This issue

- administering inequality and the NDIS
- Australia’s future infrastructure needs
- the social state
- public audits in the new normal
- digital culture guidebook
Plus what I'm reading.

Administering inequality and the NDIS

Growing evidence shows giving citizens greater control over the public services they use may be entrenching administrative burden. An article in the Australian Journal of Public Administration examines the burden of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). It found:

• the scheme is administratively cumbersome
• burdens are exacerbated for particular social groups.

Read our brief on the article

Reforms to meet Australia’s future infrastructure needs

Infrastructure Australia’s 2021 Infrastructure Plan sets out a roadmap for infrastructure reform.

The 2021 Plan is delivered at a time of risk, change and uncertainty.

Long-term infrastructure planning is increasingly complicated by:

• the pace of technological change
• shifting geopolitical relationships
• new consumer expectations
• a trend towards localisation
• a changing climate.

Areas for reform

Proposed reforms include:

Place-based outcomes for communities: enabling investment that builds on a location’s competitive strengths or reduces place-based disadvantage.

Sustainability and resilience: balancing infrastructure outcomes in an uncertain future so communities can resist, absorb, recover, transform and thrive in response to shocks and stresses.

Delivering an integrated transport network: transport services should seamlessly connect people and goods from door-to-door urban journeys to paddock-to-plate and pit-to-port supply chains.

Enabling an affordable transition to a net zero future: Australia should export clean energy to the world from its high-tech, low-cost, low-emissions energy system.

Resilient water supplies: prioritising the safety and security of water for Australian communities.

Accelerating Australia’s transition to a circular economy: shifting from a linear waste management model can build new industries in recycling and remanufacturing.

The social state

A new Demos report is calling for a system of relational public services in response to the impact of COVID-19. Relational public services can improve outcomes by giving citizens more control and confidence to resolve their problems.

Six impacts

The report outlines the following impacts:

1. The pandemic has increased need across the landscape of social policy.
2. The pandemic has led to queues and backlogs. Lockdowns have made it harder to access services such as elective surgery and mental health support and have also caused backlogs in the courts.
3. The pandemic has increased costs. As lockdowns ease and vaccinations continue, a new normal with additional costs is being set across a range of sectors.
4. The pandemic has reduced capacity in public service partners who operate in the non-government and small-medium sector.

5. The pandemic has reduced resources with the pressure on public service budgets extremely high

6. The pandemic has changed public expectations.

Towards a relational model

The report proposes three sets of relationships that public services should foster.

1. Relationships between the professional and the service user
2. Relationships between the service and the community at large
3. Relationships between citizens or service users

A relational model is the best opportunity for change in the new normal. It can help build communities that are able to mobilise and resolve problems by themselves without relying heavily on the state.

Relational public services are also the way to make the shift from treatment of problems to prevention.

An article in Public Money & Management examines the public audit strategies from a selection of national audit offices to assess their effectiveness post COVID-19. The article focuses on the national audit offices from Aotearoa-New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States of America.

Challenges

The audit offices identified a range of challenges, including:

• rapidly evolving technology
• natural disasters
• societal violence
• acts of terrorism, money laundering and human trafficking
• internal/external country tensions and disputes.

COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges.

The impact of the new normal

While there are country differences reflecting varying experience in the COVID-19 environment, there is a significant commonality in the evolving audit environment reflecting global developments that will need to be addressed.

These include risk, use of technology, accounting and auditing standards, required disclosures, cyber security and fraud, privacy and public trust.

There will be a need to meet the particular challenges, opportunities, demands and threats of:

• the health, safety and support issues from the COVID-19 environment
• the increasing focus on program delivery and institutional performance
• the issue of climate change and its likely impacts.

What this means

There is a need for even more sharing of approaches and experience, not just within the audit and accounting communities but also with auditee organisations.

There is likely to be different audit approaches, audit methodologies and interrelationships which should add value for all concerned.

This may take time but the final judgement should be about performance and results based on shared values and ethical conduct.

Digital culture guidebook

Digital technology is driving new business models. An interactive guide from the World Economic Forum presents a suite of frameworks and tools to improve digital leadership and culture.

What is digital culture?

Organisations with a strong digital culture use digital tools and data-powered insights to drive decisions.

They focus on customer-centricity while innovating and collaborating across the organisation.

When implemented purposefully, digital culture can drive sustainable action and create value for all stakeholders.

A digital culture can help organisations:

• adapt to rapidly changing environments including workforce models and service delivery channels.
• effectively use new technology and embed the right structure mindsets to leverage technology use.
• guide decisions and strategy with the right data.

Which behaviours, mindsets and values promote digital culture?

The guide outlines four domains where behaviours, mindsets, values and organisational practices can either inhibit or promote a digital culture. The domains are:

• collaborative
• data-driven
• customer centric
• innovative.

1.      Why do we buy into the 'cult' of overwork?

The 1987 film Wall Street spun a message that if you live and breathe work (and toss in some moral flexibility) the rewards will be immense. Fast forward to 2021 and the tendency to devote ourselves to work and glamourise long-hours culture remains as pervasive as ever. New studies show that workers around the world are putting in an average of 9.2 hours of unpaid overtime per week. This BBC Worklife article traces the culture of overwork and why it persists.

2.      A trip to the doctor

This article in The Monthly is a personal account of how psychedelics are transforming mental health therapies. Researchers around the world have been trialling high doses of psychedelic substances such as LSD and psilocybin on patients with a range of psychological ailments, often with startling results. While these therapies remain illegal in Australia, there is a thriving underground scene for psychedelic therapy.

‘Til the next issue

Maria Katsonis