“The longer the lever the less perceptible its motion… The hero then will know how to wait, as well as to make haste. All good abides with him who waiteth wisely.”
“We made the world we’re living in and we have to make it over,” James Baldwin insisted in examining the building blocks of a juster future. “The present is not a potential past; it is the moment of choice and action,” Simone de Beauvoir wroteacross the Atlantic as she was advancing the era’s other great human rights cause.
Thoreau on the Long Cycles of Social Change and the Importance of Not Mistaking Politics for Progress
Experts Find Serious Problems With Switzerland’s Online Voting System Motherboard. Paging CalPERS
As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past change in the present invariable order of society. The greatest appreciable physical revolutions are the work of the light-footed air, the stealthy-paced water, and the subterranean fire… We are independent of the change we detect. The longer the lever the less perceptible its motion. It is the slowest pulsation which is the most vital. The hero then will know how to wait, as well as to make haste. All good abides with him who waiteth wisely.
NSW election coverage
You can smell the desperation: it's the pork in NSW's election barrel
Your phone and TV are tracking you and political campaigns are listening in
La Times: “…Welcome to the new frontier of campaign tech — a loosely regulated world in which simply downloading a weather app or game, connecting to Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or powering up a home router can allow a data broker to monitor your movements with ease, then compile the location information and sell it to a political candidate who can use it to surround you with messages. “We can put a pin on a building, and if you are in that building, we are going to get you,” said Democratic strategist Dane Strother, who advised Evers. And they can get you even if you aren’t in the building anymore, but were simply there at some point in the last six months.
'A brutal business': Kelly O'Dwyer and Jenny Macklin bid farewell to Parliament
Two senior women from opposite sides of politics have bid farewell to Parliament.
RISK MITIGATION: It’s now clear that an Australian Border Force officer neglected to send an email that could have prevented Hakeem Al-Araibi being arrested and locked up in Thailand, but one key question remains unanswered for now.
‘Politicisation of departments’ boils over as opposition puts APS on notice
ELECTION 2019: Public servants don’t need to read between the lines to get the message that the opposition is watching for signs of politicisation in the lead-up to this year’s federal election.
Peter Woolcott’s estimates seachange
SENATE ESTIMATES: APSC appearances at Senate estimates have been decidedly calmer since the departure of Public Sector Commissioner and Labor bugbear John Lloyd.
Polarisation and the case for citizen juries
NICHOLAS GRUEN: Imagine how the energies of our vote-hungry political elite might find more considered and cooperative ways if there were a standing citizens’ chamber making their own collective views known.
A state actor has targeted our political parties: should we be surprised?
CYBER SECURITY: For many, this hack seems to have come out of the blue. But hackers targeting Australian government infrastructure are the 'new normal'.
Reinvention as a tool for relevance
FREE EBOOK: Citizens are continually looking for government action and outcomes. This report takes a close look at the delivery of government services at local and state level in Australia and New Zealand.
It's your time to shine
QUT's Public Sector Management Program can open the way to a bright future in the public sector. It takes just 15 months to complete and it's employer-funded. (Partner link)
Openness in government needs to be two-way to be effective
It's not just about information flowing out from an agency, but also flowing in. More effective use of this information can lay the foundation for collaboration and innovation. Find out more. (Partner article)
Someone tried to hack our Parliament. What makes us think they aren't hacking our politicians as well?
Elise
Thomas, ASPI, in ABC News
If I were a nation-state hacker, you can bet I'd be going after every politician and staffer's poorly secured personal network I could find — which could be most of them.
What are the merits of royal commissions and other forms of inquiry?
They are highly effective at exposing wrongdoing, but do they influence policy development? A two-stage approach might be more effective, write Dr Peter Wilkins and Professor John Phillimore.
Why are profit and purpose so disconnected?
Kirsty
Muir, CEO, Centre for Social Impact
In the social purpose sector, funding relies on demonstrated impact. Shouldn’t for-profits who claim social benefits be accountable in the same way?
