New Directions In Royal Commissions Public Inquiries

This new edited volume has been developed because governments in Australia and overseas continue to appoint public inquiries in considerable numbers. Public inquiries are those temporary, ad hoc bodies appointed by executive government to report on corruption, calamitous events and many different policy issues. Using Australian and international case studies, this new volume explores why royal commissions and public inquiries are appointed, their processes and their impacts. It provides an up-to-date review of current Australian and international developments. Contributors include leading academic specialists and practitioners from across Australian and international jurisdictions. Contributors Include: Scott Prasser (Editor) David Lee (University of NSW) Paul Tilley (University of Melbourne) Anita Mackay (La Trobe University) Sue Regan (Volunteering Australia) Margaret Cook (Griffith University) Paddy Gourley (former Commonwealth Public Servant) Andrea Wallace (University of New England) Alastair Stark (University of Queensland) Marlene Krasovitsky (Advocate, facilitator and consultant) Robert Carling (Centre for Independent Studies) Dominic Elliott (Dublin City University) John Phillimore and Peter Wilkins (Curtin University) Sarah Cooper and Owen Thomas (University of Exeter, UK) Wendy McGuinness (McGuinness Institute, NZ) Ken Kitts (University of North Alabama) Kira Pronin (University of Pittsburgh, USA)

While there have been many different studies on public inquiries, Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date overview of public inquiries in Australia. It is based on rigorous and in-depth analysis spanning several decades, and has required patient and painstaking work in defining and identifying different federal public inquiries and monitoring their performance over the last 100 years. ROYAL COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC INQUIRIES IN AUSTRALIA will be of interest to all who seek to better understand the particular role of public inquiries and what their continued appointment tells us about trends in Australian government generally.' From the Foreword by Professor John Wanna, The Sir John Bunting Professor of Public Administration, Australian National University. ROYAL COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC INQUIRIES IN AUSTRALIA provides the first comprehensive overview of the extent, use and impact of Commonwealth public inquiries appointed since 1901. Specifically, this new book:* defines 'public inquiries,' and delineates them from other advisory bodies;* details trends in public inquiry numbers since Federation and compares these to overseas jurisdictions;* classifies the different types and forms of public inquiries;* explains public inquiry procedures, powers and associated legislation;* analyses why public inquiries are appointed and their roles in the political system;* assesses their impact on public policy; and,* explores the continuing and future roles of public inquiries. Covering public inquiries appointed by the Commonwealth government since Federation, particular attention is given to those public inquiries appointed during the last thirty years, when inquiry numbers increased markedly. References to numerous inquiries throughout the book are supplemented by detailed case studies of key public inquiries, including royal commissions and appointed by different governments. This authoritative book has been written by an expert in the field. Lecturer Dr Scott Prasser has worked in federal and state governments in senior policy and research advisory positions. ROYAL COMMISSIONS AND PUBLIC INQUIRIES IN AUSTRALIA will be a valuable reference for those interested in a widely used, but often neglected, advisory instrument of modern government that continues to influence many areas of public policy.

This Element addresses the gap in policy design literature that has largely ignored the important ways that public inquiries can act as policy design tools, meaning the functions that inquiries can offer the policy designer are not properly understood.

For reasons of effectiveness, efficiency and equity, Australian law reform should be planned carefully. Academics can and should take the lead in this process. This book collects over 50 discrete law reform recommendations, encapsulated in short, digestible essays written by leading Australian scholars. It emerges from a major conference held at The Australian National University in 2016, which featured intensive discussion among participants from government, practice and the academy. The book is intended to serve as a national focal point for Australian legal innovation. It is divided into six main parts: commercial and corporate law, criminal law and evidence, environmental law, private law, public law, and legal practice and legal education. In addition, Indigenous perspectives on law reform are embedded throughout each part. This collective work—the first of its kind—will be of value to policy makers, media, law reform agencies, academics, practitioners and the judiciary. It provides a bird’s eye view of the current state and the future of law reform in Australia.

The ‘spycops’ scandal has laid bare the existence of secretive police units that sent undercover police officers to infiltrate and undermine hundreds of political campaigns and activist groups. This is the first academic analysis of the activists’ experiences and their attempts to find answers and accountability in the Undercover Policing Inquiry. Written from the perspective of the ‘policed’, the author draws on extensive fieldwork and his first-hand experience of police infiltration through his participation in climate campaigns.