Reorienting a Nation: Consultants and Australian Public Policy

First published in 1998, this volume examines how in the 1980s Australian governments experienced dramatic change in the policy-making environment. The use of consultants by successive Hawke Labour governments in the mid-to-late 1980s to facilitate reviews of public policy was a strategy important to dealing with the complexity of these issues. This book shows how the use of policy consultants complements traditional policy-making processes and the management of public policy change by government. In the 1980s Australian governments experienced dramatic and often unprecedented change in policy-making environment. Moves towards market-orientated, ‘small’ government in a context of worlds economic liberalisation created new and challenging issues for national governments. The use of consultants by successive Hawke Labour governments in the mid-to-late 1980s to facilitate reviews of public policy was a strategy important to dealing with the complexity of these issues. Using insights from a range of public policy literatures, the research investigated the hypothesis that the use of consultants to review important policy areas could be an effective strategy for devising major new directions needed in a context of economic turbulence. In this situation, the book suggests, use of policy consultants complements traditional policy-making processes and the management of public policy change by government.