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Ethics and the Australian Public Service

Behaving ethically is critical in the public sector. Public servants exercise authority on behalf of the Australian Government and manage significant financial resources on its behalf. Their actions directly affect the lives of the public and the confidence that the public has in Government.

The Australian public, quite rightly, demands high standards of behaviour and ethical conduct from the people entrusted with this responsibility.

The Australian Public Service (APS) Values and Code of Conduct apply to all APS employees. They provide a robust framework for guiding behaviours and decision making. Paying attention to them and developing skills in balancing their inherent tensions becomes easier with practice.

Sometimes, however, additional guidance may help APS employees to make difficult choices with confidence.

All APS employees need to be able to meet the high standard of professionalism expected of them by the public.

What is an ethical problem?

As public servants we must use our judgement and discretion when making decisions, taking into consideration four aspects:

  1. What are the rules?
  2. What is our role?
  3. What are our responsibilities?
  4. What is the right thing to do?

Ethical issues are not confined to whether public servants are just obeying the rules or not, although at times applying the rules will resolve the situation—for example, taking Commonwealth property from work without authority for personal use is a breach of the APS Code of Conduct.

But many situations will not be clearly either black or white. There may at times be complex interactions between the rules, roles and responsibilities that face all public servants.

Public servants often face situations where they will need to think about both short and long term consequences, the effect of their decisions on others, and their duty to various people. In these situations, the answers may not be clear cut and there will often be conflicting demands.

As public servants, we don’t always have certainty about the consequences of our decisions, yet we must act responsibly and ethically. We may face and resolve problems with an ethical dimension every day in our work when exercising judgement and responsibility, responding to authority, and undertaking different roles.