In April 2021 IPAA SA were thrilled to be supporting the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in the delivery of the 2021 EPA Board Summit on the topic of ‘Climate Change: Risks, Liabilities and Remedies’.

This online event was co-hosted with the EPA in collaboration with AiGroup, and was held over 2 sessions.

Growing our understanding of Climate Change and its impacts on our state is valuable and relevant to every South Australian state government department and organisation. This event presented some fascinating and insightful reports and presentations that are now accessible to the public.

Some of the key topics of discussion and presentation at this event included:

• Climate change as a financial and liability risk and opportunities for small to medium businesses - with keynote speaker Sarah Barker, Head of Climate Risk Governance, Minter Ellison
• Climate risk and what it means for businesses - with Tennant Reed, Principal National Adviser – Public Policy, Australian Industry Group
• Climate change in SA – what does the data tell us?  – with Dr Graham Green,
  Principal Advisor Climate Change Science, Department for Environment and Water

This event also included the opportunity for Q&A with the above speakers and exploration of two case studies from AGL and City of Adelaide on how they are adapting to climate change.

You can access the full event resources and recordings here.

Associate Professor Jeanette Taylor from the University of Western Australia wins Sam Richardson Award

The Institute of Public Administration Australia is pleased to announce that the 2020 Sam Richardson Award — for the most influential paper published in the Australian Journal of Public Administration in 2019 — has been awarded to Associate Professor Jeannette Taylor from the University of Western Australia.

Associate Professor Taylor’s award-winning paper ‘What causes employees to whistle while they work? Factors affecting internal whistle-blowing in the Australian Public Service’ was published in December 2019, and examines the impact of the nature of corruption, organisational culture, and employees’ work attitudes and actions on internal whistle-blowing in the APS.

Associate Professor Taylor’s paper was assessed by a judging panel that included leading public administration academics, representatives of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA), and young professionals from across the IPAA Divisions.

IPAA National President, Dr Gordon de Brouwer PSM, said that Associate Professor Taylor’s paper was original, innovative, topical and well-crafted.

‘It speaks to real life work problems for those in the public sector and is also an excellent, well-grounded paper with good empirical work and strong academic credentials.

The panel members were unanimous in their decision, believing that it makes an important scholarly contribution to theory as well as a practical contribution to public administration’.

Aashna Rampal, an Assistant Policy Officer with the NSW Department of Planning, Industry & Environment, was one of the members of the judging panel who assessed six short-listed papers for the Award and made the following observation of its universal value:

‘You don’t need to belong to the Australian Public Service or the public sector to be able to absorb the paper’s content, the data, the discussion and the evidence that’s backing it up.

Wherever you work culture is so important and its focus on culture is readily transferrable.’

It is expected that Associate Professor Taylor’s award-winning paper will have a significant and positive impact on public sector leaders and public servants across Australia.

Further information on the award, including past winners, is available from IPAA’s national website.