Media release - Helping the Public Service meet Contemporary Government Challenges

Issued 25 October 2007

How do you keep a public service agency ‘healthy’?

How does a public servant even begin to deal with complex and intractable problems such as climate change and long-standing, poor Indigenous health?

The Australian Public Service Commissioner, Lynelle Briggs, today launched four publications in a new series entitled Contemporary Government Challenges that discusses and offers some solutions to challenges like these that are facing Australian Public Service (APS) agencies.

“We are recognised as having one of the best public services in the world, but we can only keep this reputation if we are constantly striving to improve.” Ms Briggs said. “To stay in front, we need to be working together on reform directions and challenging each other to do better. I expect this series to stimulate considerable debate and discussion.”

The four publications launched in the series are:

Building Better Governance: case studies that show what a number of APS agencies have done to improve their governance arrangements
Tackling Wicked Problems : A public policy perspective: ideas to stimulate debate around tackling ‘wicked’, or seemingly intractable, problems
Changing behaviour: A public policy perspective: how democratic governments can most effectively influence their citizens’ behaviour
Agency Health: Monitoring agency health and improving performance: ways to assist agencies to monitor their corporate health.

Each of the four publications will be available on the Commission’s website www.apsc.gov.au on Friday 26 October 2007.

The next in the series will tackle devolved government arrangements – the benefits and risks of APS agencies contracting out the delivery of services to non-government organisations.

Contact Officer

Ngaire Hosking
Group Manager Evaluation
Tel: 02 6202 3707 or ngaire.hosking@apsc.gov.au

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