Sir Roland Wilson Foundation

Craig joined the Department of Human Services in 2016, having worked in four other APS departments and agencies and the ACT Government over a period of 20 years. With experience across policy, program administration and human resources in central, state and regional roles, Craig has purposely remained in Indigenous Affairs throughout his career.

Craig combined his professional experience, qualifications in strategic HR, and interest in cultural proficiency in his PhD research. Craig’s research used a mixed methods approach to investigate where unconscious bias impacts practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment in the Australian Public Service. With his research, Craig aimed to turn the organisational focus inward by investigating how Australian Government bureaucracy functions from a culturally proficient perspective.

Shane’s research interests include domestic and international tax policy and fiscal policy. His PhD research focused on examining taxpayers’ understanding of, and responses to, the Australian taxation system. Shane hopes his research will provide insights for the future design, implementation and administration of the tax system.

Shane has also contributed his time and skills to the Australian Taxation Office to help produce the Australian Longitudinal Individuals File, a 10 per cent sample of tax records available for researchers in academia and public service. He also helped produce the Australia’s Future Tax System review. Based on his research from that review, he co-authored a paper with international expert, Peter Sorensen, on options to reform capital taxation in Australia.

Szabina Horvath joined the Directorate of Operations and International Law at the Department of Defence in 2009. Szabina has provided advice on detainee management issues, maritime operations, domestic implementation of international legal obligations, gender issues, interrogation doctrine, and a range of other international humanitarian law issues, as well as human rights matters relevant to military operations. Szabina is currently seconded to the Australian Submarine Agency.

Szabina’s research examined Australia’s extraterritorial human rights obligations. Specifically, the research considered Australia’s human rights obligations when engaged in extraterritorial armed conflict, with reference to other extraterritorial situations which may enliven Australia’s human rights obligations. Szabina’s thesis includes a decision-making framework for determining when Australia may owe specific human rights obligations.

Christiane joined the Treasury as a speechwriter in 2012. Before that, she worked across a range of areas in the APS, from analysing financial intelligence to providing advice on counter-proliferation, energy, health and rural policy. Along the way, and partly as a result of completing her first PhD in film and literature in 2000, Christiane continued to critically analyse discourse—but, instead of closely reading literary texts, her attention turned to analysing how public policy is communicated to governments and the public.

Christiane's Sir Roland Wilson thesis examined the language of rejected policy advice, with a focus on how policy knowledge is constructed inside public administrations and communicated to governments during controversy. Her analysis drew on three Australian policy case studies: the taxation of investment properties, the role of renewables in the national energy mix, and the Iraq war. A gap in methods with which to dissect the phenomenon of rebuffed language led her to construct a new framework informed by rhetorical, organisational and comparative analyses. She uncovered three different language typologies that: fixated on one strand of enquiry but sidestepped wider context; expunged complexity, thereby imparting an appearance of certainty and solid evidence; and routinely raised the presence of uncertainty, leaving advice unusable as evidence. When publicly released, the advice accompanying each proved problematic as means with which to account for political decisions. Her thesis returned outstanding examiners’ reports due to its unique contribution to political science, public administration, intelligence and policy studies, and communication.

Christiane returned to the APS in 2020 and is now a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science in ANU's College of Science.

Cathy joined the Australian Public Service in 2001. She has since had a broad range of policy and program roles within the health portfolio. Cathy’s recent work has focused on big data strategy and capability. She co-led the establishment of the Social Health and Welfare Analytic Unit and led Health’s cross-portfolio engagement on big data analytics projects through the Data Integration Partnership for Australia.

Cathy’s doctoral research explores how we can realise the collective value of data. Working at the intersection of theories of value and power, and public service practice, she unpacks what collective value looks like and how it can be systematically created. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s assemblage theory, Cathy interrogates how we think and talk about data, develops a collective theory of value and power, and applies that theory to practice. Cathy hopes this work will support the public sector policy and data communities to design, create, and facilitate supported data assemblages that create collective value.

For more information about Cathy’s research findings see: https://crawford.anu.edu.au/people/phd/cathy-fussell

Lisa is a Yorta Yorta woman who has worked in the Australian Public Service for around 20 years. Her current role is leading the First Nations Employment Policy and Programs Branch at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

Lisa undertook her PhD at the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. This research focused on looking for opportunities to uplift the cultural capability of the APS to improve policy effectiveness and make it more culturally safe and responsive for First Nations peoples.

Her research, using Indigenous research methodologies to interview non-Indigenous decisionmakers in the APS, has been recognised for its ground-breaking contribution to public administration. 

She found that institutional whiteness is so thoroughly embedded in APS systems and processes that it impedes the service’s ability to effectively design and implement policy for First Nations people. To address this, Lisa developed a model for building cultural capability in the APS. 

Conway’s innovative approach saw her win the Australian Political Studies Association’s prestigious PhD Award for her thesis.

Joseph has been at the APS for over 20 years and is currently the director of the Data Access and Confidentiality Methodology Unit (DACMU). Joseph's PhD research analysed administrative data to better understand the microdrivers of productivity.

His research interests include productivity analysis, network modelling, semantic web and synthetic data. Joseph is interested in advancing a synthetic data approach at the ABS to make its data more accessible for research while ensuring confidentiality of the providers.