Areas of expertise

• Organisational performance management
• Performance budgeting
• Public management system design

Profile

Michael Di Francesco is a Senior Lecturer in Public Sector Management at ANZSOG, and an Honorary Senior Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Di Francesco has held tenured appointments in the School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington where he was a Senior Lecturer in Public Management, and the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney where he directed the Graduate Programs in Public Policy and Policy Studies and co-founded the online journal Australian Review of Public Affairs.  From 2003 to 2009, he was Principal Advisor, Financial Management Policy at NSW Treasury, where he led strategic budget, performance management and corporate governance reform in the general government sector.

Dr Di Francesco has been engaged by the Australian Government to develop performance reporting frameworks and to advise on the quality of poliy advice systems. He has an ongoing consulting role as a public financial management adviser within the technical assistance program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he has worked with the finance and planning ministeries in Poland and São Paulo, Brazil.

Dr Di Francesco has twice served as a Councillor with the NSW division of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA). He is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Australian Journal of Public Administration (AJPA), Policy Quarterly and the International Journal of Policy Studies. He has published in the areas of performance evaluation, budget reform and executive coordination and in 2001 shared IPAA's prestigious Sam Richardson Award for the most influential or important article in the 2000 volume of AJPA.

Programs

Dr Di Francesco currently teaches in the following ANZSOG courses:

Core Programs

• Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA)

Executive Education

• Policy and Program Skills

Recent publications

Book chapters

Journal articles

Reports

Conferences & lectures

Papers

Thesis

Book chapters

• Di Francesco, M 2012, ‘The Public Service’  in D Clune & R Smith (eds), From Carr to Keneally: Labor in office in NSW 1995-2011, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp85-99.
• Di Francesco, M & Eppel, E 2011, ‘A Public Management Heresy? Exploring the ‘Managerial’ Role of Ministers in Public Management Policy Design’ in B Ryan & D Gill (eds), Future State: Directions for Public Management in New Zealand, Victoria University Press, Wellington, pp. 123-158.
• Di Francesco, M & Pierce, J 2007, 'Results and services plans and budget reform in New South Wales', in M Robinson (ed.), Performance budgeting: linking funding and results, Palgrave Macmillan/IMF, New York, pp. 250–273.
• Di Francesco, M 2007, 'John Mountford Bourke, 1916–1987', in Australian Dictionary of Biography 1981–1990, Volume 17, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, pp. 130–131.
• Di Francesco, M 2002, 'Shoebridge, Alfred Arthur (1894–1970)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, pp. 237–238.
• Di Francesco, M 2000, 'The contract state and the public interest', in G Patmore & D Glover (eds.), For the people: reclaiming our government - Labor essays 2001, Pluto Press, Annandale NSW, pp. 43–55.

Journal articles

• Di Francesco, M 2010, 'Do State sector restructures deliver? Applying an evidence-based approach', Public Sector, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 10–12.
• Di Francesco, M 2002, 'Process not outcomes in New Public Management? Policy coherence in Australian government', Australian Review of Public Affairs, vol. 1, no. 3 (March), pp. 103–116.
• Di Francesco, M 2000, 'An evaluation crucible: evaluating policy advice in Australian central agencies', Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 59, no. 1 (March), pp. 36–49.
• Di Francesco, M 2000, 'Ticket to ride roughshod [the SOCOG ticketing scandal]', AQ: Journal of Contemporary Analysis, vol. 72, no. 3 (June-July), pp. 24–27.
• Di Francesco, M 1999, 'The measure of policy? A reply to Mackay', Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 58, no. 2 (June), pp. 107–109.
• Di Francesco, M 1999, 'Measuring performance in policy advice output: Australian developments', International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 12, no. 5, pp. 420–431.
• Di Francesco, M 1999, 'Variations on the independence theme: the Audit Office in colonial Australia', Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration, no. 91 (March), pp. 43–60.

Reports

• Di Francesco, M & Painter, M 1999, Policy advice survey: a report on methods and findings, a report prepared for the Australian Department of Family and Community Services, August.
• Di Francesco, M 1999, Managing policy change: the case of youth allowance. A policy management review, a report prepared for the Australian Department of Family and Community Services, June.

Conferences & lectures

• Di Francesco, M 2011 Invited Discussant, Public Policy Institute Roundtable The Whitlam Government and the Public Service, Australian Catholic University, Canberra, 5 August 2011.
• Di Francesco, M 2010, 'Taking governance seriously: reform of public sector audit committees in New South Wales',  New Ideas for Old Problems, School of Government Seminar Series, Victoria University of Wellington, April 30.
• Di Francesco, M 2009, 'Internal audit and risk management policy for the NSW public sector', chair and invited presentation to the Implementation Sessions for Agencies, Sydney, October 8–9.
• Di Francesco, M 2007, 'The performance management and budgeting system', invited presentation to the CPA Australia Public Sector Finance Leaders' Forum, Sydney, August 10.
• Di Francesco, M 2007, 'Risk management and the results and services plan', invited presentation to the Integration of Risk Management and Business Planning Forum, Public Sector Risk Management Association Breakfast Seminar, Sydney, May 17.
• Di Francesco, M 2006, 'The performance management and budgeting system: making it work', invited presentation to the IPAA (NSW) Master Class The State Plan: Making it Happen, Sydney, December 5.
• Di Francesco, M 2006, 'The results and services plan: linking planning and budgeting', invited presentation to Re-energize: 2006 Summit on Results Based Management, Victoria BC, Canada, May 8–9.

Papers

• • Di Francesco, M  2012 ‘Making Ministers Manage? Exploring the ‘Managerial’ Role of Political Executives in Public Management Policy Design’, Paper prepared for the XVI Annual Conference of the International Research Society for Public Management, Contradictions in Public Management: Managing in Volatile Times, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 11-13 April 2012.
• Di Francesco, M & Eppel, E 2012 ‘A Public Management Heresy? Exploring the ‘Managerial’ Role of Political Executives in Public Management Policy Design’, Paper prepared for the IPSA Structure and Organization of Government Conference, Public Policy and Public Management: Exploring the Changing Linkages, University of Melbourne, 27-29 January 2012.
• Di Francesco, M 2011, 'The Public Sector', paper prepared for the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) and Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney workshop Australian State Politics and Policy in Transition: The Case of NSW, The University of Sydney, July 7–8.
• Di Francesco, M & Pierce, J 2005, 'Results and services plans and budget reform in New South Wales', paper prepared for the IMF International Experience with Performance Budgeting Seminar, International Monetary Fund, Washington DC, December 7–9.
• Di Francesco, M 2000, 'Performance management and policy advice: learning for policy coherence?', paper prepared for the International Public Management Network Third Research Conference, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney, March 4–6.

 Thesis

• Di Francesco, M 1997, Program evaluation and policy management in Australian central agencies, PhD, Graduate Program in Public Policy, Australian National University.