Rights exist behind the wire
In 2004 the ACT Legislative Assembly enacted the Human Rights Act, the first Bill of Rights to be passed into law in Australia. In essence the Act provides that no one may be treated or...
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Introduction
Professorial Fellow Bill Burmester Public Administration, Policy Development
Background
After graduating from the Australian National University, Bill spent a decade as a social statistician in the Australian Bureau of Statistics, before becoming a senior social policy adviser in the Department of Finance in 1985. After working on 10 Budgets and numerous other economic statements he moved to the Higher Education Division in the then Department of Employment, Education and Training in 1995.
In the subsequent 14 years in the portfolio, Bill worked on policies and programs in higher education, vocational education, schooling and international education. He also managed the corporate affairs of the Department at various times in this period. In 2005 he was appointed Deputy Secretary in the then Department of Education, Science and Training with responsibilities covering the Schools Policy area, the Transitions and Career Development area as well as corporate responsibilities for the human and financial resources of the department. With the creation of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations at the end of 2007, Bill was charged with establishing and managing corporate responsibilities of the new department. In mid 2008 he returned to the schools policy area before moving in May 2009 to cover tertiary education, youth and international education issues. Bill completed his tenure at DEEWR as Deputy Secretary in March 2010.
Bill’s expertise and deep understanding of Commonwealth government practice will bring a further dimension to the Institute’s activities. In the immediate future Bill will be anchoring the Institute’s new research and professional development programs on ‘Citizen-centred Policy-making’.
ANZSIG InsightBurmester, B., (2010), Interviews with Women Leaders in the Australian Public Sector"People will always ascribe greater authority to your words that you intend". . . "you need to play it (power) down". This lesson in leadership from Lisa Paul, Secretary to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations underscores a common theme that emerged from the series of interviews conducted by Virginia Haussegger with women in leadership positions in the Australian public sector, namely the personal perceptions of authority and power that those leadership positions bestowed on the incumbents, and how, often, women leaders, were far more aware of and mindful of this than many of their male peers appear to be.