Suchergebnisse

This report examines the conditions of appointment and termination of departmental secretaries in the APS and considers the impact of these conditions on: the secretaries themselves; the potential pool from which secretaries are drawn; and the likely continuing influence on the way in which the APS operates.The report is based on reviews of the literature on the appointments of departmental secretaries and of the legislative changes made in the last decades. It also draws from a series of interviews with 20 past and present secretaries. The interviews were conducted in October and December 1996, after a number of secretaries had been terminated by the new government but in most cases before the government paper on public service reform was releasedThe report is divided into two main sections: the first section analyses the changing conditions of service and tenure, the appointment and termination of secretaries and pay and conditions; the second section analyses the impact of the changes under three headings and explores the future implications.

How policy processes relate to the city is the subject of this paper. We argue that the way in which cities are perceived by policy makers does make a difference to the policy approach adopted in planning for cities. In conventional 'relativist' approaches the nature of the city itself is not a prime consideration in policy formation or implementation but merely a complex site where diverse policies intersect. In this model policy design is related to criteria other than location. By contrast, if the city is seen as having an essential character then the policy design is likely to be spatially sensitive. The paper explores urban policy during the Hawke-Keating years and, in particular, the 'integrated' approach to city planning advanced by Minister Brian Howe as an example of an essentialist understanding of the city. Despite some competition from the new managerialism within the public sector, we conclude that the integrated approach offered some important reforms in urban policy design.