Anne Tiernan

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

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 prime ministers’ chiefs of staff

The Gatekeepers

Herman Bakvis

Patrick Weller

The first volume in a series of comparative studies within the ESRC's Whitehall Programme focuses on core executives in five parliamentary democracies comparing the Westminster model as in Australia, Canada and Britain with the continental democracies of Germany and the Netherlands showing how political leadership is shackled by a vast array of constraints, from globalisation to internal fragmentation and rationalisation, making a heroic model of decisive political leadership hard to sustain.

R.A.W. Rhodes

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