Thorns among the roses: Reforms that have not happened

It would be easy to imagine that public service reform was done and dusted under the Albanese government. That is, if it were judged by the enthusiastic tone of the preface to Budget Paper No. 4 that spruiks the value of the public service and the marvels it achieves.

Not so fast. Despite the significant support, both financial and moral, that the Labor government has given to the APS since 2022 – perhaps the most of any government in the last forty-odd years – some of the most disproportionately difficult problems have, at best, been sidelined.

To be fair, the preface does not boast that APS reform (although it does not use the “r” word) is a fait accompli, concluding in part: “While the Australian Government has made great progress in rebuilding the public service after almost a decade of outsourcing, underinvestment and reduced service outcomes, this is a multiyear project that requires continued commitment.”

But this means that the government is confident it is on the right path and will continue doing what it is doing (and not doing) if re-elected. That’s okay as far as it goes, which has been quite far. Unfortunately, it is not far enough,h although, given the time-honoured tradition of posterior-covering, it is more than possible that some in the senior echelons of the APS have no appetite for further reform.

After all, the government did draw a line under the Thodey review last year, implying that it was all coming up roses. Sadly, there are still plenty of thorns.

The job is far from done. There are no further plans, or at least visible ones, to amend the Public Service Act 1999 in ways that have been endorsed by a number of former mandarins, nor to tackle one of the most woeful areas of complexity and red tape: the sometimes get-out-of-jail-free procedures for code-of-conduct inquiries that have been so badly exposed in the robodebt saga.

Don’t take our word for it — the recently retired Social Services secretary Ray Griggs described robodebt as one of the defining issues for the public service in the last decade, in his valedictory speech and the protracted and overly legalistic code of conduct process as “a hammer masquerading as a toolbox”.

“When a quick code takes six to eight months or after 12 months, you’re told there’s no breach, something’s wrong,” he said. Well, yes, absolutely.

Nor is anything new being done legislatively to prevent another automation disaster. Indeed, with “robodebt-lite” still unfolding at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, we can almost see it happening again in real time, and props to the secretary, Natalie James, for taking responsibility for stopping the rot from going further.

One of the most difficult issues to resolve in the advance of artificial intelligence is the driving principle of administrative law — that a person is responsible for making the decisions. Once that sacred principle is sacrificed, you may as well give the game away and let machines do their worst.

Former Australian Public Service commissioner Andrew Podger has proposed some of the potential improvements that the Albanese government has squibbed. There is quite a smorgasbord, so take your pick.

They include: strengthening department secretaries’ tenure, a move that ought also to strengthen their spines in standing up to ministers without fear of being sacked; a legislated code of conduct and statement of values for ministerial staff; tougher merit-based appointment procedures for secretaries including a bigger role for the APS commissioner; and consulting the leader of the opposition before appointing the APS commissioner.

Podger also wants the commissioner to be designated as the professional head of the APS and the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet as the “coordinator-general of the APS,” although not everyone agrees with him.

There are plenty more: mandatory advertising of vacancies of statutory officers, with a shortlist picked by an independent committee and ministers only allowed to appoint a candidate from that list; a 5% ceiling on the number of non-career (err — politically appointed) heads of diplomatic missions; consultants to be employed under the Public Service Act; open tenders for contracts above $250,000 with no roll-overs; those above $1 million to be cleared by the APSC and Finance; annual reports’ information on consultants and contractors to include value for money and effect on in-house capacity; the APS commissioner to approve all deputy secretary appointments; upped powers for the Merit Protection Commissioner and all agencies required to produce merit staffing plans and report on them in their annual reports; and legislated conditions for regulating post-separation employment aa recommended way back in 1979 by the Bowen Committee.

Then there is the thorny issue of appointing public sector board members. Hands up those who remember the review conducted by former APS commissioner Lynelle Briggs. The report is still missing in action despite Finance Minister Katy Gallagher promising to release it as soon as she received it way back in the mists of time (2023). Doesn’t take much brain power to figure that Briggs probably recommended arms-length merit-based appointments rather than ministerial grace and favour. Yeah, nah.

The problem with not biting the bullet and legislating such tougher measures is that the government’s enemies on the other side will find it so easy to do the wrong thing once they grab power.

In the meantime, incumbency has its perks. The government wasted no time this week getting pre-election business done in the parliament. While all eyes were on the budget and Labor tormenting the Coalition by driving through the tax cuts, the government also pushed through three supply bills for 2025-26 to pay for five months’ worth of the ordinary annual services of government because of the upcoming election.

And into this crazy world, just when you might have started to believe that raised tariffs are all heresies that need to be banned, if not burnt at the stake alongside Donald Trump, came a sneaky line in the budget — a two-year extension of the 35% tariff on goods imported from Belarus and Russia. Take that, you warmongers. Alas, however: “This measure is estimated to result in a negligible increase in receipts over five years from 2024-25.”

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