Parliamentarians Professional Development: The Need for Reform

This book addresses the education and training of Members of Parliament (MPs). It examines existing training programs offered in various countries around the world, evaluates their strengths and weaknesses and makes recommendations for a new approach, which aligns the professional development of MPs to 21st century requirements. Contributors address the role of parliamentarians, how to prepare them for their multi-faceted functions, the importance of ethics in any program, the requirement for more sophisticated adult learning approaches, human resource implications and the need to reform existing education and training models.  The book will appeal to scholars in the fields of political science, adult education and human resource management, as well as to parliamentarians interested in enhancing their skills so as to perform more efficiently and effectively.

Dr Colleen Lewis is sole author of a monograph on the politicisation of complaints against police and co-editor and contributor to six edited book ranging across several disciplines. Dr Lewis publishes in refereed and non-refereed journals, makes submissions to parliamentary committees and commissions of inquiry and writes Opinion articles for Australian media. She has been a Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council grants related to parliamentary studies and governance matters and is co-director of the Parliamentary Studies Unit. 

Dr Ken Coghill is an Associate Professor, Department of Management, Monash University. He is a former Member of Parliament (Legislative Assembly, Australian State of Victoria), and in that role served as Parliamentary Secretary of the Cabinet and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. Dr Coghill has been a Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council grants related to parliamentary studies. He is the author of many submissionsto parliamentary and government inquiries on parliamentary and governance matters and is co-director of the Parliamentary Studies Unit.