The move to strategic planning, joined up government and public–private collaboration was not just a response to the contradictions of New Public Management. Yes it did provide for more legitimacy in an age of distrust. Yes it did provide for a sense of purpose within government. Yes it did provide for a more sophisticated debate about the ends and means of contemporary government. Yes it did allow for a more pragmatic mix of public and private endeavour. It did represent the working through of a series of problems that had developed with the implementation of New Public Management.

However, what is as important as these factors is the emergence of new issues on the political agenda that require strong and more strategic government.

In the first place there have been important changes in priority for the big three areas of state government service provision – health, education and community safety. In health it has become clear that policy needs to move beyond the treatment of illness to the prevention of illness. In education the community requires a range of outcomes to be realised as well as the teaching of a particular curriculum. In matters relating to policing there has been recognition of the need not just to fight crime but also to deal with the causes of crime.

At the federal level there has also been a recognition of the need to move beyond income support in welfare to capacity-building and personal responsibility. Issues seen as welfare issues have become employment and training issues just as those traditionally seen as economic (such as human capital) have become personal, social and cultural issues as well.

Traditional models of service delivery – the provision of hospital care and medicine, the unexamined teaching of curriculum, the policing of the streets, and the welfare safety net – are simply insufficient if we are to deal with these broader issues. They are particularly inadequate if we are serious about creating a better way of life generally and for all, no matter what their background or circumstances.

No wonder then that joined-up government, early intervention strategies, public-community partnerships, place and case management and concepts of co-production, personal responsibility, and community policing have all emerged as major influences on public sector policy and management and the education and training programs associated with them.