4: Public Management Reform: Some Lessons from the Antipodes

It is sometimes argued that the new public management is an international phenomenon in which the same program started in one country, rapidly spread to others and became a worldwide movement (Hughes, 1998). Although there are contradictory views as to whether it is or is not a general phenomenon, there is little doubt that, over the period 1992 to 1999, the Kennett government in the Australian state of Victoria proceeded as if there were a universal program of managerial reform. Under this approach, the Kennett government borrowed elements of the new public management agendas of, most notably, the U.K. and New Zealand. Although the latter of these governments is usually regarded as having implemented the most far-reaching of public sector changes, it could be argued that the state of Victoria – a larger entity than New Zealand – went just as far if not further. Almost every public enterprise was sold to the private sector. Competitive tendering and contracting were applied to a considerable proportion of those functions that remained within government. Employment conditions for public servants were significantly changed, with tenure effectively abolished and redundancies and sackings became commonplace. In all this the government maintained it was merely trying to run the state more efficiently and regain the highest credit rating.