Diane Zetlin discusses finishing her Bachelor of Arts with Honours and getting her first academic job at the University of Queensland in 1976. She speaks about joining the Federated Australian University Staff Association (FAUSA), and becoming a union official. She became President, and later, in 1986 General Secretary.
Roger Scott and Joan Sheldon discuss the appointment of under-treasurer and senior public service appointments more generally. Ross Rolfe comments on Doug McTaggart and the politicisation of the public service. Peter Ellis discusses the politicisation of the public service during the Borbidge era.
Symposium participant Geoff Ginn and Roger Scott discuss political partisanship in the interview process. Roger Scott discusses the key insights he took from the interviews. Peter Ellis comments on his experiences of change in the Public Service.
Robin Sullivan describes her interactions with education lobby groups as a teacher in the latter days of the Bjelke-Petersen Government, and again as a public servant in the Goss Government. She comments on the growing influence of industry groups on educational policy, and the push for a national set of core competencies.
Robin Sullivan discusses becoming the first woman Deputy Director General of Education in 1997 in the context of contemporary social justice reforms, and her interest in expanding these reforms into curriculum development. She comments on the discrimination she faced in taking on the role, and talks about changing approaches to numeracy and literacy, and the notion of a national curriculum.
Robin Sullivan outlines her decision to join the public service in terms of a search for development, and the climate of reform. She discusses the additional skills she was able to bring to the role because she had real life experience of teaching.
