If real-life politics is getting you down, University of Melbourne experts recommend fictional political TV power players to inspire your interest instead.

Faith in democracy is plummeting in Australia, and we may be nearing a tipping point where not enough even care, warns a University of Melbourne politics expert

Joko Widodo may have won Indonesia's elections; but a University of Melbourne expert says it's the next generation of politicians who will shake up democracy.

The first leaders' debate of the Australian election was dominated by sloganising, which is why people are turning off, says a University of Melbourne expert.

Ideas for citizen juries, an independent speaker, and sitting MPs with their opponents are part of a push involving University of Melbourne to renew democracy.

What does a second term for Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo mean? University of Melbourne experts cover all the angles from policy to civil society and women.

As Australia heads to the polls, a University of Melbourne expert says what the country needs most is a prime minister and politicians who tells it like it is.

Tens of millions of people start voting over the next five weeks in the first phase of India’s giant general election, says a University of Melbourne expert.

Is ‘fairness’ becoming the new black in Australian politics? A university of Melbourne expert dissects opposition leader Bill Shorten's reply to the 2019 Budget

Melbourne University experts analyse the impact of Australia's 2019 Federal budget for farmers, young people, affordable housing and foreign aid.

Melbourne School of Government Director Professor John Howe and research assistant Melissa Kennedy warn that proposed laws to criminalise wage theft in Victoria and New South Wales could face a constitutional challenge.

Three Fellows from Melbourne School of Government’s Pathways to Politics for Women Program have been elected at the 2018 Victorian election.

Eight Fellows from the University of Melbourne’s Pathways to Politics Program for Women will contest seats in this month’s Victorian election.

Nominations are now open for the 2018 McKinnon Prize in Political Leadership, an annual national prize recognising courageous, visionary and collaborative political leadership across all tiers of Australian government.

Australian universities are set to benefit in an Australia-Indonesia free trade deal, according to Avery Poole, Assistant Director at the Melbourne School of Government.

Melbourne School of Government Assistant Director Dr Avery Poole joined Hugh Riminton on Radio National’s ‘The Roundtable’ to discuss the alleged bullying culture in Australian politics and how this may be impacting women aspiring to elected office.

The 2018 Pathways to Politics for Women program launched on 28 July, with this year’s cohort bringing together 25 women from diverse political, professional and cultural backgrounds.

University of Melbourne researchers and experts from government agencies came together recently to consider the challenges around access and use of government held health data.

Dean Smith and Vonda Malone are the inaugural winners of the McKinnon Prize for Political Leadership, a new, non-partisan award recognising courageous, visionary and collaborative political leadership.

Professor Helen Sullivan, Dr Sara Bice and Assistant School Director Dr Avery Poole address some of the challenges governments will face in a new book entitled Public Policy in the 'Asian Century': Concepts, Cases and Futures.

Associate Professor Helen Dickinson was inducted as a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (Victoria) at the annual Fellows Dinner in Melbourne on February 18th, 2015.

The New Thinking and the New G20 Series, sponsored by CIGI and the Institute for New Economic Thinking, aims to promote policy and institutional innovation in global economic governance in two key areas: governance of international monetary and financial relations and international collaboration in financial regulation. With authors from eight countries, the 11 papers in this series will add to existing knowledge and offer original recommendations for international policy cooperation and institutional innovation.

The new Election Watch website is now live.

Interim Director of Melbourne School of Government, Andrew Walter, was a recent guest on Triple R show “Uncommon Sense”. Professor Walter discusses Brexit, the triggering of Article 50 by PM Theresa May, and the fall-out for Britain, the EU, Scotland and Ireland.

Dr Avery Poole, Assistant Director, Melbourne School of Government and Dr Dafri Agussalim from Gadjah Mada University have been awarded $25,000 by the Australia-Indonesia Centre for their project ‘Youth Perceptions and Diplomatic Relations: Improving Australia-Indonesia Relations Through Education’, which explores the role of education exchange in shaping the perceptions of young Australians of Indonesia, and the perceptions of young Indonesians of Australia.

The Melbourne School of Government is working with leading industry groups and individuals in Australia’s infrastructure sector to deliver its groundbreaking Next Generation Engagement Project.

The American Society for Public Administration awarded a practitioner-academic team with the Louis Brownlow Award for best paper in the journal Public Administration Review.

Dr Pradeep Philip, a member of the Melbourne School of Government Advisory Board and Principal of Ergo Consilium, and Dr Vishaal Kishore, a Professor of Innovation and Public Policy at RMIT and Principal Fellow at the Melbourne School of Government write about the challenges of policy that embraces innovation and what we can expect in the future.

In a public discussion of the changes in housing markets and development in Melbourne suburbs, four University of Melbourne researchers Professor Piyush Tiwari, Kate Raynor, Dr Andy Krause and Professor Kate Shaw worked with an interested audience of public participants to understand the pros and cons of our housing market and what the alternative futures could be.

On Friday 25 November, Melbourne School of Government hosted an “In Conversation” between The Hon Paul Keating and author Troy Bramston. The conversation was wide-ranging including topics such as the rise of China, the ANZUS treaty and the current state of the ABC’s news coverage.

London School of Economics – University of Melbourne 2016 public lecture by Prof. Robyn Eckersley, hosted by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and chaired by Dr. Robert Falkner

Have you been following the U.S. Presidential Election? MSoG’s Election Watch page has been covering polls, analyising the candidates and keeping tabs on the latest campaign videos.

Erika Feller, Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the Melbourne School of Government, wrote a piece for Inside Story about the new United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.

On Wednesday 29 June we held a “political insiders” panel discussion. Watch the video here. Australia finds itself at a crossroads, with huge decisions awaiting the next government. Our panel of top “insiders” examined how voters are engaging in the “marathon” campaign and how political parties manage their campaigns.

On 2-3 June, Election Watch ran a live blog with University of Melbourne experts. We included analysis of 10 key seats, the policy challenges for the incoming government and created a series of videos on what the results mean and what’s next for key players.

The EU is experiencing perhaps its most fraught period since being created in 1957. How does the situation look in a historical context and what are the implications for the EU’s future?

On the 17th of February, Melbourne School of Government hosted a Boardroom roundtable with Professor David Stuckler. Professor Stuckler’s most recent book, The Body Economic puts forward a radical proposition. Austerity, it argues, is seriously bad for your health. We can prevent financial crises from becoming epidemics, but to do so, we must acknowledge what the hard data tells us: that, throughout history, there is a causal link between the strength of a community’s health and its social protection systems.

At the 2015 Hamer Oration, Julian Burnside AO QC explored how Australia’s treatment of boat people may have redefined our national character. The Oration was chaired by Erika Feller, the former Assistant High Commissioner of the UNHCR and currently a Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Watch the oration online here.

In December, Melbourne School of Government undertook it’s largest endeavor to date: a practioner conference with international high-ranking officials and academics on the topic of “democracy in transition” with a related website, DemocracyRenewal.edu.au.

In this lecture Gerry Simpson engages in a critical stocktaking of this century of retributive humanitarianism.

This year IPAA Victoria ran its first public sector week from 22-26 June, a series of events hosted by a range of public, private and not for profit organisations aimed at raising awareness of the work of the public sector and exploring some of the key issues the sector is facing in Victoria and beyond.