The termination of Medibank

Gray, Gwen

doi:10.1080/00323268408401917

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…A study in South Australia in 1973-74 found that the main reason for imprisonment for debt was unpaid hospital bills (Scotton 1978:130). National health insurance was introduced in 1975 but the system was steadily dismantled by the incoming Coalition Government, which reintroduced user charges and reinstated private health insurance (Gray 1984). Uncertainty about access prevailed again until 1984 when national health insurance was reintroduced.…”

Section: The Women's Health Movement and The Australian Health And Wementioning

confidence: 99%

Reaching for Health: The Australian women’s health movement and public policy

Jamieson¹

2012

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There are many people to thank for their assistance, support and encouragement during the production of this book-so many that I am afraid some will be overlooked. First and foremost, I thank the scores of women in the Australian women's health movement and in political parties, trade unions and bureaucracies who so generously gave their time to talk with me, formally and informally. Those interviewed are listed in Appendix 2. Women supported my research in many other ways as well. They provided me with contacts, made appointments for me with key policymakers and activists in their regions, gathered local women together to facilitate group discussion and, in some cases, even offered me a bed for the night. As well as agreeing to be interviewed, women gave me access to written materials and pointed me in the direction of relevant sources. Many have been willing to talk to me on the telephone, and answer followup questions sent by email. These women include

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Section: The Women's Health Movement and The Australian Health And Wementioning

confidence: 99%

Reaching for Health: The Australian women’s health movement and public policy

Jamieson¹

2012

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“…Policy turbulence. There were five versions of Medibank during the years from the 1975 election of the Fraser government to September 1981 (Sax 1984: ch.5; see also Gray 1984). The department had to adapt its procedures extensively to cope with these successive changes.…”

Section: A Case In Point: the Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parliamentary Committees, Public Servants and Due Process

Smith

Corbett

1995

Aust J Public Adm

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The parliamentary system of government in its Australian form has a number of unresolved problems, notwithstanding its many virtues. One such problem is that of the role of public servants when called before parliamentary committees as witnesses. The current guidelines are mainly advice to public servants as to how they should avoid or defer questions which neither the minister nor the departmental secretary has authorised them to answer. Of course, this is useful and proper within its limits. However, it fails to address many of the dilemmas and career‐threatening choices which can face public servants who find themselves being questioned in an aggressive, hostile manner by members of a parliamentary committee. Unfair treatment of witnesses is not a trivial matter and there are more than isolated instances. This article deals with an episode involving the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Public Accounts in 1982. The case is now some years in the past, but it is still worth examining for what it teaches about gaps in our constitutional conventions. At the end of the article we suggest action in four areas. Intensive training and retraining is needed, first in the upper ranks of the public service, and secondly for chairpersons and members of parliamentary committees. Thirdly there is a need for MAB‐MIAC to revisit yet again their guidelines on accountability and to instigate a review of the government's guidelines for public servants appearing as witnesses. Both sets of guidelines are anachronisms. Finally, we suggest that, in any future review of government policy in this area, consideration be given to the amendment of relevant legislation to bring due process and the protection of witnesses more closely into line with the rights available to persons appearing before a court.

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“…Australian examples are the abolition of the Advisory Council for Inter-governmental Relations in 1986, the Commonwealth government's withdrawal from the International Fund for Agricultural Development in 1987 or the phasing out of the Class B widow's pension announced in 1987. (b) The activity may be turned over to the private sector, as happened for health insurance in Australia with the termination of Medibank in 1981 (Gray 1984).…”

Section: Compiling Misery Indices and A Casualty List For Government mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cutbacks and Public Bureaucracy: Consequences in Australia

1990

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Drawing on data for 60 Australian Commonwealth government bureaucracies 1976–86, this paper explores what measurable consequences for bureaucratic structure can be associated with staffing and spending cutbacks. It looks at cutbacks both at government-wide and at individual-bureaucracylevel, on the basis of a casualty list intended to portray the different dimensions of relative bureaucratic ‘suffering’ more systematically than has hitherto been done in the cutback management literature. It then explores associations between measures of cutbacks and indicators of structural consequences, both at government-wide and departmental level, relating that to the debate as to whether ‘leaner means weaker’ in government cutbacks. The ‘leaner means weaker’ view of bureaucratic cutbacks is hard to sustain from these data.

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The termination of Medibank

Cited by 11 publications

References 11 publications

Reaching for Health: The Australian women’s health movement and public policy

Reaching for Health: The Australian women’s health movement and public policy

Parliamentary Committees, Public Servants and Due Process

Cutbacks and Public Bureaucracy: Consequences in Australia

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