Delivering public value is increasingly challenging given increasing citizen demand, political uncertainty and technological disruption in a tightening fiscal environment and an era of smaller government.

At the same time, the world of work is changing and the public service must respond with a new set of skills, policies and ways of working to stay relevant.

A strategic approach to workforce planning will be vital to creating a highly mobile, diverse, entrepreneurial, commercially minded and digitally fluent workforce.

At this forum Michael Hiller shared the results of some recent work from KPMG in this area, and was then joined for a panel discussion on the impact for the public sector now and into the future.

The panel included:

• Erma Ranieri, Commissioner for Public Sector Employment in South Australia.
• Michael Hiller, National Industry Leader, Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare, KPMG Australia.

Dr Matt Pearce emceed the forum.

As part of Entrepreneurs’ Week 2017, IPAA SA hosted a forum to showcase examples of intrapreneurship in the South Australian public sector, and to explore emerging trends and challenges for achieving change, improving coordination and facilitating innovation.

Attendees gained insight into the role of intrapreneurs in pushing government forward, and were inspired by and learned from some successful SA-based initiatives.

The forum featured thinking from leading practitioners in innovation. Speakers included:

• Suzie Sosa, Co-Founder and CEO of Verb
• Dr Gemma Carey, NHMRC Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer, UNSW Canberra
• Dr Kristin Alford, Director of MOD. at the University of South Australia.
• Tom Moore, Co-Founder and Managing Director, WithYouWithMe
• Elosie Burge, Partner and Design Strategist, Portable
• Erma Ranieri, Commissioner for Public Sector Employment
• Professor John Spoehr, Director of the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute at Flinders University
• Professor Eddie Blass, Founder and CEO of Conesol
• Thomas Sadowski, Director of Conesol
• Cezanne Green, Director, Secondary Learners, Department of Education and Child Development
• Deb O’Riley, Director, Adelaide Botanic High School, Department of Education and Child Development
• Matthew Anderson, Co-Founder, Social Capital
• Kirk Drage, Co- Founder, LeapSheep
• Dr Fiona Buick, Lecturer in Public Sector Management, UNSW Canberra

IPAA SA has placed a donation to the feedback survey’s most popular charity of choice, Cancer Council Australia. Thank you to those who participated. Videos and slides will be available soon.

View the live conversation on social media by visiting the hashtag #Intra2017 #EWeek2017. You can find us on Twitter @IPAASA and Facebook @IPAASouthAustralia.

Climbing out of the political abyss.
Australia is in a political abyss. How do we climb out of it? Do we need a ‘Courage Party’ to address major long term issues, such as refugees, climate change and taxation?

In October of 2016 we heard from Professor Barry Jones as he delivered the annual oration.

Listen to the oration here.

The IPAA 2016 National Conference was a provocative look at political, social, and economic reform in Australia. You can watch every plenary session below.

The Office for the Public Sector, along with IPAA, was delighted to present A Level Playing Field – Gender Equality in Leadership Summit, an inaugural event to empower public sector employees to drive inclusive leadership where men and women are equally represented, valued and rewarded.

The program featured:

• Rabia Siddique – hostage survivor, former war crimes prosecutor, international humanitarian and retired British Army officer
• Christine Nixon – Men, Women and Systems “, what needs to be done to achieve equality.
  For quite some time it has been suggested that if we just “fix the women”, or “if the men just stepped up”, or if the HR, recruitment, reward systems worked fairly then all would be solved.
  The presentation will focus on the key changes that need to be made by Men and Women and to the systems they work within.
• a lively debate between public sector leaders including Chief Executives
• presentation on unconscious bias by Male Champion of Change, Martin Parkinson, Secretary, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
• hands-on leadership development exercises “Keep your brain on the game” with Anna Lee.

Amanda Blair, Co-Chair of the Premier’s Council for Women was the MC for the day.

The new Gender Equality in Leadership Strategy was launched featuring the gender equality hat-trick: Leadership Accountability, an Empowered Workplace and Sustainable Talent Pipeline.