Anne Tiernan

Jenny M. Lewis

"BOOK Abstract: The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics is a comprehensive collection that considers Australia's distinctive politics-both ancient and modern-at all levels and across many themes. It examines the factors that make Australian politics unique and interesting, while firmly placing these in the context of the nation's Indigenous and imported heritage and global engagement. The book presents an account of Australian politics that recognizes and celebrates its inherent diversity by taking a thematic approach in six parts. The first theme addresses Australia's unique inheritances, examining the development of its political culture in relation to the arrival of British colonists and their conflicts with First Nations peoples, as well as the resulting geopolitics. The second theme, improvization, focuses on Australia's political institutions and how they have evolved. Place-making is then considered to assess how geography, distance, Indigenous presence, and migration shape Australian politics. Recurrent dilemmas centre on a range of complex, political problems and their influence on contemporary political practice. Politics, policy, and public administration cover how Australia has been a world leader in some respects, and a laggard in others when dealing with important policy challenges. The final theme, studying Australian politics, introduces some key areas in the study of Australian politics and identifies the strengths and shortcomings of the discipline. This Handbook is an opportunity for others to consider the nation's unique politics from the perspective of leading and emerging scholars, and to gain a strong sense of its imperfections, its enduring challenges, and its strengths. Key Words: Australia, politics, policy, Indigenous heritage, colonial settlement, political institutions, place-making, political dilemmas, policy, and public administration, studying politics"--

The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics

Jennifer Menzies

In the second revised edition of this monograph, Jennifer Menzies and Anne Tiernan capably chart the often hazardous terrain of the ‘caretaker period’ that ensues from the time an election is called until a new government is formed. This is a landscape fraught with political and administrative dangers – particularly for public servants who are required to ‘mind the shop’ and keep the basically machinery of government going. The conventions represent an historical accretion of custom, practice and rules, often leavened with uncertainty. In tackling their subject, Menzies and Tiernan draw upon their shared past experiences as public servants and ministerial ‘staffers’ as well as the highest standards of academic scholarship – this is a ‘must read’ for politicians, public servants and students of government. The second edition expands on the first edition by documenting recent controversies and trends which have had an impact on caretaker conventions. The analysis of the contemporary application of caretaker conventions has been updated and new case studies included – particularly from the last federal election. Also included is additional material about lengthy government formation after election day and the management of caretaker conventions during that time. The New Zealand material has been revised and updated.

Minding the Shop for Government

Caretaker Conventions in Australasia

R. A. W. Rhodes

So, you want to be Chief of Staff to the Australian Prime Minister? The Gatekeepers provides the key lessons to equip you for the job. Australian prime ministers need help and it is their chief of staff who supports the person and the office, steering the prime minister through the challenges and landmines of political leadership. It is about making sure the urgent doesn't crowd out the important. It comes down to finely tuned coordination. It is about winning support in cabinet, caucus and country. The Gatekeepers offers unparalleled insights into how things really work at the centre of Australia's governing networks from those who have worked as chiefs of staff under prime ministers from Fraser to Rudd. It identifies eight key lessons for success as the PM's gatekeeper and shock absorber. It reveals what to do, what not to do, how to do it and how not to do it.

Lessons from Primer Ministers' Chiefs of Staff

The Gatekeepers

R.A.W. Rhodes

Lessons in Governing is a unique contribution to the study of Australian policy, politics and government institutions. It examines the position of Chief of Staff to the Australian Prime Minister from the perspective of key individuals who have held it. Exploring the support needs of Australian political leaders, it traces the forces that have shaped the growth and specialisation of the Prime Minister's Office since Gough Whitlam first formalised the appointment of a trusted senior person as head of his private office in 1972. Individuals in successive PMOs have long been recognised as key players, but their role has come under greater scrutiny as the link between prime ministerial effectiveness and the performance of their private offices has become more widely understood. While insights and advice have been passed from one incumbent to the next, there has been no systematic attempt to understand and document the evolution of the chief-of-staff position. Lessons in Governing addresses this critical gap in our understanding of the contemporary practice of Australian political leadership, reporting the findings of a project designed to develop an empirically informed understanding of the role of prime ministerial chiefs of staff as seen by those who held the post.

A Profile of Prime Ministers’ Chiefs of Staff

Lessons in Governing

Lessons from prime ministers’ chiefs of staff

A raft of recent political scandals in Australia has generated widespread media and public interest in the role and accountability of ministerial staffers, and their impact on relations between ministers and their public service advisers. Such scandals include the notorious ‘Children Overboard’ affair and the more recent AWB imbroglio. In Power Without Responsibility Anne Tiernan describes the contemporary working environment of political staffers, their formal and less formal roles, the challenges they face, and the forces that have escalated the growth in their numbers and influence.

Anne Tiernan

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