School of Social and Political SciencesCentre for Public Policy



PPN 2012 Draft Programme


Public Policy Network Conference 2012
25 - 27 January 2012

Rydges on Swanston, Swanston Street, Melbourne

Host: University of Melbourne
Convenor: Helen Sullivan

Presenters, please ensure that you arrive at the venue at least 5 minutes before the commencement of your session. Upon arrival please confirm your attendance with Conference Reception and familiarize yourself with the venue


Wednesday 25th Jan

5pm - 6.30pm Informal welcome drinks, Blues Bar - Rydges Hotel


Thursday 26th Jan

Session Time Author Title
8.45 Helen Sullivan Opening address & welcome
Values, problems and evidence in policy
9.00 Linda Botterill, Geoff Cockfield and Lawrence Pratchett Ideas, ideologies, values and beliefs: desperately seeking definitional clarity
9.30 Brian Head, Adrian Cherney and Paul Boreham The role of academics in influencing policy: aspirations and impacts
10.00 Liz van Acker Australian policy responses to the 'problem' of the decline of marriage
10.30 Morning Tea– Swanston Lounge
Deciding and governing in difficult times
11.00 Adam Graycar Does corruption affect public policy
11.30 Kate Crowley Governing climate change: the role of advisory councils
12.00 Linda Colley Decision making in a crisis: Employment strategies of Australian state governments for their own workforces
12.30 Lunch - Rydges Restaurant
Contested policy directions
1.30 John Phillimore and Alan Tapper Prevention based approaches to social policy
2.00 Geoff Cockfield The Murray-Darling Basin Plan as post-productivist policy
2.30 Brian Coffey 'Protecting the environment' or 'locking up the coast': Unpacking recent controversies associated with consideration of Marine Protected Areas in Australia
3.00 Afternoon Tea - Swanston Lounge
Implementation and agency
3.30 Tim Tenbensel, Peter Carswell, Linda Chalmers and Esther Willing Differential policy implementation: How and why the same policy directives have different consequences in different contexts
4.00 Tom Dick et al Intellectual property policy in Vanuatu
4.30 Timothy P Fadgen Foreign and indigenous professionals and their networks: a critical analysis of mental health policy and law transfer in Samoa and Tonga
6.30- 9.00 Conference Dinner

Rydges Hotel - Bouverie Room

Speaker Dr Helen Szoke, Race Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission

Friday 27th Jan

Session Time Author Title
Stability and change in public policy
9.00 Alan Fenna and Alan Tapper Welfare State Retrenchment in Australia?
9.30 Keith Dowding, Andrew Hindmoor, Aaron Martin and Adam Packer The Australian policy agendas project: introduction and reflections
10.00 John Halligan Emergent bureaucratisation within the Australian public service
10.30 Morning Tea - Swanston Lounge
Power and politics in policy
11.00 Aynsley Kellow Arenas of power in an era of global governance
11.30 Paul Fawcett Comparing competing conceptualizations of the British state: Metagovernance and the asymmetric power model
12.00 Scott Brenton The impact of Green Parties on policy responses to climate change
12.30 Lunch - Rydges Restaurant
1.30 – 3.00 Convenor Helen Sullivan; Chair Glyn Davis, V-C University of Melbourne Public Policy in the 'Asian century'

Joint Session with SOG
3.00 Afternoon Tea – Swanston Lounge
Constitutional dilemmas
3.30 Grant Duncan Constitutional challenges in New Zealand
4.00 John Power Fiducial governance in a presidentialist regime: The West Wing as a vehicle for constitutional reform
4.30 PPN 2013 and General Business
5.00 Conference close
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