June
Sign up for our newsletters
Breaking news, specialist coverage, the best opinion and analysis. Straight to your inbox.
- Updated
May
- Analysis
- Government Observed
Labor’s green superpower plan will need a new public service
Expertise in green hydrogen, photonic quantum physics, large-scale lithium batteries and next-generation mineralogy are not skills you typically see on Canberra CVs.
- Tom Burton
March
- Analysis
- Aged care
Health chief invokes ‘AFR test’ in proposal writing overhaul
Blair Comley has applied what he calls “the AFR test” as he pushes executives in his federal health department to write and think more clearly.
- Tom Burton
February
- Opinion
- Workplace culture
Parties, staff beauty contests and a ‘god’ dais: How the ATO has changed
Secrecy and privacy were legendary in the closed shop of the Australian Taxation Office where staffers were encouraged to socialise only with their colleagues. But times have changed.
- Tom Burton
January
- Opinion
- Opinion
How government became its own drag on productivity
If Anthony Albanese wants to do something about the cost of living, he could start by looking inside his own house first.
- Sinclair Davidson
November 2023
The woman at the heart of your data protection
Amid rapid technology change, federal privacy and information commissioner Angelene Falk has had to learn how to anticipate the harmful effects on consumers.
- Tom Burton
A top spy shares her best career advice for success
The woman running one of Australia’s key intelligence agencies is not a morning person, schedules meetings after 9.30am, and most fears the threat from within.
- Tom Burton
PwC spin-off Scyne to officially begin operating from November 13
Once the deal is finalised on Wednesday, it will be fully independent of PwC Australia and owned by Allegro and Scyne staff.
- Edmund Tadros
October 2023
- Analysis
- Government Observed
‘Nice but lacking confidence’: what’s wrong with the public service
A series of reviews of federal agencies shows that public servants are being asked to lead but still don’t have the capability.
- Tom Burton
How consulting made Blair Comley a better public servant
The incoming Health Department boss has helped reform the GST, design Kevin Rudd’s carbon reduction scheme and Julia Gillard’s carbon tax. He answers our public servant Q&A.
- Ronald Mizen
PwC spin-off Scyne gets Canberra green light
The powerful Department of Finance has signed off on the private equity-backed consultancy, allowing it to do government work.
- Edmund Tadros
Meet the top tax bureaucrat who can’t stand liars
Tax Inspector-General and Tax Ombudsman Karen Payne talks about what big law can teach the APS and her love of Ennio Morricone, in our public servant Q&A.
- Ronald Mizen
July 2023
AFR makes appointments in wealth, politics and economics
Joanna Mather has been appointed Wealth Editor; Ronald Mizen will cover the intersection of business, politics, economics and the law; and Michael Read has been appointed economics correspondent.
June 2023
- Exclusive
- Public service
Labor ‘carbon tax’ architect set to return as new Health boss
The man best known as a chief architect of the Rudd government’s carbon pollution reductions scheme will replace Brendan Murphy as Health Department secretary.
- Ronald Mizen
May 2023
Inside national cabinet’s early COVID-19 decisions
Documents released after a fight in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal reveal how national cabinet confronted the pandemic in the early days of COVID-19.
- Tom Burton
April 2023
Foreign targeting of defence insiders ramped up after AUKUS deal: ASIO
Hostile foreign powers are trying to develop relationships with people who have the highest-level security clearances, to exploit them for state secrets.
- Max Mason
December 2022
A summer of COVID soup, and what governments are doing about it
Inside Government is The Australian Financial Review’s newsletter covering the inner workings of federal and state governments, and the people who pull the levers. It’s free, and in your inbox every Friday.
- Tom Burton
November 2022
- Analysis
- Government Observed
At last, consumers to take centre stage on digital safety
After years of consumer interests taking a back seat, federal cabinet is about to consider reforms that are expected to vastly improve the security of citizens’ personal information.
- Tom Burton
- Analysis
- Public service
Robodebt a case study for a public service that lost its courage
The royal commission into robodebt reveals a public service that lost its courage, as a key witness admits she should have spoken up.
- Tom Burton
Public sector growing with Australia: ABS
Australia’s 2.16 million-strong public sector has grown by 14 per cent over the past decade, in line with the country’s population growth
- Tom Burton
