The Westminster Tradition

Unpacking lessons for the public service, starting with the Robodebt Royal Commission. In 2019, after three years, Robodebt was found to be unlawful. The Royal Commission process found it was also immoral and wildly inaccurate. Ultimately the Australian Government was forced to pay $1.8bn back to more than 470,000 Australians. In this podcast we dive deep into public policy failures like Robodebt and the British Post Office scandal - how they start, why they're hard to stop, and the public service lessons we shouldn't forget.

The Westminster Tradition is a government podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 84 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts The Westminster Tradition, a government show with 84 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #15

  When the rains come: the gap between policy and delivery in remote Australia with Georgia Heath

  Aug 17, 20261h 28mS4

  Danielle talks with Georgia Heath from Yup Yup Labs about what becomes obvious when you design services from far away, and why remote communities expose the hidden assumptions baked into policy, technology and “digital by default”. We also dig into who gets excluded when the public service recruits narrowly, and what changes when we treat people with lived experience as genuine partners with real power. Other topics include: • what remoteness reveals about telecommunications, emergencies and climate impacts • where telehealth helps and where it breaks, including dental care and wet season realities • what strong outreach models look like, including the Deadly Ears ear health approach • why older non-university pathways created real mobility and better service design • how class, schooling and workplace norms shape who gets into decision-making rooms • what happens when job services misread capability and drain confidence • how trauma-informed management, explicit rules and timely feedback lift performance • why plain English writing improves access, trust and policy outcomes. This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land, and we recognise Kaurna elders past and present. Always was, always will be. Now for some appropriately bureaucratic disclaimers.... While we have tried to be as thorough in our research as busy full time jobs and lives allow, we definitely don’t guarantee that we’ve got all the details right. Please feel free to email us corrections, episode suggestions, or anything else, at thewestminstertraditionpod@gmail.com. Thanks to PanPot audio for our intro and outro music. 'Til next time!

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  Episode #14

  We CAN test big policy ideas without slowing government down: Eleanor Williams from the Australian Centre for Evaluation

  Aug 3, 202640 minS4

  We talk with Eleanor Williams from the Australian Centre for Evaluation about making evaluation fast, rigorous, and genuinely useful for public service decisions. We move from a 40,000-person employment services RCT to the practical steps that make testing possible, then unpack why transparency and mixed methods matter when the stakes are high. Along the way we discuss: turning a mutual obligation debate into a 'fact question' through a large three-arm randomised controlled trial why a null result can be a powerful policy signal the enablers that make responsive RCTs feasible, from systems to leadership to ethics and consent how ACE partners with departments through a hub-and-spoke model, secondments, and capability building planning evaluation from day one using program logic and theory of change separating program cost from evaluation cost to make smarter investment decisions publishing and normalising evidence through the ACE Evaluation Library using developmental evaluation and test-and-learn without getting stuck refining measures forever what decision makers value under time pressure, including “killer stats” plus narrative and qualitative insight improving services with small, fast trials like pre-call SMS nudges at Services Australia Mentioned in this episode: Australian Centre for Evaluation ACE Evaluation Library, hosted on the Australian Policy Observatory The Magenta Book Anthony Costello, The Social Edge This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land, and we recognise Kaurna elders past and present. Always was, always will be. Now for some appropriately bureaucratic disclaimers.... While we have tried to be as thorough in our research as busy full time jobs and lives allow, we definitely don’t guarantee that we’ve got all the details right. Please feel free to email us corrections, episode suggestions, or anything else, at thewestminstertraditionpod@gmail.com. Thanks to PanPot audio for our intro and outro music. 'Til next time!

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  Episode #14

  The moment of maximum ignorance: evaluation in public policy part 2

  Jul 20, 202649 minS4

  Three-quarters of government evaluations are commissioned to improve implementation. Two-thirds are commissioned for accountability. They're not the same thing, and building a system that serves both turns out to be harder than it looks. This episode is about the structural tension between backward-looking accountability — did we deliver what we promised? — and the forward-looking question of whether we're actually learning anything useful. Caroline argues the current measurement architecture is structurally bad at three things: it locks in categories at the moment of maximum ignorance, it treats evidence as binary when almost everything useful lives in the middle, and it has no way of capturing what you found out that you didn't know you were looking for. There's also a detour through lifts, chin hairs, tattoo-level decisions, and Marie-Antoinette's diningware. Referenced in the pod: The APS State of Evaluation report (2026) — the list of why government commissions evaluations Andrew Greenway's article on Sir Olly Robbins and The Accountability Act Adam Kucharski's article Do we need more 'aluminium-standard' evidence? Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better by David Epstein Tom Loosemore Universal Credit TWT episode This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land, and we recognise Kaurna elders past and present. Always was, always will be. Now for some appropriately bureaucratic disclaimers.... While we have tried to be as thorough in our research as busy full time jobs and lives allow, we definitely don’t guarantee that we’ve got all the details right. Please feel free to email us corrections, episode suggestions, or anything else, at thewestminstertraditionpod@gmail.com. Thanks to PanPot audio for our intro and outro music. 'Til next time!

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  Episode #13

  💰 ‘Not your money’: reflections from government budget season ✂️

  Jul 6, 202639 minS4

  Budget season is here — and it’s tighter than many public servants have been used to. Across Australian jurisdictions, governments are landing budgets with real constraints: restrained spending, savings packages, efficiency dividends, and the ever-popular one-in-two-out hiring freeze. In this episode, Caroline, Alison and Danielle get into what that actually means for the people who have to keep delivering. How do you lead a team through savings without poisoning the culture? What’s the difference between a genuine moral injury and just disagreeing with a prioritisation decision? And is the blunt force of FTE targets and advertising bans the problem — or just a feature of a system that has tried everything else? They also get into the real work: Danielle on essential vs lovely and what service redesign actually looks like when the envelope gets tighter, plus the Stockdale paradox, why constraints might be good for your team (sorry), and some practical advice for junior staff trying not to doom-spiral. Budget constraint isn’t persecution. It’s elected officials doing what they were elected to do with taxpayer money. Suck it up, and here’s how. Mentioned in this episode: Brené Brown and Adam Grant on the Stockdale Paradox — The Curiosity Shop David Epstein, Inside the Box: How constraints make us better Alfred Lansing, Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land, and we recognise Kaurna elders past and present. Always was, always will be. Now for some appropriately bureaucratic disclaimers.... While we have tried to be as thorough in our research as busy full time jobs and lives allow, we definitely don’t guarantee that we’ve got all the details right. Please feel free to email us corrections, episode suggestions, or anything else, at thewestminstertraditionpod@gmail.com. Thanks to PanPot audio for our intro and outro music. 'Til next time!

  ListenShow Notes
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  Episode #12

  Grumpy, elusive creatures defending well-defined territory: evaluation in public policy 🦡

  Jun 22, 202654 minS4

  In 1997, Tony Blair’s government inherited a problem: tuberculosis in cattle was rising, farmers were furious, and nobody agreed on whether badgers were responsible. The solution was to commission a gold-standard randomised control trial — 30 sites across the southwest of England, three conditions, run by an independent scientific group. Proper science. No cutting corners. Eleven years and £49 million later, the trial produced findings that made things more complicated, not less. Reactive culling of badgers made TB rates worse. Proactive culling helped inside cull zones but increased rates in surrounding areas. Two expert panels reviewed the same data and reached opposite conclusions. And by the time the final report landed, the minister who commissioned the review had left office, the department had been restructured, and the politics had moved somewhere else entirely. This episode is the first in our three-part series on evaluation in government. It’s not an argument against evidence — it’s an argument for being honest about what evidence can and can’t deliver, and what happens when government treats a long-run trial as a substitute for judgment rather than an input into it. Also: there are quite a lot of badgers. Referenced in the show Angela Cassidy’s book — Vermin, Victims and Disease The New Yorker article on placebos in RCTs, The Power of Nothing by Michael Specter Australian Centre for Evaluation’s paper on RCTs This podcast was recorded on Kaurna land, and we recognise Kaurna elders past and present. Always was, always will be. Now for some appropriately bureaucratic disclaimers.... While we have tried to be as thorough in our research as busy full time jobs and lives allow, we definitely don’t guarantee that we’ve got all the details right. Please feel free to email us corrections, episode suggestions, or anything else, at thewestminstertraditionpod@gmail.com. Thanks to PanPot audio for our intro and outro music. 'Til next time!

  ListenShow Notes

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