Who defines the public interest?
Of course, what is in the public interest is always a matter of debate even within the public service. What officials in the Department of the Environment think is in the public interest might be quite different from what those in the Department of Industry think? So the public interest is an elusive phenomenon. In fact, a recent article in the Australian Journal of Public Administration fiercely contests whether the public service should play any role in the determination of public interest. In The Limits to Public Value, the authors defend the primacy of party politics and criticize public managers who see themselves as the Platonic guardians of the public interest. However, we all know there are lots of policy areas where there is no right answer. Whether the GST reduction was good for the economy or just good politics, is an example. Or in the field of criminal justice, sentencing convicted offenders to harsher sentences will lead to lower crime rates. In these and other matters, t
