Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The Public Service is really the engine of government in Australia. Most Australians would interact with the Public Service on a daily basis. Going to the doctor, visiting a hospital, our kids going to school every day, any interaction that you have with the departments of taxation or immigration, getting a passport—all of these are vitally important services that Australians rely on every day for a good quality of life and to get by. With that in mind, when a new government comes to office, it's appropriate that we have a look at whether or not the Public Service, those that are interacting with Australians on a daily basis, are meeting the goals and aspirations that the Australian people expect of a public service. I think it's reasonable for the government to ask regularly: what do the Australian public think of our Public Service, and what do they expect in terms of the services that are delivered by public servants in their interests? That's really what the Thodey report and the inquiry that was conducted were all about.

In my view, there are a number of traits that the Australian people expect of a good public service. Firstly they want the public service to be impartial, to advise and act in the interests of Australians, not one particular political party or another, and for public servants to provide fearless and frank advice to governments and members of parliament about what they believe is in the best interests of the Australian people. They want a public service that is accountable, that is transparent, where Australians understand and can see how decisions are made regarding policies that affect them. They want a public service that is efficient and effective. At the end of the day, the Public Service is driven by taxpayers' dollars being expended, and the Australian people rightly expect that those services are being delivered in an effective and efficient matter, getting value for taxpayers. And, of course, they want the Public Service to be respectful and ethical, to operate to ensure that the views of all Australians are catered for and it's done in a respectful and ethical way. As society evolves, so should the Public Service. The services that Australians now rely on on a daily basis today are very much different to those relied on by the Australians of 20 years ago. We all now get public services through our phones. The myGov app is a classic case of the Public Service evolving in the service that it delivers to the Australian people.

The independent review that was conducted by David Thodey produced a number of findings, and those findings concluded that the APS, the Australian Public Service, lacked a unified purpose, was too internally focused and had lost capability in important areas. The review called for a public service that is trusted, future fit, responsive and agile, to meet the changing needs of government and the community with professionalism and integrity. This bill delivers on several of the important recommendations that were made through the Thodey review. It recognises that the case for reform has only strengthened in recent years.

What does this bill do? This bill implements a number of those recommendations. Firstly, it adds a new APS value of stewardship. What does that mean? It means ensuring that the APS is capable and is responsive to the needs of the Australian people. We all know that organisations—be they community sporting bodies, corporations, companies, small businesses—have a set of values that the organisation or the individuals in that organisation operate by. Governments have values that we operate by. So too should the Australian Public Service. One of those values is stewardship on behalf of the Australian people.

Another element of this bill is requiring an APS purpose statement, ensuring that there is a common foundation and there is an alignment of the services that are delivered through the Australian Public Service across the full gamut of different departments that operate on behalf of government. This bill also makes it clear that ministers cannot direct agency heads on employment matters. That goes back to the principle that I stated earlier that the Australian people expect from their Public Service—that it is impartial, that appointments to the Public Service and promotions through the Public Service are based on merit, not on political interference. That is a fundamental tenet of a good public service in any political system.

This bill will encourage decision-making at the lowest appropriate level. That is all about ensuring that APS staff are properly trained and have the confidence to make decisions on a daily basis to ensure that we get more efficient and effective outcomes for the Australian people. There'd be nothing worse than someone going into a Services Australia office seeking the rectification of a problem with the delivery of their pension, disability support payments or rent assistance, or applying for a passport or settling visa—issues such as that—and knowing that the decision-maker that they are meeting with can't make a decision, because they haven't been adequately trained and don't have the confidence to make that decision. We want to make sure that decisions are made at the lowest appropriate level.

Regular capability reviews will be a requirement under the new legislation. There will be a five-year requirement for each department to review the capability of the people working in that department and whether or not it's meeting its stated aims. The Australian Public Service employee census results will be required to be published along with an action plan responding to those results, and that goes to the issue of transparency and accountability in the services that the Australian Public Service is providing.

Establishing at least one long-term insight briefing every year will ensure that the Public Service has a longer-term vision for service delivery on behalf of the Australian people. We all know that innovation has disrupted society in every way, and it also has affected the way that public services are delivered. I mentioned myGov as a new innovation that allows greater and more efficient access to information for Australians. Nearly all Australians have a tax file number or some form of account with a Public Service agency that can ensure that they get that access when they need it. And that's a service that has had to evolve to cater for the changes in innovation. Public Service departments can't rest on their laurels. They can't say: 'Okay, now we've got an app and everything is hunky-dory. We don't need to do anything in the future.' You need to anticipate where the next evolution in online services is going to come from.

I've mentioned transparency, which is very important in terms of the delivery of public services and, importantly, in the advice that's given to government. We saw during the period of the previous government that decisions were made by government where funds were allocated through particular grant programs and the advice of the Public Service was rejected and replaced with political decisions. One of those—probably the worst case of this—was the sports rorts saga, where we had a public fund to which Australians and organisations could apply for the allocation of public money, but it was basically manipulated by the former government to serve political purposes rather than outcomes that were in the best interests of the Australian people. The Australian Sports Commission, based on the guidelines of the fund, made recommendations to government, but those recommendations were ignored. It was only uncovered through the senate estimates process. The Australian people have the right to expect that when decisions like that are made, there are reasons given for why the public servants' advice is not taken. That is a reform that has been adopted by the Albanese Labor government to provide more transparency and accountability to the Australian people in the making of those decisions.

The government is also very keen to rebuild the Australian Public Service. In the area that I work in, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, we've seen what it means when a government cuts the number of staff that are working to deliver that important service to the Australian people. We're talking about one of the most important cohorts of Australians: veterans. The previous government had an arbitrary staffing cap on the Department of Veterans' Affairs. When the demand for services for the processing of rehabilitation claims through the Department of Veterans' Affairs increased, because the service went online, the government didn't provide the staff to deal with that increase in demand. They had a cap. As a result, the backlog built up and we saw the mental health consequences for veterans. It was unfair and it was wrong. The new government has acted to remove that Public Service cap to invest in the Public Service, to ensure we have enough people to process those important applications for veterans. That is what this bill is all about.

Debate interrupted.

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