The Singapore Bureau: lessons from Asia’s first early warning system for epidemic diseases

This piece, written by Dr Stefen Hell, was originally published on the New Mandala website and is republished with the permission of the author and New Mandala. International arrangements to collect and distribute information on epidemic diseases are crucial in times of pandemics, because pathogens ignore borders, political order and economic status. Today states have […]

What does the Pell verdict mean for child sexual abuse victims?

What does the High Court’s unanimous verdict upholding George Pell’s appeal against his conviction mean for the complainant, who was found to be a credible witness? How well does the criminal justice system serve those who suffer sexual abuse as children, asks Matthew Ricketson? There is a famous legal principle, usually attributed to eighteenth-century […]

Three Cheers for Hunter-Gatherers

In May 2019 an article in the Australian edition of the Guardian discussed the extraordinary public endorsement of Bruce Pascoe’s book, Dark Emu, which was originally published in March 2014. After a slow start its reputation and sales grew. By the time the Guardian included Dark Emu in its ‘series of literary highlights’, The Unmissables, […]

The Recovery: Technology and Society

During the CV-19 pandemic, the use of Information Technology has enabled millions to work from home and gain some relief from social isolation while avoiding potential exposure to the virus. After the crisis has passed, however, Australian society will need to reflect carefully about its digital interactions and how best to balance them with wider […]

From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting

A Q&A between John Doyle and award-winning political historian Judith Brett about her latest book, From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting, and her forthcoming Quarterly Essay on Australia’s addiction to coal, out in June. In your Q&A with us last year about The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, you said the impetus […]

Contemporary Histories Research Group Award in History and Policy

PLEASE NOTE THAT APPLICATIONS FOR THIS AWARD HAVE NOW CLOSED This award provides $10,000 each to two early career researchers*° to undertake research in an area of history that relates to a significant issue of contemporary Australian public policy. Recipients will receive: $10,000 to fund archival research and other expenses, paid in instalments** Mentoring by […]

APH in NYC

Our director, Carolyn Holbrook, was invited to participate in an international panel about history and policy at the recent American Historical Association conference in New York, with Dane Kennedy from the National History Center and Charles Kraus from the Wilson Center in Washington DC and Andrew Blick from History and Policy in London. The panel […]

Dealing the deck: tips for better Powerpoint presentations

By Shivani Thiyagarajah Eleanor Williams, from the Department of Health and Human Services, delivered APH’s first group workshop at Deakin Downton. Addressing the uses (and abuses) of PowerPoint, the workshop focused on how design can be utilised for maximum impact, particularly towards policy-makers. The Opening: The workshop opened with a discussion on how and why […]

Reviewing skills and knowledge: will the digital age mean a break with the past?

By Francesca Beddie Technological change is forever challenging traditional approaches to education and training. Nevertheless, my review of a collection of landmark reports on vocational education and training published since the 1960s and collated in the VOCED plus database shows that some of the solutions remain the same: give students a strong secondary education so […]

‘Crazy brave’: How a group of inexperienced idealists changed Victoria’s stagnant child welfare sector

By Dr Sharron Lane This article examines the work of several Superintendents who together had some success in changing Victoria’s stagnant child welfare system in the early 1960s. It features the work of Alfred Spencer Colliver and the Kildonan Children’s Home which he transformed in the space of just five years. More than just changing […]

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