Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This issue is of paramount importance not only to this place because of our nation's governance but to all Australian people, all people who seek service. The Public Service Amendment Bill 2023 is a key component of the Albanese government's APS reform agenda. This bill is more than just an amendment, quite frankly; it's a significant stride forward in our commitment to fostering public trust, enhancing government accountability and promoting transparency in our Public Service. It builds on the essential findings of the 2019 Thodey review, which highlighted several areas of improvement within the APS.

This amendment bill aims to address the critique raised by the Thodey review that our APS requires a unified purpose, needs to shift from an internal focus and ought to recover capability in critical sectors that, quite frankly, have been dreadfully honeycombed over recent decades. It echoes the review's call for a trusted, future fit, agile and responsive APS that can effectively serve the evolving needs of our government and our ever-changing community, embodying professionalism and integrity in every endeavour.

The last few years have been a testament to and a test for our Public Service. The necessity of an agile and robust APS has never been clearer. The COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, geopolitical instabilities and economic volatility all underscore the urgency of a public service that can adapt swiftly and work towards common purpose. The APS values—those of impartiality, commitment to serve, accountability, respect and ethics—have proven essential during these challenging times, and I defy any serious and fair dinkum Australian to challenge that. For these reasons we are introducing this amendment bill. It's a piece of legislation that will institutionalise these much-needed reforms, making them a permanent part of the ethos that governs our Public Service.

Our ambitious APS reform agenda is articulated around four fundamental pillars: integrity, people-centricity, exemplary employment practices and enhanced capability. The Public Service Amendment Bill 2023, at its very core, supports these pillars. Firstly, this bill emphasises the new APS value of stewardship, developed through extensive consultations with over 1,500 APS staff right across the country. This value speaks to our commitment to preserve public interest, build that institutional knowledge and consider the long-term impacts of our decisions. It echoes the principles of conservation and cultivation and recognises our First Nation Australians time-honoured practice of stewardship over this land.

Secondly, the bill necessitates a unified purpose statement for the APS. Like any good team, everyone in that team always responds when they pull together with a common purpose, and if that can be shucked down to a statement that people can focus on and remember then that has proven capabilities. This statement is going to be reviewed every five years. I personally think that's a good thing because whilst there's nothing like a good old-fashioned Latin motto, a statement like this really does need to be contemporaneous with the values of the times. It's going to help foster collaborative leadership and align services across the myriad of departments that form our Public Service. It's going to give tens of thousands of APS employees a shared sense of purpose, embodying one APS approach.

Thirdly, the bill fortifies the impartiality of our public service, making it clear that ministers cannot direct agency heads on individual APS staffing decisions. This prohibition enhances the non-political and apolitical character of the APS and affirms the agency head's ability to act with integrity.

Moreover, the bill proposes amendments that encourage decisions at the lowest appropriate level, streamlining bureaucracy and fostering a culture of trust and empowerment within the APS. This is one of the critical changes that we are proposing in this bill. Rather than feeding decisions up, we're actually empowering down—and how often have you heard someone who is well and truly at the coalface of how something works make a suggestion, only to have that potentially snuffed out by those higher up or, indeed, claimed as their own work? It will be good to see people who have got those ideas, having those ideas fostered and them gaining recognition for them. I personally think this is a fantastic idea and I look forward to seeing how it lifts our Public Service.

This bill also mandates regular capacity and capability reviews, ensuring continuous improvement and adaption to our ever-evolving operational environment, and you only have to look at how this place has changed in just the last few years with the ebbs and flows of COVID—the perspex going up and coming down, the doors being opened and closed and all the other myriad of serious changes that had to be adapted—and the changes that had to be made by our public servants to ensure not only the continued function of parliament and legislation, but also to ensure the health and safety of those people who work here every day, and I personally thank them for that. They embraced those changes robustly and willingly, and they've done a great job.

Another important aspect of this bill is the publication of annual APS employee census results and the corresponding action plans. This measure seeks to uphold transparency and accountability and responsiveness within our Public Service and firmly positions the APS as a model employer.

Lastly, the bill introduces the requirement of at least one annual long-term insight briefing. These briefings, produced through public consultation, will provide valuable insights into Australia's long-term trends, risks and opportunities, fostering the APS ability to strategise effectively for the future. Australia is poised to face immense challenges in the coming decade, and it is therefore paramount that we support good governance and recognise the APS will continue to play an integral role in meeting the changing needs of government and the community.

I just want to take a moment to recognise my colleague and friend Anne Stanley, Chief Government Whip here in this Albanese government. Anne has instigated the Friends of the Public Sector parliamentary friends group. I went along to its very first function last week. It was terrific. In that room were some of the most caring and hardworking public servants. I don't want to try and rank the Public Service in any order of importance, but these were the people charged with the direct care of some of our most vulnerable children. I know that they spent the week meeting with members of the House and members of the Senate and talking through some of the challenges they face having charge of such vulnerable children. They made it very clear how difficult it is to recruit people into the jobs that they do. They also made it very clear how difficult it can be to retain people in these jobs. It is undoubtedly an incredibly difficult job.

The one thing that stood out most clearly for me, whilst talking to these people, was an overriding sense of commitment to the greater good. Not only did they have the sense of wanting to help and care and lift up very vulnerable children and occasionally make very difficult choices to remove them from dangerous situations; they expressed the overriding desire to lift those children out of danger and create a safe place for them immediately and in a broader context. I couldn't help but think about the people that I know in the ADF. What struck me the other night at the Public Service event was that I was hearing, whilst not the same detail, the same character coming through. That is one thing that I always pick up when I'm in the company of defence personnel—there is something that underpins their service to our nation. They're not doing it for the kudos and certainly not for the money or for the stature or for any of those things. There is a deep driving desire within the character and personality of these people to serve. In my interactions with public servants, in the last seven years that I have been here, I have gained such great respect for them.

In my previous role on radio and talkback radio, bashing a public servant almost seemed to be a national sport. People would often ring and have their two cents worth about the good, the bad and the ugly of the Public Service. Well, I have to say, since working in close proximity to incredible professionals not only in this building but also in the employee across the country doing a wide range of things, by far and above, the public servants that I have interactions with are true professionals. We should be very glad that we live in a country where we have people who are willing to take on those roles, who want to exemplify the best of the best, who want to work very hard for us all as the Australian public. I say to them that I hope this bill goes some way to correcting some of the issues that the Public Service has faced over the last 20 years, particularly.

I look to people like schoolteachers and nurses and ambulance drivers and people who work with children at risk. They're all in the Public Service. I can only remember a time when they were venerated in their professions. It absolutely disturbs me now, when I read stories of people being attacked by the public when they're just trying to do their job. I think it does start with things like this bill, which will put into the law of the land that the Public Service is a place where we want the best of the best, where we want respect to be built again, where we want trust to be placed again. I do think that this is a direct reflection of the Prime Minister's values. While he sits on this side of the chamber, I think ultimately he's actually very conservative in his personal views about manners and respect and he places enormous store in those. I know he wants our Public Service to be an organisation that is revered, trusted and respected by the Australian people as it should be.

I commend this bill to the House. I look forward to these changes being implemented, but, more than that, I look forward to the changes that we so desperately need to see and that will come as a result of them so that we have that stellar Public Service. The changes that come from that and make Australia an even better place to live will be there for everyone to see and everyone to experience. I commend the bill to the House.

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