Research Students

Some current Graduate School of Government PhD students.

Pamela Hansford

Pam's research acknowledges the unique challenges and constraints faced by Aboriginal communities. These include mistrust of government, racism, shame and fear. There is also significant under-reporting of incidents that contributes to an existing culture of silence, denial and inappropriate responses, such as protecting the perpetrator rather than the child, allowing cycles of abuse to continue.

The research also builds on the experience of producing Speak Up, an innovative multimedia awareness raising project designed to assist in the prevention of Aboriginal child sexual assault.

Speak Up is the result of over two years of community and cross-agency collaborative involvement. It was co-produced by Pam and Luke Grant, Assistant Commissioner Corrective Services, in partnership with Aboriginal community members, NSW Health, the Education Centre Against Violence, the Department of Community Services and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

Pam's doctorate will reflect on Speak Up as a cultural artefact of current child sexual assault prevention policy, and simultaneously focus on the project as a case study. The goal is to learn more about the factors that enhance community and government dialogue about preventing Aboriginal child sexual assaults.

Pam is a part-time PhD student and Senior Project Officer with the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet. She is supervised by Associate Professor Joanne Kelly, Director of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (NSW).

Sasha Holley

Sasha's doctoral research focuses on labour standards for contracted cleaners in New South Wales public schools. Since the privatization of the New South Wales government cleaning service in the early 1990s, contracted cleaners are increasingly poorly managed, undervalued and earn minimal wages as employers compete for contracts in a "race-to-the-bottom". The inclusion of social justice provisions, such as required labour standards, in government procurement contracts is a possible solution to the problem that the procurement or outsourcing itself introduced.

Sasha's research demonstrates how governments can use their purchasing power as a policy tool by including specific provisions in the contracts that create incentives for the private sector to operate within defined parameters, such as ensuring specified labour standards are provided for workers.

Sasha's research is at the forefront of Australian government policy to use public procurement to improve labour standards, with the Australian government stepping into the role of 'model purchaser'. In January 2010 the Australian Government introduced guidelines for the federal government to set the example of model purchaser by engaging suppliers that abide by the Fair Work Act (2009) under the Fair Work Principles (2010). The contracted cleaning industry is given special consideration, in the Fair Work Principles User Guide (2010), on account of the history of labour exploitation, underpayment and poor workplace safety.

Although labour related clauses are being introduced into procurement contracts, Sasha has found that there remains little understanding of the effectiveness of introducing these clauses for the workers providing the services. Sasha's research fills this gap in knowledge by investigating how these cleaning contracts are implemented and what impacts the terms of the contract have on the cleaners.

Sasha's research involves in-depth interviews with school cleaners, contracted cleaning firms, peak industry bodies and government departments managing the contracts, as well as a wide-scale survey of NSW public schools to understand how school cleaning work is performed. The findings will build an understanding of how procurement policies impact the workers and their labour standards.

Yoshihiko Kadoya

The goal of Yoshi's research is to help close the gap between practice and theory in the public service market. For the last few decades, the governments of OECD countries have gradually outsourced the provision of social services to non-government organisations in order to respond to increasing welfare needs with a limited budget. Much research has been done on this topic, presenting new governance-framework theories to fit the trend. However, the serious concern remains that competition among these non-government players has negative consequences for the quality of service. A notable example of the gap between practice and theory is that a great number of elderly people have suffered from unsatisfactory care for decades in the public long-term care market.

Yoshi's doctoral research focuses on accountability policy in the public service market using the case of public long-term care provision in Japan. It aims to direct the market competition to enhance the quality of the service, not just to save costs.

His research first investigates whether an accountability policy (measuring service performance) can direct market competition to enhance the quality of service. It specifically analyses quantitative data collected from long-term care in Japan, where care recipients can choose a provider based solely on quality of service. Second, the research reveals that the unsatisfactory service problem is rooted in current governance theory that heavily weights "top-down" approach. It then suggests theoretical modifications that will result in better public service provision, emphasising the element of "bottom-up," street-level bureaucracy.

Sophana Meach

His doctoral research focuses on the difficulties facing policing organizations in post conflict countries and, in particular, the problems of transforming institutions which have until recently been structured around maintaining the power base of brutal authoritarian governments. Most post conflict countries have had a long and entrenched history of totalitarian rule but, with the support of the United Nations, these dictatorships have been overthrown and replaced by the promise of parliamentary systems restructured around democratic principles.

The transition from police state to democracy is a complex matter requiring reform of the state and transformation of the attitudes of all of the people. There must be both cooperation and compromise and unreal levels of expectation are as damaging as negativity. Action not rhetoric will determine whether international intervention is able to rebuild societies so that they can maintain this internationally brokered peace. Police officers need not only to learn new roles and new professional methods of enforcement. In a police state the policing institution is structured around protecting the interests of the ruling party; in a democracy it must ensure the safety and protection of the people and preserve the rights of the individual citizen against tyranny or repression. The rule of law is fundamental to these rights, not a means of preserving inequality.

Although primarily concerned with Cambodia, Sophana has analysed the historical and political backgrounds of a range of post conflict countries to identify their common characteristics. With the trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders currently unfolding, issues such as gaining the trust and confidence of the public in the possibility of justice being upheld are particularly relevant. In regard to the reform of the Cambodian National Police, the question of any perception remaining that there is continued politicization or unprofessional conducts must be identified. Whether or not Cambodians feel trust and confidence in their policing in crucial to its successful reform.

In order to give practical value to his research, Sophana needs to determine what aspects of internationally instituted programs have been successful and in what way and why others have failed. Although drawing on the democratic principles of policing described by the UN and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, crucially he is also identifying criticisms of the police in well-established democracies such as the US, European countries and Australia. Unreal expectations must be understood if success or failure is to be meaningfully evaluated. From the results of his research Sophana expects to formulate a comprehensive and effective reform program for the policing in post conflict countries, particularly Cambodia.