State action needed for real reporting reform

Last week the NSW Audit Office released its first performance audit into NSW Local Government covering council reporting on service delivery. The report said most councils need to do a better job. The findings come as no shock to sector professionals, who believe there needs to be a reduction in the overall reporting burdens on […]

Opinion – Pointless Australia Day point scoring obscures real issues

Australia Day rolls around again this week. Its observance has once again become an issue, with many councils, individuals and The Greens calling for its date to be changed, or at least the observance of a national day for Australia to be moved to another date. The issue has become totemic of Australia’s continuing culture […]

Victoria-Commonwealth relations at all-time low

Australia’s federal system of government has its pluses and minuses. Proponents say federalism is necessary in a country as large as Australia, while others say our population is too small and that state governments are an expensive and inefficient way of ensuring we are properly governed. It is generally agreed that the biggest disadvantage of […]

Opinion – Hot summer, but no end to climate wars

Record-breaking temperatures across Australia have seen no end to the continued bickering over climate and energy policy in Australia. The release of Keating-era cabinet papers from 1994 show that the Governmnet was struggling with how to address the issue even then. In 1992, Environment Minister Ros Kelly had signed Australia up to the new UN […]

Opinion – Amalgamation issue just won’t go away

The NSW Government’s disastrous council amalgamation plans, abandoned after public outcries and legal challenges, remain an issue to many in the state. The Labor Opposition says that the Government still has a hidden agenda, and many councils who spent millions of dollars on preparing for amalgamations are still trying to get compensation. The issue has […]

Generation Y – Local Government Needs You

  Local government has an image problem – not enough young people rate the sector as a career choice. If we don’t find a way to make our workplaces more inspiring, there’s a real chance we won’t have enough people to run our cities in ten years’ time. There are fantastic careers in local government, […]

Government News in 2018 – Bigger, better, brighter

Thanks for your support of Government News in 2017. Our last newsletter for the year will be next Tuesday 19 December. We will be back on Friday 5 January 2018. We have a lot planned for 2018. Not far into the new year we’ll be launching a new website and a new look newsletter. That […]

Social media is mission-critical for government – Opinion

Citizen engagement with government has been transformed by social media. Social media has led to significant changes in the conversation between government and the general public. It is no longer one way. Previously people’s voices were heard only at the polling booths, but today the conversation is held in the open, and it’s transparent – […]

Lucky country, smart city – Opinion

Australia has long held a reputation for being the ‘Lucky Country’. That has largely been the case over the past 25 years. Our economy has the averted the financial crises that have plagued the USA and Europe. Most industries, with relatively high amounts of low-cost capital at their disposal, have grown steadily. But has this […]

Big data 2.0 a big opportunity for government

A recent audit by Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) revealed that there are currently over 70 significant IT projects in the Federal Government. With an estimated lifetime cost of $7.2 billion, it is clear that digital in government is here to stay. Although it strategy into cloud and open source is clear, part of the […]

Digital here, digital there – digital everywhere!

We didn’t plan it this way. But every story in Government News this week has to do with government’s use of digital technology. It is a sure sign of the times. In the PC boom of the 1980s and the Internet booms of the 1990s, digital technology began to change our lives. Now, in the […]

Digital is important – but so is the human touch (OPINION)

While digital automation has started to transform the public sector, there remains at least one place where human interaction is – and always will be – vital to the success of an organisation. Digitisation has not only changed how we shop, listen to music, and even travel to the airport, but it is also now […]

From the Editor – Government News is bigger, better, brighter

Government News has been delivering the stories behind government administration and policy since 1981. That’s 36 years, or half a human lifetime. It has thousands of readers, in all levels of government, and many more outside of government. Our  philosophy is to cover the stories the mainstream press misses, but which appeal to those interested […]

Flexible work can lead to flexible thought – OPINION

We are witnessing a quiet revolution in how we work. The impact of technology on our lives is well documented, showing that while technology enables increased flexibility, there are also negative impacts on our lives. Always-on technology means a work-to-life spillover. We know that checking emails before bed is a surefire way to not get […]

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