Volunteers can help reduce costs, but most nonprofit social service groups rely heavily on government funding.
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By relying heavily on privately run organizations to deliver social services, the government employs fewer people, reducing the size of its bureaucracy. But these partnerships can flounder.
The government has released a review of the employment services system. The scathing indictment has found the current system doesn’t serve the interests of jobseekers or employers.
Employees need resources, information and support from colleagues to be truly empowered.
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Management jobs are proliferating much faster than other roles. But behavioural research shows the extra box-ticking can leave employees feeling stressed, patronised and demotivated.
Like making applicants wait in Mexico, fees could discourage asylum seekers.
AP Photo/Fernando Llano
Bureaucratic ‘red tape’ has contributed to the current crisis in our aged care system. We need a system of accountability that focuses more on residents’ outcomes, and less on processes.
Ford, Carter, George H.W. Bush and Clinton led four of the first administrations to fully embrace policy analysis.
Attend any ANZAC Day parade and you might see people carrying banners with holes cut in them. They’re supposed to cut any drag or wind resistance but do they do any good?
State health departments should continuously monitor the hospital activity data it collects for red flags.
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Seven babies died unnecessarily at Bacchus Marsh hospital between 2013 and 2014. The My Hospitals website and other reporting mechanisms gave no sign of any problems.
David Cameron has opened discussions at the European Council about the changes he wants to see in the European Union ahead of a UK referendum on membership. This is an unprecedented step. It is the first…
The rationale for cutting advisory bodies has been reducing red tape - but the loss can often be a valuable counter-opinion.
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The decommissioning of the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee mans the government loses an independent source of advice - at a time they arguably need it.
Australia’s gas market is entering a time of change: increasing supply, such as coal seam gas, can provide certainty.
Ben Jenkins/Flickr
Australia’s “looming gas shortage” - the basis for calls to deregulate coal seam gas - may not be real after all. But gas prices are still set to rise, and that’s an area where coal seam gas could help.
Josh Frydenberg, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, wants policymakers to see regulation in a new light.
Alan Porritt/AAP
The Australian government’s target of A$1 billion of red-tape savings for the year is now in sight ($700 million up to March 2014 and a claimed $300 million from the carbon tax repeal plus Future of Financial…
Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Senator Michaelia Cash has kicked off a review of 457 visas, but the Australian Workforce Productivity Agency won’t be playing a role.
Stefan Postles/AAP
Although few working Australians would be familiar with the work of the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, all of us depend on it to some degree. In a shortsighted move, the government has decided…
Cardinal George Pell reportedly led Catholic Church lobbying of the government to abolish the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission.
AAP/Dean Lewins
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) was created by the former federal Labor government and began operation in December 2012. It is so new that some charities are yet to be required…
Repeal Day: liberating business, or pure politics?
Alan Porritt/AAP
Repeal day – a political stunt copied from David Cameron’s government in the UK – will go ahead in Australia this Wednesday. The very fact the government plans to repeal some 10,000 regulations suggests…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne