Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence: Friday will mark the retirement from the Australian Public Service of Ms Helen Williams, who is present with us in the Speaker’s gallery today. Helen has been the Secretary of the Department of Human Services since May 2007. However, Ms Williams has been a departmental secretary or equivalent since 1985—over a quarter of a century of service at the highest levels of the Australian Public Service. She was appointed Secretary of the Department of Education in January 1985. She subsequently served as Associate Secretary of the Department of Employment, Education and Training, Associate Secretary of the Department of Transport and Communications, Associate Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Secretary of the Department of Tourism, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Public Service Commissioner and Secretary of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.

Importantly, Helen was the first female departmental secretary in Australian history. She is also the longest serving departmental secretary currently serving, and I am advised that she has served longer as secretary or secretary equivalent than any other individual in Australian history bar one, Sir Robert Garran. Helen has been a trailblazer for women in the Public Service and has been involved in an enormous array of public sector reforms.

I have personally appreciated her counsel and support in my brief period as Minister for Human Services. Helen is well known for her support of the professional development of those under her management. This means that, although she leaves the Public Service on Friday, the qualities of rigour, independence and dedication that she has instilled in her colleagues will remain as perhaps her most valuable legacy.

I thought it was important that the House mark this important milestone and I know that the Prime Minister would like to add to these remarks. I know the whole House will join me in wishing Helen all the best for a very well-earned retirement.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members—Hear, hear!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence: I am not going to detain the House long, but I would echo the remarks of the Minister for Human Services. Helen Williams has been a loyal, dedicated and professional public servant for many, many years. We should honour those who are the muscle and sinew of government in this country, and public servants are obviously that. We would not be able to run a government without thousands of public servants, and the dedicated leaders of the Public Service should probably be acknowledged.

I would also like to congratulate, if I may, Finn Pratt, on his assumption of the secretaryship. I worked with Finn Pratt closely in the department of employment. He was an extremely diligent, hardworking and enthusiastic public servant back then. He supported the policies of the former government, as he should, and I am sure he will support the policies of the current government with equal professionalism.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence: I would like to support the remarks which have been made by the Minister for Human Services in relation to the impending retirement of Helen Williams. It is important, when people who have served so long as a professional public servant leave office, that the parliament, in the cases of outstanding careers, acknowledges that transition. The fact that Helen Williams has been so long a secretary of Commonwealth departments in multiple capacities is itself worthy of note. What is doubly worthy of note, as the Minister for Human Services indicated before, is that she was in fact the first woman to be a secretary of a Commonwealth government department.

This is actually very important in the Public Service when you look across the ranks of the SES and see how the composition of the APS has changed in terms of the representation of women at senior executive service levels. When I first entered the Public Service 25 years or so ago, the number of women who were SES officers was very, very thin indeed. Now I am advised—and I stand to be corrected on this—that we are looking at something like a third of SES officers across the APS who are women. That figure we hope to see improve over time. The contribution which Helen Williams has made as a role model and, as the Minister for Human Services said before, as an encourager of young women and other young officers seeking to carve out a career in the APS should be noted.

The other thing I would say, on a personal note, is that I have worked with Helen as a public servant in the past as well, except we were on different sides of the table. I was working for the Queensland government and she was representing the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in those days. In those days, the states were right and the Commonwealth was wrong. These days the tables have turned! From my earliest experience in working with her as a colleague on complex questions of Commonwealth-state relations, she demonstrated all the professionalism that we associate with the independence of the Australian Public Service.

The last thing I would say is that what we see in Helen Williams is, I believe, a model for the independence of the Australian Public Service that we wish to see evolve into the future as well. Whatever happens in this place with changes of government from time to time, we wish to see that the culture of our independent Public Service is reinforced, strengthened and perpetuated into the future. That is something which I believe the outgoing Secretary of the Department of Human Services has reflected with great distinction in her career so far and therefore I believe represents a symbol of what needs to occur and continue to occur in the future as well. Helen, we wish you all the best in the next stage of your professional life.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I am sure that all members of the House would wish me to associate the House with the remarks of the Prime Minister, the Minister for Human Services and the member for Warringah and wish Ms Williams all the best for the future.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members—Hear, hear!