John Butcher - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by John Butcher

Australian Journal of Public Administration

In this chapter we trace the history of formal policy frameworks for cross sector cooperation in ... more In this chapter we trace the history of formal policy frameworks for cross sector cooperation in Australia’s states and territories. Inspired by the original ‘English’ Compact, initiated by the Blair Labour government in 1998, the policy frameworks examined are intended to establish agreed rules of engagement between government (and its instrumentalities) and the not-for-profit (NFP) sector — especially those parts of the sector upon which government has become increasingly reliant for the delivery of public services.

Modern governments have undergone significant change over the past 30 years. Such change has impa... more Modern governments have undergone significant change over the past 30 years. Such change has impacted on the way governments structure their organisations, deliver services and relate to their citizenry. But how has public policy formulation changed and affected the design and delivery of government programs and services in Australia? Policy in Action is the first book to address this question, offering descriptive accounts of how public services programs are designed and implemented and how they might be better managed.

Australian Journal of Public Administration, 2010

Australia Under Construction Nation-building past, present and future Edited by John Butcher, Apr 1, 2008

Policy Design and Practice

Developing and implementing social policy aimed at resolving wicked problems has occupied governm... more Developing and implementing social policy aimed at resolving wicked problems has occupied governments and not-for-profit organizations for decades. Such problems are enduring due to their complexity, resulting in a need to harness multiple skills and significant resources to the effort to solve them. Collaboration is one response to this need and is logical because such arrangements have the potential to bring to bear differing experiences, greater resources, and a higher level of understanding. However, collaboration is not easy and, if not done well, can result in significant costs in time and money as well as poor outcomes for those affected. In this paper, we identify the necessary attributes of successful collaborations by examining five case studies that provide important insights into sound collaborative practice.

Australian Journal of Political Science

The emergence of 'compacts' between government and the 'third' or 'not-forprofit' sector is intim... more The emergence of 'compacts' between government and the 'third' or 'not-forprofit' sector is intimately linked to the comprehensive transformation of the welfare state. The first compacts in the United Kingdom in 1998 spawned similar policy instruments in other jurisdictions, including Australia. In 2006 the Labor opposition led by Kevin Rudd undertook to repair a 'broken' relationship between the federal government and the not-for-profit sector. The National Compact, launched in March 2010, was an initial step in a bumpy policy journey. Prime Minister Rudd was replaced in June 2010 by Julia Gillard, who portrayed the National Compact as the 'foundation stone' of a broader reform agenda. Although dogged by political instability, Gillard pursued groundbreaking reforms in the not-for-profit policy space. These reforms are now threatened with repeal by the Coalition government elected in 2013. This paper attempts to explain why Labor's reform agenda appears set to unravel.

Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

In New Zealand the Clark Labour government (1999-2008) advocated entering into a compact with the... more In New Zealand the Clark Labour government (1999-2008) advocated entering into a compact with the country’s community and voluntary sector. However, owing in part to the reticence of New Zealand’s national umbrella organisations, a bilateral framework agreement between government and the sector was never formalised. It was not until May 2011 that a framework document – Kia Tūtahi Standing Together: The Relationship Accord between the Communities of Aotearoa New Zealand and the Government of New Zealand – was ratified by the National Party government led by Prime Minister, John Key, thus marking the culmination of a decade-long national discussion. This paper charts that policy journey and highlights the importance of key political events and the ways in which key policy actors exploited the windows of policy opportunity associated with those events.

Professor Wanna has produced around 17 books including two national text books on policy and publ... more Professor Wanna has produced around 17 books including two national text books on policy and public management. He has produced a number of research-based studies on budgeting and financial management including: Budgetary Management and Control (1990); Managing Public Expenditure (2000), From Accounting to Accountability (2001) and, most recently, Controlling Public Expenditure (2003). He has just completed a study of state level leadership covering all the state and territory leaders-entitled Yes Premier: Labor leadership in Australia's states and territories-and has edited a book on Westminster Legacies in Asia and the Pacific-Westminster Legacies: Democracy and responsible government in Asia and the Pacific. He was a chief investigator in a major Australian Research Council funded study of the Future of Governance in Australia (1999-2001) involving Griffith and the ANU. His research interests include Australian and comparative politics, public expenditure and budgeting, and government-business relations. He also writes on Australian politics in newspapers such as The Australian, Courier-Mail and The Canberra Times and has been a regular state political commentator on ABC radio and TV. 1. Nation-building in Australia: a discourse, iconic project or tradition of resonance?, John Wanna 1 2. The unfinished business of nation-building, John Butcher 7 3. In the wake of economic reform … new prospects for nation-building?, Michael Pusey 4. The challenge of teaching Australian history, Anna Clark 5. A passion for white elephants: some lessons from Australia's experience of nation building, Dr Richard Evans 6. Populate, parch and panic: two centuries of dreaming about nation-building in inland Australia, Dr Robert Wooding 7. Australia's fiscal straitjacket, Fred Argy 8. The 'Building Better Cities' program 1991-96: a nation-building initiative of the Commonwealth Government, Lyndsay Neilson 9. Stumbling towards nation-building: impediments to progress, Anthony F. Shepherd 119 10. Broadbanding the nation: lessons from Canada or shortcomings in Australian federalism?, Michael de Percy 127 11. Re-imagining the Australian state: political structures and policy strategies, Ian Marsh

From the late 1980s relationships between Australian governments and thirdsector organisations (T... more From the late 1980s relationships between Australian governments and thirdsector organisations (TSOs) have increasingl.v.been shaped by the logic of economic rationalism. Various initiatives typically associated with New Public Management (NPM) have focused on the achievement ofstructural and systemic reform-sometimes at the expense of the formation and maintenance ofsocial capital. This paper asks whether social capital is set to emerge as a major theme in public policy at the national level and, if so, what the implications are for third-sector organisations participating in newly contestable quasimarkets for health, labour market and community sen'ices.

International Journal of Social Economics, 2007

The Journal of Sociology Social Welfare, 2015

Restraint by government in the area of social service spending in the 1980's has become an issue ... more Restraint by government in the area of social service spending in the 1980's has become an issue of grave concern for social service practitioners, planners, and administrators. The emergence in North America of neo-conservative economic policies has engendered a body of critical and provocative literature which examines the effects of "restraint economics". Recent work in geography has sought to locate the supply-side trend within a framework of macro-level processes. These suggest that a declining public commitment to maintaining the social safety net is linked to broader structural changes in the workplace and spatial shifts of capital and industry (

The announcement in 2006 by the Rudd-led Labor opposition to pursue the development of a ‘Compact... more The announcement in 2006 by the Rudd-led Labor opposition to pursue the development of a ‘Compact’ between a federal Labor government and Australia’s not-for-profit sector echoed earlier initiatives in the United Kingdom under Blair’s ‘New Labor’. This was both an exercise in political ‘re-branding’ and a genuine attempt to ‘civilise’ a relationship damaged by the previous government’s pursuit of purist principal-agent doctrines. Australia’s National Compact, announced in 2010, is but one element of a broader reform agenda to address a variety of structural and regulatory deficits that have long beset the not-for-profit sector. This presentation considers the implementation of the not-for-profit sector reform agenda in the context of the political and policy turmoil that has been a signature of the Rudd-Gillard Labor administrations.

If the trajectory of agglomeration and amalgamation of organisations is allowed to run its course... more If the trajectory of agglomeration and amalgamation of organisations is allowed to run its course over the next two decades, I fear we will see a welfare arms race in which the lion's share of government funding will go to super-sized welfare businesses, some of which will be 'for-profit' in nature, and the smaller, community-based and faith-based organisations will be marginalised or left completely undone...This is a world in which these large Not for Profit organisations, for all intents and purposes, function and look little different from similar-sized 'for-profit' organisations. Tony Nicholson, Executive Director Brotherhood of St Laurence (2014) Abstract The Australian nonprofit sector has grown in both size and policy salience. It is well-recognised that the nonprofit sector speaks with many voices, however, it is also possible that some voices are more equal than others. We argue that gains in voice and public leverage have mainly accrued to a group of l...

Policy interest in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector has grown in step with government’s interest i... more Policy interest in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector has grown in step with government’s interest in leveraging the capacity of non-state players to perform service delivery functions. Once consigned to the periphery of policy-making, the NFP sector is now widely accepted as an essential player in a mixed economy of service provision. Increasingly, the achievement of public policy objectives requires working collaboratively across sector boundaries. Government’s engagement with NFP service providers has, on many occasions, been found wanting. The use of competitive tendering and contracting for the purpose of leveraging greater economic and technical efficiency, choice, responsiveness and innovation in the delivery of selected statutory public services has introduced a range of tensions, contradictions and externalities including failures to fund the full cost of service delivery, the uncertainty of year-to-year contracts, burdensome reporting and compliance requirements, and the subs...

In this article, Australian National University PhD candidate, John Butcher, aims to‘contextualis... more In this article, Australian National University PhD candidate, John Butcher, aims to‘contextualise’ compacts as a policy phenomenon. He also asks whether they have on-going relevance and canvasses factors important to their success. Over the past three decades the ‘third sector’ has gone from playing a complementaryrole to that of government – essentially filling in the gaps left by state provision – to being an essential partner in the delivery of mandated public services.As a result it is now generally accepted that the achievement of public policyobjectives requires government departments and agencies to work collaborativelyacross sector boundaries. Although governments still pay the bill when it comes to policy and program delivery, they are no longer the sole repository of knowledge,legitimacy or capacity.Increasing dependence on third sector service providers has prompted governments around the world to regularise relations with the third sector – in particular those partsof t...

Vita. Thesis (M.A.)--University of British Columbia, 1986. Includes bibliographical references (l... more Vita. Thesis (M.A.)--University of British Columbia, 1986. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-291). Restraint by government in the area of social service spending in the 1980's has become an issue of grave concern for social service practitioners, planners, and administrators . The emergence in North America of neo-conservative economic policies has engendered a body of critical and provocative literature which examines the effects of "restraint economics." The neo-conservative construction of a "post welfare State," propelled by economic crises, has involved a redefinition by the State of its mandate for the redistribution of the "public wage." The "privatisation" of services through reduction or cancellation of programs, the increasing use of contracted services, and through deinstitutionalisation and deregulation may obviate the redistributive aims of the welfare State and create instead a basis for more pervasive social an...

Policy and Society, 2014

Under Australia's federal system subnational governments fund the delivery of a wide range of pub... more Under Australia's federal system subnational governments fund the delivery of a wide range of public services. In particular, state and territory governments have increasingly looked to the non-profit sector to deliver human services under contract. Over time, the contracting regimes employed by public sector commissioners have taken on more 'relational' characteristics, accompanied by a gradual softening of public sector resistance to non-profit sector input into policy development. Nevertheless, the Australian non-profit sector is fragmented and, although policy capacity within the sector has undoubtedly matured, it is also unevenly distributed. Almost two decades of contracting has left its mark on organisational culture. There are fears within the nonprofit sector that it is organisations with the largest 'market share' that gain a seat at the policy table.

Nonprofit Policy Forum, 2012

The Australian Labor Party (ALP) formed government under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2007 promis... more The Australian Labor Party (ALP) formed government under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2007 promising to consult with the not-for-profit sector on the development of a national compact. It was the government’s aim to forge a new settlement with the sector after eleven years of Liberal/National Coalition government during which contractual governance rather than relational governance was the norm. The provenance of the National Compact, launched in March 2010, can be traced back to similar framework documents for inter-sectoral cooperation in the United Kingdom (principally, The Compact) and Canada (the Accord). The National Compact) cannot be explained solely in terms of policy diffusion or the predilection of centre-right political parties for policy instruments of this sort. Rather, explanation requires a more nuanced contextual analysis of the political and policy environment within which these frameworks emerged. In this article we compare the range of factors contributing to the...