HEATH PICKERING
Doctoral Researcher in Public Administration
About me
I am a Doctoral Researcher in Public Administration at the KU Leuven Public Governance Institute, Belgium.
I research the institutional development of political advisory systems across Anglo-Westminster countries, with a special focus on the rise of ministerial advisers wedged between the nexus of politics and administration. My comparative research project includes case studies of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The project is funded by the Flanders Research Foundation (FWO).
Prior to moving to Brussels, I worked at the University of Melbourne for five years in several roles, including as a Government Relations Adviser in the Vice-Chancellor's Office, and as researcher and teaching assistant in the Melbourne School of Government. In earlier roles, I worked as a TV Producer at Sky News Australia and spent a year supporting a foreign aid project in Solomon Islands.
I welcome offers for research partnerships, political commentary in the media, and short-term government administration consultancy projects.
Contact
email me at heath.pickering@kuleuven.be
DM me on Twitter @PolSciPick
Call me on +32 0483 364 292
Find me on LinkedIn
Profile on Google Scholar
Research and resources
Data collection: ministerial advisers across the Westminster model
I am creating a comparative database on ministerial advisers across the Westminster model. Data includes the size of staff in ministers' offices, types of regulatory controls, and more. I have created several graphs which researchers are welcome to view and use.
Ministerial staff in Australia
I have a primary dataset on Australian political staff from 2002-2020. This includes staff working in the Prime Minister's Office, all Cabinet Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, and the shadow government. Please contact me for access to this primary data. The two graphs here illustrate a timline of ministerial staff in Australia from 2002 to 2020.
Declining two-party vote share in Australia and the rise of minority governments
These three graphs illustrate a modest downward trend in the vote share of Australia's two-party major vote share (Labor and the Coalition) from 1940-2020. The electoral outcomes of this trend link is linked to observations about an incremental rise hung parliaments and minority governments.
The illustration below demonstrates the frequency of minority governments over a 60-year timeline in Australia's nine major jurisdictions - the federal level, the six states, and two territories.
Summer 2019: visiting researcher at Carleton University Ottawa, Canada
In the Summer of 2019 I had the pleasure of undertaking field research in Canada. Based at Carleton University, I researched and collected data to help explain how the Prime Minister's Office and cabinet ministers' offices have evolved from small and staffed by civil servants in the 1960s, to large and staffed by partisan appointments in 2019. I wrote an op-ed article for The Conversation discussing Canadian political staff.
Vote Compass 2016 attracts more than 1.3 million responses
Vote Compass is Australia’s largest survey on voter attitudes. I advised on research design, methodology, question calibration, and coded this research into an interactive civic engagement tool, hosted by the ABC (the national media broadcaster), which analysed voters’ positions on party policies. During the 2016 Australian federal election, we received more than 1.3 million responses in eight-weeks. Our research partners included the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the University of Toronto, and the University of Sydney.
Publications
Academic publications
Brans, M,. and Pickering, H. 2020. Government Ministers and Their "Special" Advisers. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, muaa014, (double book review)
Pickering, H., Brans, M., Gouglas, T. 2019. The institutionalisation of ministerial advisers in Westminster governments (1970-2019): a systematic review and thematic synthesis. Paper presented at the International Conference on Public Policy, 26-28 June. Montreal, Canada.
Krajnak, S., Pickering, H. 2019. Ministerial Advisers in Slovakia: Who are they?, Paper presented at the 27th NISPAcee Annual Conference, 24-26 May. Prague, Czechia.
Journal Articles in Progress
Trustworthiness, stability and productivity of minority governments in Australia – co-authored with Dr Scott Brenton, University of Melbourne
The evolution of the minister's office: explaining gradual institutional change in the Canadian Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers' offices
Op-ed articles
Pickering, H 2020, Covid-19 to entrench 'big government' policies for good, 28 April, The Mandarin, Canberra
Pickering, H 2019, Why Canada has so many political advisers, 17 October, The Conversation, Toronto
Pickering, H 2018, Russia’s strange yet predictable election,15 March, Pursuit, Melbourne
Pickering, H 2017, How QLD’s election could see One Nation swept into power, 24 November, VICE, Melbourne
Pickering, H 2017, Australia’s Referendum Drought, 16 August, Pursuit, Melbourne
Pickering, H 2016, Three-year parliamentary terms are too short, 17 May, Huffington Post
Brenton, S and Pickering, H 2016, The Rise of LGBTIQ Politicians, 30 June, Election Watch, Melbourne
Pickering, H 2016, Brexit proves Baby Boomers should get less of a vote, 27 June, VICE
Pickering, H 2016, Give Permanent Residents the Vote, 22 June, SBS News, Sydney
Pickering, H 2016, Foreign aid fail: the ‘lucky country’ is selfish, 09 June, ABC The Drum, Sydney
Pickering, H 2014, G20 Brisbane: $100m to protect world leaders, 12 November, Brisbane Times, Brisbane
Pickering, H 2014, Terminology Twist: From Failed States to Fragile States, 1 July, The Strategist, Canberra
Teaching
Teaching Assistant in the Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium
(2019-20) B-KUL-S0B54A Comparative Public Policy in Europe
Teaching Assistant at the University of Melbourne, Australia
(2017–18) POLS20008 Public Policy Making
(2017–18) POLS20023 Comparative Politics
(2018) POLS20026 Politics and the Media
(2015–17) INST10001 International Politics