This issue

–trust in government
– social policy and COVID-19
– gender inclusive competition policy
– technology and the future of the government workforce
– steering through capability
Plus what I'm reading.

Research brief: Trust in government increased during COVID‐19 in Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand  ​

Research for a paper in the Australian Journal of Public Administration by ANZSOG WA Government Chair in Public Administration and Policy Professor Shaun Goldfinch, and co-authors Professor Ross Taplin and Robin Gauld, found a dramatic increase in people’s trust in government in Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand as a result of the COVID pandemic. There was also a high level of confidence in public health scientists. Read our brief on the paper. 

Social policy opportunities from COVID-19 ​

The measures put in place by government and health authorities to arrest the spread of COVID-19 have abruptly changed nearly all aspects of peoples’ lives. A CEDA paper by social policy experts from the Life Course Centre looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic has brought opportunities to address long-standing problems in: 

• health 
• labour markets 
• the tax and transfer system 
• gender equality 
• education 
• housing 
• criminal justice.  

What can we learn from COVID-19 to reduce disadvantage? 

• The rollout of telehealth has overcome some of the costs of and barriers to accessing healthcare. Further evaluation of the system should be undertaken. 

• Working from home has benefits for households and businesses. The gains from a flexible working environment, including workforce participation and more time with families, should not be forgotten as more workers return to the office. 
• The increase to the rate of the JobSeeker unemployment benefit has reduced the number of people living in poverty. It should not return to its previous level. 
• Childcare is crucially important to workforce participation and needs to remain a focus as the economy recovers. 
• Digital delivery of education, when combined with face-to-face and collaborative learning, can be very successful. However equity and access to resources must be addressed. 
• Governments can address homelessness, and the long-term benefits of housing-first approaches are successful at reducing homelessness. 
• Increased spending on mental health, domestic violence and community support services will help many and will better enable the criminal justice system to protect vulnerable people. 

Gender inclusive competition policy ​

While progress is being made in many areas of gender equality, the relationship between gender and competition policy remains largely unexplored. The OECD has announced seven projects that will generate new evidence on developing a more gender inclusive competition policy.

Why focus on competition policy? 

Competition policy usually thinks in terms of consumers and firms, government and regulators. Traditionally, consumers have been considered only by their willingness to pay, their (rational) preferences, their ability to substitute between products offered by firms. Meanwhile, firms are treated as entities that are defined by the profit-maximising objectives of their owners, and only rarely seen as collections of people. Competition policy is therefore largely gender blind. 

About the research 

The projects range from whether consumer surveys have differences in response by gender to the case for extending public interest considerations to include gender inequality. The research is part of a broader OECD project on whether a gender lens might help deliver a more effective competition policy by identifying: 

• additional relevant features of the market 

• behaviour of consumers and firms 

• whether a more effective competition policy can help address gender inequality. 

The research will also feed into the OECD's development of a practical toolkit for competition authorities who are interested in building a gender inclusive competition policy. 

A UK Institute for Government report looks at how new and emerging technology will change the nature of work in government. These technologies will make it easier to do many tasks quicker, more cheaply, and on a greater scale than before. 

What are the new and emerging technologies? 

1. Learning from data to perform tasks which normally require human-level intelligence e.g. artificial intelligence, machine learning, algorithms. 
2. New ways to securely store and share information or mediate transactions e.g. blockchain, cryptocurrencies, biometrics, privacy enhancing technologies. 
3. Interacting with the physical world and performing tasks with degrees of autonomy e.g. drones, mechanical robots, wearables, autonomous vehicles. 
4. New ways to interact with information and explore virtual worlds and scenarios e.g. data visualisation, augmented reality, simulations. 
5. Providing infrastructure or enabling other new types of technology e.g. cloud services, 5G networks, quantum processors, internet of things. 

Current workforce 

Automation will change more roles in government than it eliminates. Most roles in government involve a mix of routine and non-routine tasks and it will be the routine that is affected. Data gathering and analysis, responding to customer requests and routine business functions in finance and HR are some of the types of work that will be changed. 

Automation will also impact analytical work. Automating data validation is the first step towards automating analysis and decision making. Data validation ensures that the information government uses to make decisions or inform policy is complete and error-free.  

Using machines to make decisions will be more complex. Small routine decisions are a first step such as automated management of leave requests or deciding when or where to dispatch an inspector. 

New jobs  

New technologies will create new jobs in government including: 

• Regulators to develop regimes to ensure the safe use of new technologies such as autonomous vehicles, drones, and novel types of financial instrument such as cryptoassets. 
• Roles that guide and govern the use of technology in government such as data management, cybersecurity, risk governance and ethics. 

Steering through capability ​

Can a society be steered? This Demos Helsinki paper argues governments should steer and can show the way for overcoming transformational challenges such as the climate crisis and ageing populations.  

Tools for steering 

Governments have been able to use a wide mix of tools to steer. They include force, law and coercion, which have all played a role – including penalties for non-compliance. They have also used rewards and recognition; persuasion; information and public education; and celebration. 

Some imagine steering in purely hierarchical terms, setting out rules and directions from the top and then cascading them down. Others see things much more in terms of networks. Most steering exercises combine elements of hierarchy, networks, competition and cooperation. 

Five keys for future steering 

1. Direction plus experimentation: Steering can combine clear long-term direction with experimentation and innovation. Governments also need to work with business and NGOs, and wherever possible share knowledge, data and lessons. 
2. Data and knowledge needs to be organised as a ‘commons’ with a focus on accessibility and visibility.  
3. Formal cross-sector partnerships: Collaboration is needed across sectors with partnerships needing to be to disciplined and precise about objectives. 
4. Democracy as a verb not a noun:  Active engagement with citizens is essential through citizens’ assemblies, online deliberations and other participatory tools. 
5. Capability-based governance: The primary ways in which tiers of government interact should be about enhancing capabilities and problem-solving skills. 

Silver linings: What are the ‘keepers’ from 2020? 
A Power to Persuade blog post celebrates 2020’s silver linings. These include: 

• the global reduction in pollution and carbon emissions 
• the community spirit and cooperation that was foundational to Australia’s success at containing COVID-19 
• a new-found appreciation for female-dominated industries, many of which are categorised as ‘essential services’.  

The stigma attached to people who receive income support has lessened and there was greater community understanding of the difficulties faced by victim/survivors of family violence to remain safe and access help. 

The next normal arrives: Trends that will define 2021. 
This McKinsey article identifies some of the trends that will shape the next normal in 2021. These include: 

• the return of confidence unleashes a consumer rebound 
• the crisis sparks a wave of innovation and launches a generation of entrepreneurs 
• green, with a touch of brown, is the colour of recovery 
• healthcare systems take stock—and make changes 
• the hangovers begin as governments tackle rising debt. 

‘Til the next issue

Maria Katsonis