Recap of the Greater China-Australia Dialogue on Public Administration
Recap of the Greater China-Australia Dialogue on Public Administration
Submitted by Bligh Grant on 28th October 2014
2014 Greater China-Australia Dialogue on Public Administration: 'Maximising the Benefits of Decentralisations', Zhejiang University, October 20-22.
With the continued expansion of ACELG's international program – an expansion that I am more than happy to be part of, I hasten to add – it perhaps comes as no surprise that we are engaging more and more with China and with Australia-China relations, in line with UTS generally.
In September Associate Professor Roberta Ryan and I attended the launch of the NSW Government's 'China Strategy' hosted by Premier Mike Baird and the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI), an independent research think-tank recently established at UTS and headed by former NSW Premier Bob Carr. To build on this international engagement last week I attended the 4th Greater China-Australia Dialogue on Public Administration at Zhejiang University. Hosted by Zhejiang University and ANU alongside several other university partners, the theme of this year's dialogue, 'Maximising the Benefits of Decentralisations', fell squarely within the ambit of ACELG's activities and provided an ideal opportunity to get 'up close and personal' with like-minded academics and (importantly) practitioners over two and one half days to discuss these issues in Australia, China and Taiwan.
The utility of organising a Workshop such as this around the general theme of 'decentralisation' is that the idea is a 'movable feast', conceptually, normatively and empirically. As a consequence, participants are afforded the opportunity to bring much of their own research – and experience – to the table. Nevertheless, a draft 'Background Paper' by ACELG's Ron Woods and Roberta Ryan titled 'Decentralisation and subsidiarity: concepts and frameworks' provided important conceptual architecture for the Workshop, and was roundly praised.
My own contribution, a discussion of municipal bond banking in Australia and China, like many other academic contributions, was very specific (we academics are, after all, pedants). Yet again, however, it was the contribution of practitioners that were the standout, providing a wellspring of experience to soak up. In one session alone we heard from Zunian Ding, the Deputy Director of the Zhejiang People's Congress, Fenguin Cui, Deputy Mayor of Hangzhou City and Jinsheng Hu, Director of the Zhejiang Province Research Office. This is rich, unique eyeball-to-eyeball learning wherein the intricacies of the relationships between province, county, township and political party are revealed in a level of detail difficult to achieve through conventional research.
Ironically, international meetings are also an opportunity to meet other Australians and gain their insights about local government. At this Workshop the Victorians were thick on the ground. In particular, Meredith Sussex provided many insights from her long-standing experience as a senior state civil servant and local government administrator, while Adrian Robb, CEO of Bayside Council in Melbourne, provided an alternative and equally detailed account of state-local relations.
Stepping back from the intricacies of reform in Australia, it is a cliché to note that China is undergoing a degree of change that is – truly – difficult to comprehend, from the rebalancing of the economy to deliberations currently underway in the 18th Central Committee of the CPC to introduce the rule of law – no mean feat.
Again, however, attention ought to be focused – and emphasis placed – on the role of sub-national government – provincial, municipal, county and township – in all of these processes, and the role that organisations grounded in local government such as ACELG are uniquely positioned to play in developing what might be described as local international relations.
Dr Bligh Grant is Senior Lecturer in Local Government Studies at the UTS Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government.
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Submitted by Bligh Grant on 28th October 2014
2014 Greater China-Australia Dialogue on Public Administration: 'Maximising the Benefits of Decentralisations', Zhejiang University, October 20-22.
With the continued expansion of ACELG's international program – an expansion that I am more than happy to be part of, I hasten to add – it perhaps comes as no surprise that we are engaging more and more with China and with Australia-China relations, in line with UTS generally.
In September Associate Professor Roberta Ryan and I attended the launch of the NSW Government's 'China Strategy' hosted by Premier Mike Baird and the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI), an independent research think-tank recently established at UTS and headed by former NSW Premier Bob Carr. To build on this international engagement last week I attended the 4th Greater China-Australia Dialogue on Public Administration at Zhejiang University. Hosted by Zhejiang University and ANU alongside several other university partners, the theme of this year's dialogue, 'Maximising the Benefits of Decentralisations', fell squarely within the ambit of ACELG's activities and provided an ideal opportunity to get 'up close and personal' with like-minded academics and (importantly) practitioners over two and one half days to discuss these issues in Australia, China and Taiwan.
The utility of organising a Workshop such as this around the general theme of 'decentralisation' is that the idea is a 'movable feast', conceptually, normatively and empirically. As a consequence, participants are afforded the opportunity to bring much of their own research – and experience – to the table. Nevertheless, a draft 'Background Paper' by ACELG's Ron Woods and Roberta Ryan titled 'Decentralisation and subsidiarity: concepts and frameworks' provided important conceptual architecture for the Workshop, and was roundly praised.
My own contribution, a discussion of municipal bond banking in Australia and China, like many other academic contributions, was very specific (we academics are, after all, pedants). Yet again, however, it was the contribution of practitioners that were the standout, providing a wellspring of experience to soak up. In one session alone we heard from Zunian Ding, the Deputy Director of the Zhejiang People's Congress, Fenguin Cui, Deputy Mayor of Hangzhou City and Jinsheng Hu, Director of the Zhejiang Province Research Office. This is rich, unique eyeball-to-eyeball learning wherein the intricacies of the relationships between province, county, township and political party are revealed in a level of detail difficult to achieve through conventional research.
Ironically, international meetings are also an opportunity to meet other Australians and gain their insights about local government. At this Workshop the Victorians were thick on the ground. In particular, Meredith Sussex provided many insights from her long-standing experience as a senior state civil servant and local government administrator, while Adrian Robb, CEO of Bayside Council in Melbourne, provided an alternative and equally detailed account of state-local relations.
Stepping back from the intricacies of reform in Australia, it is a cliché to note that China is undergoing a degree of change that is – truly – difficult to comprehend, from the rebalancing of the economy to deliberations currently underway in the 18th Central Committee of the CPC to introduce the rule of law – no mean feat.
Again, however, attention ought to be focused – and emphasis placed – on the role of sub-national government – provincial, municipal, county and township – in all of these processes, and the role that organisations grounded in local government such as ACELG are uniquely positioned to play in developing what might be described as local international relations.
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