Getting Practical about the Public Interest
Edited by Tom Frame
Book 2: Public Interest Series
Paperback, 210 pages, $29.95
ISBN: 9781925826784
January 2020 Release
How is the public interest best served? It is one thing to define the public interest… it is another to pursue the interests of the public. Given the problems associated with abstract definitions, this collection of essays explores individual approaches to acting in the public interest and examines institutional strategies for advancing the public interest.
The contributors consider the practical dimensions of promoting and protecting the public interest in diverse settings ranging from policing to planning, and national defence to resource allocation. While the main focus is executive decision-making, they critique the processes and procedures that have been used to identify the public interest in the midst of personal hopes and private desires, political priorities and commercial aspirations. Drawing on their experience and expertise, the contributors have tried to show where the public interest began as a guiding administrative principle that became an effective practical tool.
PROFESSOR TOM FRAME AM is Director of the Public Leadership Research Group at UNSW Canberra and the Howard Library at Old Parliament House. The contributors to this collection include former federal and state cabinet ministers, civil servants, journalists and academics with expertise in public administration and national policy.
Contents
1 Defining the public interest: where lawyers fear to tread? -- Thomas Bathurst
2 Seeking definitional consensus -- Jane Johnston and Patrick Keyzer
3 Civitas to pub test -- Andrew Blyth
4 Public interest and competing interests -- Chris Wheeler
5 Trust, politics and the public interest -- Geoff Gallop
6 Maintaining public trust in government -- Peter Shergold
7 Character and the public interest -- John Uhr
8 Excluding the public from the public interest -- Clinton Fernandes
9 Effectiveness, efficiency and the public interest: the case of the ADF -- Chip Saint
10 Police officers or law enforcers? -- Clement O’Regan
11 Philosophical tension and the public interest: the case of the NDIS -- Simon Joyce
12 Managing water in the Murray-Darling Basin -- Wendy Craik
13 Universities and the public interest -- Tom Frame
[ITEMPRICE]