ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the lived experience of the author as a government employee responsible for the conduct of performance reviews and evaluations of State government initiatives in Australia. It discusses a number of ways in which the researcher and evaluator can encounter the incursion of politics on their work. It then offers a range of perspectives, issues and strategies for the researcher and evaluator to consider and to implement to guard against any potential political inroads and to address any political trespass that may occur during the conduct of a piece of research or evaluation. Researchers and evaluators seek to deliver neutral and unbiased results about the work they undertake through adopting technically sound methodologies and work practices. The state government agencies, including education and training departments and an audit office. The literature clearly acknowledges that evaluation is an inherently political process and the work of evaluation has become even more politicised as have its uses and non-uses.
