Heath Pickering

Lecturer in Political Science @UniMelb • Political Advisers • Executive Politics • Comparative Politics • Westminster • [email protected]

[Governance Journal @Gov_Journal]

New on Early View: The prime minister's chief of staff: Comparing profiles and trends in Westminster democracies, 1990–2021

by @PolSciPick , Tom Bellens, and Marleen Brans

https://t.co/8JYiA8GmTt

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

Welcome to contact me if you want more information or access to the dataset!

Special thanks to (1) my co-authors, (2) the Editorial Team at Governance (including @AdamSheingate), and (3) members of the Ministerial Advisory Research Group for their support and advice.

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

NEW ARTICLE: Proud to present a new study in which my colleagues and I examined the profiles of 56 prime ministerial chiefs of staff.

Published in @Gov_Journal here: https://t.co/DfYkBV1Grg

Follow the thread for a sample of insights 👇
#chiefofstaff #Westminster #governance

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

AFTERLIFE:

After leaving the prime minister’s office, chiefs of staff revolved into a variety of sectors.

Around 37% revolved into senior public sector roles, 24% revolved into public affairs and policy advocacy (mostly lobbying), and 20% revolved into business and legal roles.

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

I’m in Iceland and couldn’t help but visit “The Unknown Bureaucrat” statue in Reykjavík.

Nice to see a tribute to thankless public servants. The ‘faceless’ imagery is notable for highlighting one’s service, rather than any one individual.

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

@AidanSeamus 😏

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

ICYMI: Our study examined the career moves of 500+ British #SpecialAdvisers.

-Most revolved from government to #lobbying
-Only a small percentage sought public sector positions

https://t.co/2Kxx5CvgHq #Whitehall #Westminster #PoliticalAdviser @BritJPIR

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

NEW ARTICLE: We illustrate how #Westminster ministers' offices expand, remain stable, and contract.

Includes new datasets on #MinisterialAdvisers in Australia, Britain, Canada, & New Zealand.

w/ Jonathan Craft, & Marleen Brans in Parliamentary Affairs.

https://t.co/dqku5lfOAc

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

Our new research: We looked at the post-government career moves of 521 former British #SpecialAdvisers.

Q: How many ended up in corporate #lobbying jobs?
A: The majority

with @ThanassiGouglas & @dja_orchard

https://t.co/dew6WapKGS @ConversationUK #Wesminster #downingstreet

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

@TimWattsMP Congrats 👍

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

@DrAndrewGibbons Looking sharp amigo

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

Me to students: Don’t use or cite Wikipedia as a data source

Me reading international journal article: data sourced from Wikipedia

🤔🤔🤔 #academia

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

@erinwatsonlynn Like Liberal Party pre-selection 😏

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

@JanineOFlynn @ANUCrawford @HelenCSullivan Oh la la. Fancy fairy lights and all!

[Heath Pickering @PolSciPick]

@simonahac @LiberalAus @JoshFrydenberg @PaulFletcherMP Isn’t Australia the worlds largest exporter of lithium? (Used in car batteries). Wouldn’t the promotion of electric cars be good to further lithium exports and the Aus economy?