several hundred state-of-the-art <a href="https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/trireme-ancient-warfare.html">wooden warships called triremes</a> – literally meaning three-rowers. Triremes cost huge amounts of money to build, equip and crew, and the Athenian financial elites were the ones that paid to make it happen. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366309/original/file-20201029-19-vxs4mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An ancient carving showing a Trireme showing three levels of rowers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366309/original/file-20201029-19-vxs4mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366309/original/file-20201029-19-vxs4mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366309/original/file-20201029-19-vxs4mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366309/original/file-20201029-19-vxs4mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366309/original/file-20201029-19-vxs4mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366309/original/file-20201029-19-vxs4mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366309/original/file-20201029-19-vxs4mm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Triremes were the most advanced and expensive military technology of the ancient Mediterranean, and rich Athenians funded them out of their own pockets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ACMA_Relief_Lenormant.jpg#/media/File:ACMA_Relief_Lenormant.jpg">Marsyas via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The top 1% of male property owners supported the saving or salvation of Athens –called “<a href="http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.perseus-eng2:2.60">soteria</a>” – by performing a special kind of public service called “leitourgia,” or liturgy. They served as a trireme commander, or “trierarch,” who personally funded the operating costs of a trireme for an entire year and even led the crew on missions. This public service was not cheap. To fund their liturgy as a trierarch, a rich taxpayer spent what a skilled worker earned in 10 to 20 years of steady pay, but instead of dodging this responsibility, most embraced it.</p>
<p>Running warships was not the only responsibility the rich had to national defense. When Athens was at war – which was most of the time – the wealthy had to <a href="http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0003.tlg001.perseus-eng2:3.19">pay contributions in cash</a> called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/s0009838807000043">“eisphorai” to finance the citizen militia</a>. These contributions were based on the value of their property, not their income, which made them in a sense a direct tax on wealth. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365940/original/file-20201027-23-25ro8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photos of the ruins of the Theater of Dionysus showing rows upon rows of seats made of marble." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365940/original/file-20201027-23-25ro8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365940/original/file-20201027-23-25ro8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365940/original/file-20201027-23-25ro8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365940/original/file-20201027-23-25ro8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365940/original/file-20201027-23-25ro8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365940/original/file-20201027-23-25ro8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365940/original/file-20201027-23-25ro8w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Theater of Dionysus in Athens could hold thousands of spectators for shows subsidized by liturgists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Dionysus#/media/File:Athen_Akropolis_(18512008726).jpg">dronepicr via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>To please the gods</h2>
<p>To the ancient Athenians, physical military might was only part of the equation. They also believed that the salvation of the state from outside threats depended on a less tangible but equally crucial and costly source of defense: the favor of the gods.</p>
<p>To keep these powerful but fickle divine protectors on their side, the Athenians built elaborate temples, performed large sacrifices and organized lively public religious festivals. These massive spectacles featured musical extravaganzas and theater performances that were attended by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Dionysus#/media/File:Athen_Akropolis_(18512008726).jpg">tens of thousands of people</a> and were hugely expensive to throw.</p>
<p>Just as with trieremes, the richest Athenians paid for these festivals by fulfilling festival liturgies. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.05674">Serving as a chorus leader</a>, for example, meant paying for the training, costumes and living expenses for large groups of performers for months at a time.</p>
<h2>Proud to be paying</h2>
<p>In the U.S. today, an estimated <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/04/09/how-big-is-the-problem-of-tax-evasion/">one out of every six tax dollars is unpaid</a>. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/03/why-amazon-paid-no-federal-income-tax.html">Large corporations</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20172043">rich citizens</a> do everything they can to minimize their tax bill. The Athenians would have ridiculed such behavior.</p>
<p>None of the financial elite of ancient Athens prided themselves on scamming the Athenian equivalent of the IRS. Just the opposite was true: They paid, and even boasted in public – truthfully – that they often had <a href="http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0540.tlg025.perseus-eng1:12">paid more than required</a> when <a href="http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0540.tlg025.perseus-eng1:13">serving as a trierarch</a> or <a href="http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0014.tlg051.perseus-eng1:5">chorus leader</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, not every member of the superrich at Athens behaved like a patriotic champion. Some Athenian shirkers <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/283983">tried to escape their liturgies</a> by claiming other people with more property ought to shoulder the cost instead of themselves, but this attempted weaseling out of public service never became the norm.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p>
<p>So what was the reasoning behind this civic, taxpaying pride? Ancient Athenians weren’t only opening their wallets to promote the common good. They were counting on <a href="http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0014.tlg004.perseus-eng1:7">earning a high return in public esteem</a> from the <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1120a&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0054">investments in their community that their taxes represented</a>.</p>
<p>This social capital was so valuable because Athenian culture held civic duty in high regard. If a rich Athenian hoarded his wealth, he was mocked and <a href="https://www.eudaemonist.com/biblion/characters/">labeled a “greedy man”</a> who “borrows from guests staying his house” and “when he sells wine to a friend, he sells it watered!”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365943/original/file-20201027-17-1uotfcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo showing a tall, cylindrical monument with elaborate carvings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365943/original/file-20201027-17-1uotfcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365943/original/file-20201027-17-1uotfcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365943/original/file-20201027-17-1uotfcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365943/original/file-20201027-17-1uotfcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365943/original/file-20201027-17-1uotfcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365943/original/file-20201027-17-1uotfcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365943/original/file-20201027-17-1uotfcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates was erected in 335 B.C. by the liturgist Lysicrates after his play won first prize, and it still stands today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choragic_Monument_of_Lysicrates#/media/File:%CE%9C%CE%BD%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BF_%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85_%CE%9B%CF%85%CF%83%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%84%CE%B7_6122.jpg">C messier via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Social wealth, not monetary riches</h2>
<p>The social rewards that tax payments earned the rich had long lives. A liturgist who financed the chorus of a prize-winning drama could <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/%7Egrout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/architecture/lysicrates.html">build himself a spectacular monument</a> in a conspicuous downtown location to announce his excellence to all comers for all time.</p>
<p>Above all, the Athenian rich paid their taxes because they craved the social success that came from their compatriots publicly identifying them as <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0057:chapter=10&highlight=good">citizens who are good because they are useful</a>.
Earning the honorable title of a useful citizen might sound tame today, but in a letter to a Hebrew congregation in Rhode Island written in 1790, <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0135">George Washington proclaimed that being “useful” was an invaluable part</a> of the divine plan for the United States.</p>
<p>So, too, the Athenians infused that designation with immense power. To be a rich taxpayer who was good and useful to his fellow citizens counted even more than money in the bank. And this invaluable public service profited all Athenians by keeping their democracy alive century after century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147249/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Martin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In ancient Athens, the richest people paid taxes to support what the residents considered the salvation of the city. These taxes earned them social and political clout more valuable than money.Thomas Martin, Professor of Classics, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.