The Westminster Tradition
Unpacking lessons for the public service, starting with the Robodebt Royal Commission.
In 2019, after three years, Robodebt was found to be unlawful. The Royal Commission process found it was also immoral and wildly inaccurate.
In 2019, after three years, Robodebt was found to be unlawful. The Royal Commission process found it was also immoral and wildly inaccurate.
Ultimately the Australian Government was forced to pay $1.8bn back to more than 470,000 Australians.
In this podcast we dive deep into public policy failures like Robodebt and the British Post Office scandal - how they start, why they're hard to stop, and the public service lessons we shouldn't forget.
Podcasting since 2023 • 59 episodes
The Westminster Tradition
Latest Episodes
The Billion-Dollar Payroll Disaster: lessons from Queensland Health’s Payroll System
In this episode, Danielle, Caroline and Alison look at ANOTHER big ICT transformation project, with enormous human impacts and a long and expensive clean up. The Queensland Health payroll system failure ranks as one of Australia's w...
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Season 3
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Episode 16
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42:14
Working from home: when flexibility becomes political
In this episode, we dive into Danielle’s favourite topic - work place flexibility. Public servants working from home has become a visible fault line in Australian politics and media, revealing deeper questions about productivity, surveillance, ...
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Season 3
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Episode 15
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43:50
The Radical How: Why one big bet is government’s riskiest move
What if the real problem in public service reform isn't what we're trying to do, but how we're trying to do it? Caroline, Danielle, and Alison dive deep into a revolutionary approach to government change by examining
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Season 3
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Episode 14
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51:07
Tom Loosemore: behind the scenes of the Universal Credit Reset
Tom Loosemore of Public Digital was instrumental in the capital R Reset of Universal Credit.In this interview, he tells Caroline there were no beanbags, but a lot of multi-D.This interview adds nuance and richness to the picture s...
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Season 3
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Episode 13
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57:37
Rescuing a bin fire: Test and Learn and Universal Credit (Part 2)
In this second episode on Universal Credit, we talk about how the team transitioned from catastrophic failure to remarkable success.We cover:The barriers to test and learn - from the need for certainty by leaders, to Treasury...
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Season 3
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Episode 12
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45:16
