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MINISTERIAL STAFF IN AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT
Author(s) -
Dunn Delmer D.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8500.1995.tb01164.x
Subject(s) - commonwealth , public administration , government (linguistics) , administration (probate law) , politics , political science , public relations , control (management) , advice (programming) , management , law , economics , philosophy , linguistics , computer science , programming language
This study examines the ministerial staff in Australian commonwealth government to discover what they do and how they assist ministers in achieving political control of departments. The data consist of interviews with ministers, departmental secretaries and ministerial staff. The study finds that ministerial staff offer policy advice in much the same way as found by James Walter in his study almost a decade before this one. But there does appear to be more emphasis on monitoring departmental implementation of policy and brokering positions within government than was the case in the earlier study. The study concludes that the relationship between ministers and their offices and the departmental secretaries is characterised by a conditionally cooperative approach, which is similar to that recommended by several public administration scholars.