Prof Anne Tiernan to present a new paradigm for public sector service delivery at Darwin conference
Professor Anne Tiernan FIPAA — Dean (Engagement) in the Griffith Business School at Griffith University
With a grounding in government at the state and Commonwealth levels, political scientist Professor Anne Tiernan FIPAA is exceptionally well placed to provide a practical academic perspective on public sector service delivery.
Professor Tiernan — Dean (Engagement) in the Griffith Business School at Griffith University — is highly regarded for her independent, professional and research-informed analysis of national politics, public administration and public policy.
In a recent Sydney lecture, ‘Optimistic Democracy’, Professor Tiernan recognised that Australia has been one of the world’s most successful and enduring liberal democracies. But she cautioned that “over the past decade and possibly longer, cracks have appeared in our strong foundations” with a marked decline in “Australians’ confidence in political institutions and processes”.
Reflecting on the Federal election campaign she went on to say that “policy-makers need to develop better-informed, more nuanced understandings of the communities they are elected to serve.”
Her remarks provide an interesting parallel to the view expressed recently by Prime Minister Morrison in his address to the Australian Public Service, that Ministers set policy direction and the public service should “get on and deliver it”.
“It is… about respecting the fact that responsibility for setting policy, for making those calls and decisions lies with the elected representatives of the people”, the Prime Minister said.
It will be interesting to see how the Prime Minister’s six guideposts showing the way forward for his Government and the public service, fit with the new paradigm for public sector service delivery that Professor Anne Tiernan will speak to at the IPAA National Conference in Darwin on 26 September 2019.