David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to be able to rise to speak in favour of this bill here today, particularly as a former public servant and as someone who represented public servants for more than a decade through the labour movement. The Public Service Amendment Bill 2023 is an important step in recasting and resurrecting the capabilities of our federal Public Service. On this side of the House, this particular challenge has long been recognised as one of the most pivotal problems facing good government in Australia. That is why we made a commitment to the Australian people at the last election that we would take steps to fix this problem. Crucially, rebuilding our depleted public sector capability has been one of the drivers of our government from day one. This bill and our government's broader Australian Public Service reform agenda are about restoring the public's trust and faith in government and its institutions, and achieving this by rebuilding the capacity and expertise of government. Looking around the world at the state that many great democracies find themselves in, and contemplating the challenges for our country that loom on the horizon and creep ever closer to us, there are few tasks more important than restoring trust in and capacity of government.

We are fortunate to have a good blueprint, through the Thodey review of 2019, for how to proceed with this important task. It, frankly, boggles the mind that this review was not acted upon before now—that it has taken a change of government for this important work to begin. Before I move onto the detail of this important bill, I would like to make an extended reflection on how we arrived at this particular point of crisis in our public sector. The degradation of the capabilities of government did not happen overnight, nor was it a slow-burning consequence of factors beyond the control of government. It was, rather, a result of a pattern of policymaking and an avoidance of taking action informed by analysis and review. Commissioning and then failing to act on the Thodey review played a role in that process, but, in truth, it was well underway before then.

It was a process that I had the misfortune of seeing up close. Before I entered public life I worked for more than a decade as the public sector director and ACT director for Professionals Australia, the union for scientists, engineers and other professionals. I worked across the federal government, working with engineers and scientists in the Department of Defence; veterinarians in the department of agriculture; scientists in the CSIRO, Geoscience Australia, CASA and Air Services Australia; and engineers at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. These specialists performed important work for the government and rightly felt a certain sense of pride in the contributions they were making. It was a real honour for me to be able to represent them and advocate on their behalf.

It was an honour, yes, but it was also a source of continual frustration. This sense of frustration was a consequence of watching these fine public servants, with their immense expertise—many were world-leading experts—being stymied in the execution of their roles. Their advice—informed by a learning expertise in many cases to high postgraduate level—was too often not given appropriate weight. At other times it was ignored or rejected in favour of consultants and contractors. Indeed, too often the advice of those external consultants and contractors, imbued with vested interests, was more highly prized than that coming from more deeply experienced public servants. The very skills and expertise of those I was representing was often too thinly spread, making capability assessments of their departments' and agencies' programs inherently difficult. It was this sense of frustration, witnessing these good and decent public servants have their expertise and advice not valued appropriately, that motivated me to seek election to this place, so that I could play a role to stop this terrible rot. I am proud to have represented specialists in the Public Service and even prouder to be here today standing up for them.

This bill will not solve all their challenges, and those challenges it will resolve won't go away immediately. But this bill is a start—an important start—and a real acknowledgement from this government that a problem exists that needs to be acted upon. This bill will not just help my former members in the Public Service. It will help improve the roles and job qualities of public servants across the Australian Public Service. As an MP who represents a Canberra seat, I can tell you, Deputy Speaker, that many of my constituents are public servants or have devoted much of their careers to public service. It takes a special kind of person to become a public servant. You have to possess a strong commitment to service and the greater good. The rewards are often found more in the achievements of good policy and the effective delivery of government services rather than anything financial. I am proud to represent such dedicated public servants in this place, and it is my view that the least we can do to recognise their efforts is to ensure that they're working within an efficient and impactful public sector. This bill will achieve just that.

What we are discussing here today goes to the heart of the capacity and capability of government to serve the interests of its citizens and protect the integrity of the nation it serves. We live in complex and troubled times. The Australian government is confronted with an ever-multiplying number of challenges. These challenges threaten Australia and its peoples at all levels and cannot be addressed or resolved easily. Think about what confronts us, what is in the forefront of our thinking as members of this place. There are climate change and the multiplicity of dangers it presents to our economy, ecology, energy policy, foreign policy, planning policies and management of emergencies and natural disasters. There is the state of our region and the wider world, where long-cherished and championed values are under threat on a range of fronts and dangers. We have an economy that without intervention has been leaving too many behind, creating insecurity in housing and other areas. We had a global pandemic which both dissolved and strengthened borders and barriers, highlighting deep-seated inequality across the world.

We have a government committed totally to confronting and addressing these challenges, but the capacity of our government and, indeed, any government to face the challenges of today is conditional first and foremost on the capabilities it possesses through its public service. After nine years of shameful neglect, we can't honestly say that the new government was left with those capabilities by our predecessors. This bill, alongside the many other important reforms that have commenced, will help address this.

At the risk of repeating some of the excellent points made by my colleagues in this debate, it's useful to examine some of the specific changes this bill will bring about. This bill will end ministerial interventions in employment within the Public Service. In talking about some of the positive things about our Public Service, I've yet to use an important word which describes what it should be: apolitical. One of the great strengths of our democracy and our country is that, despite a change of government and even the political direction the nation is heading in, a professional and apolitical public service remains in place to pursue and execute the agenda of government. This is so important and is an essential ingredient of our national strength and capability, but we have seen far too much erosion of this principle, and this erosion is often most egregious in the area of employment practices within departments. This bill will remove any ambiguity on this question and places a duty on ministers not to interfere in these matters.

It is also critical that we have a public service where all involved are empowered to make relevant decisions, yet we have seen a tendency take root for decisions to be escalated up the chain of command. This is done in the name of risk management, but, by taking decisions away from the most appropriate, lowest level and escalating them, additional burdens and roadblocks are created and incentives for personal development and good workplace culture are lost. In the workplaces where I had responsibility, what it often meant was that the experts were lost in that mix. The people who actually understood these areas best had their work signed off by people who did not understand it. This bill will empower agency and department heads to determine the lowest, most appropriate level decisions can be made at. This will foster a much more positive work culture and flow of work, creating efficiencies and productivity.

I have spoken at length in this contribution on the subject of public sector capabilities. Having represented so many specialist public sector professionals at an industrial level, my thinking is very much attuned to the attraction and retention of professional skills and capabilities in the Public Service. One of the conclusions I have come to having witnessed skills and capabilities being run down, devalued and discarded is that the solution to the capability question in the Public Service can only come from the top. It cannot be managed at the level of the workplace.

This bill will achieve this change. Under the terms of this bill, independent, transparent and regular five-yearly reviews into the status of available capabilities will be a requirement for each department and agency. The resulting reports from these reviews will then be published on the relevant website of the department or agency. This is such an important reform. It may not sound sexy or exciting, but these reviews will present a clear picture of the status of capabilities. Being forward facing and informed by identified strategic priorities, these reviews will also be an important way of identifying capability gaps. This will enable the recognition of those skills and capabilities already present in the department or agency, and will further empower the retention and ongoing development of those skills. I believe this is an important and worthwhile change.

All of us who are members of this place have chosen a career in public life at a time of heightened complexity and challenge. The decisions we make here will determine the success or failure of Australia. Of course, the same could be said of any cohort of representatives serving here over the past 120 years. But the confluences of challenges and opportunities are, in my view, more pronounced and impactful today than at any other time in our history. We look to government for solutions, for assurances that these challenges will not overwhelm us. But, even with the best of intentions, any government is both constrained and empowered by the capabilities, or lack of capabilities, of its public service. This is a government which is resolutely committed to overcoming these challenges, and the changes this bill will achieve will further empower our government to take Australia forward with confidence.

Finally, this bill will do so much for all those dedicated and hardworking public sector professionals that I was fortunate enough to get to know and represent over many years. Their commitment and abilities always impressed me, and the ongoing disrespect they faced motivated me to see change happen. As I said earlier, this bill will not fix everything but it's an important step on the journey to respect and recognition of our public sector professionals. I pay tribute to them and their contributions and dedication. I commend this bill to the House, and I call on all members of this place to support it.

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