Marketisation and Regulation of Vocational Education and Training

When Power to Persuade opened its Social Service Futures Dialogue (the Dialogue), it was with some trepidation. The enthusiastic reception of the Harper Competition Review recommendations by the Federal Treasurer, and the April 2016 terms of references for a Productivity Commission inquiry for the further marketisation of the social services suggested something of a reform juggernaut. Conscious that this initiative was at odds with the views of many in social research and policy communities who had long been marginalised in a governance reform era dominated by neoclassical economics our initial aim was to provide a forum for policy actors with alternative views, which might also become a resource for people in the community sector especially seeking to engage with the Productivity Commission processes.