“Whoever tries to place a man or staff an organization to avoid weakness will end up at best with mediocrity. The idea that there are ‘well-rounded’ people, people who have only strengths and no weaknesses (whether the term used is the ‘whole man,’ the ‘mature personality,’ the ‘well-adjusted personality,’ or the ‘generalist’) is a prescription for mediocrity if not for incompetence.”
~ Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive (courtesy of Quote Investigator)
The future of government is moral
Is it radical in today’s climate to expect public service to be defined by moral purpose and big ideas?Political stacking leaves appeals tribunal in chaos
The purging of experienced members at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and the abandonment of merit-based appointments, has created a backlog of 53,000 unresolved cases.Sydney accountant Philip Scahill's double life ends in jail
Joseph Bankman (Stanford), Mitchell Kane (NYU) & Alan Sykes (Stanford), Collecting the Rent: The Global Battle to Capture MNE Profits, 72 Tax L. Rev. ___ (2019):
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) often earn substantial profits, or "economic rents." Often, these MNEs are domiciled in the United States, and the rents derive from ownership of intellectual property. These MNEs have structured their affairs to pay little taxes to countries outside the United States or otherwise to share their rents in and business tax returns stems from Trump’s refusal to provide a scintilla of transparency on his family’s corporate empire. As the first man to become President not to release any of his tax returns in decades, his rejection of democratic norms is bad enough, made unbearable given the size, scope and opacity of Trump’s companies. Recent investigations detailing widespread tax fraud and other financial crimes by Trump and his family only add to our urgency to scrutinize Trump’s returns. ...
The broken windows theory is a criminological theory that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory thus suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes such as vandalism, public drinking, and fare evasion help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes.
The theory was introduced in a 1982 article by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling.[1] It was further popularized in the 1990s by New York City police commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose policing policies were influenced by the theory.
Woolcott restores the APS data deep dive
STATE OF THE SERVICE 2018: The APS chief has unchained his commission staff from the vapid ‘streamlined’ reports of recent years and let their deep expertise shine with the latest State of the Service Report, tabled today.
Why VPS was key to 'delivering' the 'Danslide'
TOM BURTON: If there is an unsung hero of Saturday’s so-called 'Danslide' state election result, it is the Victorian public service.
Evaluation: moving towards a new professionalism
NICHOLAS GRUEN: An evaluator-general should lead a renewed focus on understanding the impact of government programs, independent of their delivery and insulated from the demand for 'messaging' in other parts of the system.
How to prevent the next global financial crisis
PHILIP GAETJENS: We won’t necessarily know beforehand where or when the next crisis will start. But if trouble arises, Australia’s experience demonstrates the old toolkit of responses still works.
Digital ethics is making news around the world but not at home
Like it or not, huge digital transformation is happening across the public sector. Navigating it successfully requires approaching the future with informed optimism. (Promoted article)
Digital Transformation
Strategy 2025
DTA, November 2018. The federal government wants to make all of its services digital by 2025.
DTA, November 2018. The federal government wants to make all of its services digital by 2025.
The
document, Vision 2025: We will deliver world-leading
digital services for the benefit of all Australians, reveals
that the plan is to not only to bring all services online within the next six
years, but to be counted as one of the world's top three digital governments.
PWC, 2019. Provides an international comparison of tax regimes focusing
on how new tax software, real time reporting systems and data analytics are
changing the way companies meet their tax compliance obligations and how tax
authorities monitor and enforce those obligations. The report also considers
the different approaches taken by tax authorities to tax audits and the
provision of training for both tax auditors and taxpayers.