Penny Allbon

Penny believes that many good policy ideas don’t help lift the quality of our health system because the issues around their implementation have not been properly thought through, including changes to complex relationships. With the Federal Government reforms to the way the health system is structured there are major opportunities to improve the way the system spends resources and to modernise the split between state and Federal Governments and make sure the different parts of the system can work well together.

In addition to her health and community services experience, Penny has a strong background in government budget and financial policy. She worked at a high level in the ACT Treasury department, managing budget and revenue policy and Commonwealth/state relations as well as undertaking agency resource reviews. She served as Treasury adviser in the ACT Chief Minister’s office.

Penny also has consulting experience in Pacific Island governments – Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. She spent a year as a volunteer teaching English in a Tongan village back in 1971, and went on to do a PH.D in Tongan/British colonial history at the ANU.

Project experience

Penny has extensive experience in the management of change and development of policy at many levels in health systems and in negotiating outcomes among disparate organisations. She:

• Led the major and rapid expansion of the AIHW to respond to the need for better performance data for the COAG national performance arrangements in healthcare and hospitals, housing and homelessness, disability services and indigenous reform
• Worked with all jurisdictions to drive the development of more consistent and policy-useful data for the future
• Negotiated with the federal government and all states and territories to successfully establish the MyHospitals website at the AIHW
• Managed the AIHW’s role in improving information about people who are homeless in Australia
• Led the AIHW to produce more accessible and policy-relevant information with clearer messages, highlighting key findings and ensuring it is readily available to all users
• Strongly supported national efforts to improve the identification of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in health and community services information and facilitated the collaborative development between AIHW and the Australian Institute of Family Studies of the national Closing the Gap Clearinghouse
• Led the re-establishment of the ACT Department of Health and Community Services as an integrated organisation and the abolition of its separate purchaser/provider agencies
• Led the ACT to a successful re-negotiation of its financial arrangements with NSW, substantially increasing revenue to the Territory
• Negotiated the arrangements for the establishment of a medical school in Canberra
• Managed the resolution of the ACT government’s medical indemnity dispute with ACT doctors and nurses
• Managed legislative change in the ACT government, including for mental health and health professionals
• Undertook a study on the use of National Health Accounts for policy making in Pacific Island countries – with recommendations for advocacy and capacity building
• Directed an AusAID Institutional Strengthening Project in Vanuatu Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, providing strategic direction and oversight of assistance to the Vanuatu Ministry of Finance
• Provided mentoring and facilitation of corporate planning and reporting for permanent secretaries in Solomon Island Government Departments under the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

Education / accreditation / board membership

• BA (Hons I) in History, 1976, Massey University, New Zealand
• PhD (1983), Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.  Thesis entitled ‘The Limits of Advice: Britain and the Kingdom of Tonga, 1900-1970’.

Penny has been a Director of the Northside Community Services Board in Canberra since 2007 and has served on a range of boards and committees including:

• Chair, National Mental Health Working Group, 2001 –2003
• Chair, Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council Working Party on Medical Indemnity, 2000 –2003
• Board Member, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2000 –2003
• Commissioner, ACT Commission of Audit, 2001- 2003
• Board Member, ACT Insurance Authority, 2001-2003
• Secretariat, Priorities Review Board, ACT Government Review of the efficiency of the whole ACT Government service.

Interests

Penny retired from the Public Service at the end of 2010. She now enjoys a more flexible lifestyle, mixing work with time to go bushwalking, be a grandmother and visit her homeland of New Zealand, where she maintains strong connections.