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Agenda

CONFERENCE DAY ONE MONDAY 23RD FEBRUARY 2009

9.00 Opening Remarks from the Chair

  • Defining governance in the public sector
  • The problem with boards and alternative channels for governance and accountability (committees, ombudsmen, whistleblowing, FOI)

Deborah Blackman, Director, National Institute of Governance

9.25 KEYNOTE ADDRESS: The Landscape of Governance Now and in the Future

  • Overview of current governance situation in Australia
  • The big governance issues where are we going?
    PPPs
    Disclosure to the community
    The shrinking middle ground between the public and private sectors
  • Global influences

Tim Sheehy, President, Chartered Secretaries Australia

10.00 Public Sector Performance Reporting

  • Australian and international requirements for performance reporting
  • Current practice in Australia and overseas
  • Findings from recent audits

Peter Achterstraat, Auditor-General of NSW

10.45 Morning Tea

11.15 CASE STUDY: Department of Immigration and Citizenship: Flexibility, Responsiveness and Transparency

In 200607, the department continued its commitment to a comprehensive reform and improvement programme introduced in the previous year as a response to the Palmer and Comrie reports. The department commissioned an independent review of its governance arrangements in January 2007. The review found that substantial improvements have been made since July 2005 to the departments governance systems, processes and structures, indicating that the importance placed on cultural reform, behaviours and standards, accountability and stakeholder engagement in the department is paying off. During 200607 there was also an expanded emphasis on the departments governance system, including induction and executive leadership programmes. Andrew will discuss the ongoing improvement of the Departments governance arrangements as recommendations from the review are progressively
implemented, including better education of staff on governance, clearer lines of accountability and a more strategic focus on departmental priorities.

Andrew Metcalfe, Secretary, Department of Immigration

12.00 Policy Setting Agency for Public Sector Organisations: The Internal Audit Function and its Role in Assuring Governance Performance

  • Setting measurable indicators
  • Measuring the unmeasurable integrity/ethics requirements
  • Establishing an Internal Audit framework and ensuring independence
  • Driving continuous improvement of governance performance

Graeme Head, Deputy Director-General, State Administration & Performance, NSW Premier & Cabinet

12.45 Lunch

2.00 CASE STUDY: Authority and Accountability in Collaborative Project Governance Excellence at Medicare

  • Strategic project risk management in partnerships
  • Allocating authority and accountability
  • Lessons learnt from the Medicare experience to date

Chris Byrne, Manager Audit & Risk Assurance, Medicare

2 .45 Contracting Out Public Sector Risk

Ensuring that appropriate risk recognition, control and review are in place in light of increasing trends to public sector contracting with non-government and private sector organisations for delivery of outcomes that may remove traditional frameworks for risk management, control and review.

Marco Bini, Director Governance & Performance, Victorian Auditor Generals Office

3.30 Afternoon Tea

3.45 Pro-Disclosure and Freedom of Information: Changes to FOI Legislation and Implications for Public Service Governance Leaders

  • Current NSW FOI legislation and recent developments
  • FOI and public sector accountability
  • National trends for FOI and good practice

Bruce Barbour, NSW Ombudsman

4.30 Ensuring Agency Accountability: Principles and Protection for Whistleblowing in the Public Sector
In the Commonwealth, only APS departments and agencies are subject to legislative requirements to protect whistleblowers and those provisions are more limited than those in other Australian jurisdictions. All that is about to change as a result of proposed legislation and the Whistling While they Work Project. Effective management of whistleblowers will become an integral part of internal accountability regimes of all Commonwealth public sector organisations. Peter Roberts will discuss:

  • Major themes and findings of the Whistling While they Work Project
  • The likely form of the Commonwealth legislation
  • The role of leadership and organisational culture for effective whistleblower protection arrangements
  • The links between whistleblower protection and the structures for genuine accountability and governance of APS departments and agencies

Peter Roberts, Chief Investigator, Whistling While they Work Project & Senior Lecturer, Australian Graduate School of Policing, Charles Sturt University

5.15 Closing Remarks from the Chair & Networking Drinks

CONFERENCE DAY TWO TUESDAY 24TH FEBRUARY 2009

9.00 Review of Day One Chair

9.05 CASE STUDY: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research Governance AU [After Uhrig]

During 200607 the Australian Government assessed the current governance arrangements of the ACIAR against the principles and recommendations of the Review of Corporate Governance and Statutory Authorities and Office Holders undertaken by Mr John Uhrig, AC.

During the last year ACIAR has transitioned to an executive management template recommended by the Uhrig report.

Dr Hearn will share:

  • The move to a executive management framework
  • Challenges to good governance under the new template and how they are being overcome/addressed
  • Managing the administration/ministerial interface
  • Balancing performance costs of governance excellence in a small agency

Dr Simon Hearn, Senior Advisor, ACIAR

9.50 Good Governance for Improved Performance in the Public Sector

  • How to get quality board members
  • Political realities
  • Role of chair and board and their relationship with CEO and executives
  • Learning from the private sector experience of board members
  • Key stakeholder relationships, e.g. ministers and their staff, customers, unions, etc.
  • Role of board members modelling behaviours (ethics, self-assessment), mentoring executives
  • Determining the boards issues and how it addresses them adequately through the year

Jon Isaacs, Independent Chair, Rouse Hill Regional Centre Development (a joint venture between the NSW Government & Lend Lease/GPT Formerly), Chairman, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority; Independent Chair of Audit & Risk Committees in numerous NSW Government agencies including Department of Health, Businesslink Pty Ltd, NSW Aboriginal Land Council; Executive Coach

10.35 Morning Tea

11.00 LOCAL GOVERNMENT CASE STUDY: Gold Coast City Council Sustainable and Substantive Governance

  • Long term strategic planning and fiscal responsibility through corporate governance excellence
  • Substantive Governance public sector annual reporting requirements (compliance) as a driver for excellence
  • Effective corporate governance that drives triple bottom line outcomes and long term sustainability

Melinda Richards, Corporate Planning & Performance Manager, Gold Coast City Council

Gold Coast City Council is the second largest local council and represents the fastest growing city in Australia. The Council provides over 50 services to its stakeholders and communities. Consistency and transparency are key considerations when dealing with diverse requirements of stakeholders and planning for a sustainable future.

11.45 ICT Governance

  • Effectively managing the risks associated with IT and systems in a public sector organisation
  • Working across multiple departments with multiple levels of responsibility
  • Implications of Gershon review

Chris Gillies, Non Executive Director, Centrelink & Director, Information Systems Audit & Control Association

12.30 Lunch

1.30 Building Board Performance Excellence Driving Board Governance and Performance in the Public Sector

  • New directors standards and liabilities
  • Establishing KPIs for a board
  • Merit selection
  • Avoiding conflict of interest (and the perception of such)
  • Linking good governance and strategy the practicalities of aligning long term interests with existing realities

Julie Garland McLellan, CEO, Great Governance

2.15 CASE STUDY: Aligning Strategy with Policy Planning, Monitoring, Supervising and Accounting to Stakeholders

3.00 Afternoon Tea

3.25 Delivering Outcomes in Collaboration with Agencies Outside Government

  • Defining roles and responsibilities
  • Alignment of agency governance with policy
  • The Whole of Government approach
  • Tensions accountability vs. responsiveness/structures vs. relationships?
  • Reporting credibility and appropriate monitoring and review mechanisms
  • Success to date and challenges for the future results from the ARC Governance project

Emeritus Professor Meredith Edwards, Principal Investigator, ARC Governance Project

4.10 Leadership Governance A Top Down Approach Information and Decision Making Support for Good Governance

  • Ensuring the board has access to good information to support their choices
  • An ethical culture

4.55 End of Conference

 

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