John F. Martin - Reorienting a Nation: Consultants and Australian Public Policy

First published 1998 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge

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Copyright John F. Martin 1998

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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 97039110

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-32804-4 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-32805-1 (pbk)

ISBN 13: 978-0-429-44892-8 (ebk)

Many people have provided support and encouragement over the period that this research has been in the making. My doctoral supervisor Jane Marceau was of great support to me as were Barry Hindess and Don Anderson who were always prepared to make time to discuss my work. To them go my sincere thanks.

Pat Troy and his colleagues at the Urban Research Program provided me with more than time and space when I took six months off in the latter half of 1990 to work full-time on the research. Pat provided the ideal balance of freedom and support to think while always quietly edging one towards an outcome. Will Sanders and Stephen Mugford, also at the Australian National University, provided support and encouragement throughout the research.

My colleagues in the Faculty of Management at the University of Canberra have provided a supportive work environment for me to complete this research. To Jim McMaster, Roger Wettenhall, John Halligan, Chris Aulich, Marian Sawer, Gwyn Singleton, Harry Oxley, Paul Kringas, Frank Hicks, John OBrien and Jim Hanratty go my thanks.

Special thanks to Zoe DArcy in the Centre for Research in Public Sector Management who with Michelle Whyard from the Australian Centre for Regional and Local Government Studies prepared the manuscript for publication.

This book reports on the use of consultants by Hawke Labor Governments in the mid-to-late 1980s to review public policy in the fields of social welfare, public housing, immigration, public health and relations with Australias North East Asian neighbours. The research is based on the hypothesis that, in a context of significant social and economic change, governments are especially likely to engage sympathetic consultants to review public policy. They do so because consultants provide an additional layer of protection from attack on proposed policies by political adversaries for ministers and governments who want to alter policy direction radically and to do so over a longer and more thorough period of data gathering and reflection than is normally possible in the political world. Consultants are also successful in getting their recommendations accepted by government because they are able to successfully manage the process of decision-making surrounding policy reviews. Further, the widely acknowledged expertise of the consultants and their independent status from government legitimates the review process and assists the establishment of a new agenda within a particular policy field. The use of consultants in policy-making in this way allows politicians and bureaucrats to maintain control over the process, while not being seen as the central actors.

The management of the policy review process is therefore as important as the policy outcomes. The use of consultants improves the degree of visibility, or transparency, in the decision-making processes of government. In his classic study of university decision-making, F. G. Bailey (1977) highlights this aspect when he refers to different arenas of decision-making and draws a theatrical analogy to highlight the degree of visibility of the decision-making process. He refers to decisions being made on-stage in the public arena, off-stage in the semi-public arena, and out-the-stage-door in private decision-making arenas. Bailey suggests that all the processes leading to decision-making go through the less public arenas before the decision is made in the most public arena, on-stage. The use of consultants by government to review public policy parallels the metaphor of the theatre. The use of high-level consultants allows governments to make major decisions while only being on stage quite late in the process of developing the available options. Consultants to government play an important, high profile public role, joining key decision-makers on centre stage.