Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In debate this week about the government's delayed response to national cabinet questions, I criticised Assistant Secretary Angie McKenzie of PM&C for refusing to accept the ruling of a Federal Court justice that national cabinet is not a committee of cabinet. I said Ms McKenzie was incompetent and politically partisan, and I stand by those remarks.

Today I make the point that McKenzie is not alone. Under Secretary Philip Gaetjens, PM&C has become hugely politicised. PM&C was once headed by Public Service giants—like Sir John Bunting, Sir Geoffrey Yeend, Mike Codd, Michael Keating and, more recently, Peter Shergold, Terry Moran and Ian Watt. Things have changed. Secretary Gaetjens happily presides over a politically corrupted agency for a prime minister obsessed with secrecy and lacking respect for democratic accountability.

The institutional decline and politicisation of the top ranks is demonstrated by other senior officers—notably, First Assistant Secretary Leonie McGregor, Lee Steel and John Reid—who gave evasive and highly unsatisfactory evidence to the Senate inquiry into the COAG bill. Whether through political expediency or cowardice, these public servants have betrayed the standards of which PM&C was once an exemplar.

If there's a change of government, Mr Albanese would be well advised to sack Gaetjens on the spot. There's a huge task ahead to restore integrity at the peak of the Public Service. I have no hesitation in calling out incompetence and political partisanship. There must be integrity and accountability within the Public Service.