Employment Database
Index
Download the PDFOutput 1: APS policy, legislation and information
International activities
During the year, the Commission revised its priorities for international activities to have a greater emphasis on involvement in the Pacific region. At the same time, it maintained its involvement in other international activities on both a multilateral and bilateral basis.
Participation in international organisations
In addition to its role as a forum for information exchange, the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) provides assistance to developing countries in the Commonwealth. The Public Service Commissioner attended and delivered a paper at the Biennial Conference (Creating Self-confident Government: Reflections and New Frontiers) held in the United Kingdom (UK) in September 2002. The Commissioner also visited the UK and Canadian civil services during the same trip.
The Commission has continued to play an active role in OECD Public Management Committee (PUMA). The Deputy Public Service Commissioner attended PUMA’s 26th committee meeting held in Paris in October 2002. She also visited the UK Cabinet Office prior to the meeting. During the year the Commission contributed to PUMA’s work on managing conflicts of interest and ethical conduct as well as responding to questionnaires including the survey on strategic human resource management.
The Eastern Regional Organisation for Public Administration (EROPA) is an organisation of states, groups and individuals in the Asia and Pacific region with an interest in public administration. The acting Group Manager of the Policy and Employment Group attended EROPA’s 48th Executive Council meeting and seminar on Governance As Partnership: State, Civil Society and Market Organisations held in Thailand in November 2002.
The Commissioner was also invited to be a keynote speaker in December at a major conference in Hong Kong sponsored by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. He and Professor Lyunne Shayne Paine of the Harvard Business School made presentations to around 800 participants on the importance of values and their embedding into organisational systems and procedures in both the public and private sectors.
Hosting visits by overseas delegations
The number of visiting delegations from overseas countries increased from 29 in 2001—02 to 38 this year, with a total of 413 visitors compared with 168 visitors in last year. About 76% of the visits were from the Asian region, with 17 visits and 295 visitors from China, again representing the largest number of visitors from a single country. Other visits from Asia involved delegations from Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Thailand and Vietnam. The remaining visits were from a range of countries including Canada, Kuwait, Malawi, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, South Africa, Tanzania and United Kingdom.
Supporting public sector reform in developing nations
The Commission worked with AusAID
to clarify priorities for support on governance and public sector reform in developing nations.
As part of the agreement with AusAID,
the Acting Group Manager of Policy and Employment Group visited Thailand in February 2003
to assess the in-country benefits of previous AusAID
programs to Thai government agencies, mainly the Office of the Civil Service Commission.
The other purpose of the trip was to identify future areas of possible assistance from Australia
with public sector reform.
In June 2003, the Acting Group Manager of Policy and Employment Group visited Papua New
Guinea (PNG) as part of a small team organised by AusAID.
The main objective of the visit was to review ways in which technical assistance can be
provided to assist capacity building within the PNG Public Service Commission and, where
appropriate, the Department of Personnel Management.
Participating in Public Service Commissioners’ Conferences
The Conferences provide opportunities to develop linkages not only with Commissioners from
Australian states and territories but also with counterparts from New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa
and PNG. The conferences are held twice yearly. One of the conferences held this year was
a teleconference and the other took place in Adelaide. Issues discussed included managing
succession, integration in service delivery, governance of IT,
Indigenous employment and leadership building.
Country Profile
The Commission has coordinated the development of an Australian contribution to the Public Service Country Profile Series, published by the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.
The Country Profiles are directed to providing practical guidance to public service managers in Commonwealth countries. They are intended to focus on good practices and new developments in public service management across the Commonwealth. Since the series was initiated in 1995, profiles have been published by the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, Zimbabwe, Singapore and Malta.
Compilation of the Australian profile, The Australian Experience of Public Sector Reform, was achieved through cooperative effort of the staff of the Commission, a range of APS agencies, and State public services. An overview chapter was written by Mr J R Nethercote, an independent commentator on public administration.
The profile presents public sector reform in Australia from a national perspective and includes state and territory examples. It takes a longer-term perspective, focusing primarily on the last 25 years, and includes financial and structural reform as well as reform of public sector employment.
The profile will be published in the Commonwealth Secretariat series. It is also available as the 2nd in the series of Occasional papers published by the Commission.
Figure 7: Price for international visits |