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Government priorities for this term, issues facing the APS, recent achievements and the directions I intend to take as Commissioner

Regional/Executive Briefing
Wednesday 23 February 2005
Melbourne

I am very pleased to be here in Melbourne today. As the new Australian Public Service Commissioner I am unashamedly mining these occasions for the gems of knowledge and the gold of understanding that I need to represent the best interests of the Australian Public Service and the Australian Community. And to ensure that the Commission provides the sort of guidance and support that will be most useful to agencies as they work to achieve their goals, and to adjust to changing circumstances. I hope this briefing will also allow us to have a useful dialogue for an hour or so about where the Service is, and where it is going.

Today, I want to canvass some of the issues facing the Australian Public Service as I see them, and I want to outline the directions I intend to take as Commissioner.

Government priorities for this term:

But firstly I want to set-out the Government's priorities for this term - which, of course, establish the context in which we will be operating.

The sorts of themes that I sense the Government has for the fourth term are:

a secure nation;
a strong and prosperous economy;
an enterprise culture, of ambition, risk taking and enterprise;
a fair and decent society; and
a sustainable environment.

These are not altogether new directions - rather, they take Australia further along well established pathways.

Some of the specific priorities identified by the Government in the election context are:

welfare to work;
vocational skills education;
service delivery;
IR reforms - expect the public service to be a part of that;
water;
health care and aging;
our trade relationships;
national security
border protection; and
ownership of Telstra.

These priorities will no doubt impact on the work of many of us here today.

The outcomes we achieve against the Government's priorities, and the quality of those outcomes, will be influenced by how we respond now, and in the longer-term, to the critical issues facing the public service.

Issues facing the Australian Public Service:

Since I became Commissioner in November, I have been talking (and listening) to people throughout the public service about things that matter to them at a strategic level.

I've also been reflecting on the State of the Service Report. The 2003-04 report presents considerable data that underpins a number of the points I want to make about workforce planning, capability development and related human resource practices in agreement-making and performance management.

Following my presentation Kathy MacDermott, the Commission's Evaluation Group Manager, will provide a briefing on some of the key data from the State of the Service Report 2003-04 that underpins much of what I have to say now.

Reflecting, then, on my discussions, and on the findings of the current State of the Service Report, I have been settling my own views on the issues facing the public service in the medium to long-term. These I think are:

The best way to finance our organisations in the wake of continuing efficiency requirements and accountancy arrangements. This issue has been raised in a number of contexts, and indications are that some organisations are struggling financially;
The standing of the public service is in question - I'll come back to this later;
that devolution gone far enough;
What does Uhrig mean for us? Agency status and governance reviews, numbers of public servants;
On the workforce, there are several challenges. The State of the Service report shows continuing evidence of demographic and structural change in the APS: an older, more senior and more skilled profile has been emerging for some time now. These changes draw along after them very considerable workforce planning issues:
- how to attract, recruit and keep quality staff in a tight labour market;
- how to deal with skills shortages and some absence of depth at certain levels;
- how to deliver excellent quality and work-relevant training programmes that help public servants do their jobs professionally;
- how to develop more modern trust-based agreement making arrangements, where agencies can streamline processes in CAs and AWAs and staff can be confident that their leaders can be trusted to do the right thing. No one wants a 100 page CA or a 35 page AWA in an age when people will move quickly between jobs in and out of the public service every few years;
- how to manage performance better; and
- workforce ageing.
It's clear that we need to take a deliberate and strategic approach to our attraction and retention policies - to clearly communicate why the Australian Public Service is an attractive career option, that our work is complex, interesting, and important. We especially need to communicate this to new graduates, for whom we will increasingly have to compete with the private sector. The State of the Service Report has much to tell us, and new labour force entrants, about how APS employees feel about those aspects of their job that are unique: their work with Ministers, and the APS Values that guide their daily activities. Data on job satisfaction is very positive, especially around workplace flexibility, and that word needs to get out as well.
Then there is the question of how does the performance of the Australian public service measure up against other countries? Is it as good as we think? What are the areas where we need to improve?
How can we improve our productivity?
Are there any issues arising from the increasingly individualised delivery of services?
How can the Australian public service show leadership in Commonwealth-State relations, programmes and initiatives? With the trend to deliver services more locally, how can we build capability at the local level?
How can we foster effective whole of government behaviours - which are at the centre of public sector reform at the moment, and about which I want to speak for a few moments.

Whole of government

The State of the Service Report examines the training and practices that exist currently. While there is room for improvement, the Asian tsunami has shown just how effective whole-of-government approaches can be. Within 24 hours of the event, an Emergency Task Force was operating. It brought together the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; Defence; Health; Transport; Immigration; Family and Community Services, and the Australian Federal Police. We have pulled together in a time of crisis, and, as the Prime Minister noted, we have seen "the Australian Public Service working at its dedicated and professional best".

But whole-of-government collaboration isn't just about crisis management - it's about how we operate every day, how we communicate as a Public Service and between levels of government, and it's about how that translates into 'service' to the Australian people. And, importantly, I want to encourage agencies to recognise the potential to work collaboratively earlier - when policies are being developed. To date most of the discussion, and action, around whole of government has focussed on service delivery. Service delivery is fundamentally important - but if we can achieve integrated policy making, based on understanding across agencies, between levels of government, and with the community, of the sort envisaged with the establishment of the Department of Human Services, we'll be in a better position to achieve what the community deserves from service delivery.

That's not to say it's easy. Some agencies have already adopted whole of government approaches in some areas of their business (Centrelink, for example) and are no doubt aware of the pitfalls. Coming from the Department of Transport and Regional Services, where the Commonwealth-State relationship is.influential, I speak to you with the voice of hard fought experience. The pitfalls can, however, be overcome. They must be overcome if we are to deliver on the promise of public service in a modern nation state.

The biggest challenge to our achieving the substantial benefits to be had from whole of government is culture and capability. This was highlighted in the most recent Management Advisory Committee report - Connecting Government: whole of government responses to Australia's priority challenges, released in 2004.

Where we have been used to working to progress our own business, without much regard for how others beyond our organisational borders are going - except to occasionally congratulate ourselves for superior performance - or, heaven forbid, to look with envy as others overshadow our achievements - we have not, in many cases, developed the organisational culture to support the collaboration and innovation that is now expected of us - as a minimum. And if we haven't developed the organisational culture, we aren't likely to have developed the capabilities - project and contract management skills, for example, are, I would argue, now core requirements for almost all public servants.

More than 20,000 ongoing Australian Public Service employees work here in Victoria, representing 45 Commonwealth agencies. The sheer volume of numbers should provide abundant opportunity for collaboration across agencies, between levels of government, and with the Community. Here in Victoria the mission of the Executive Leadership Group, comprising Senior Executive Service and Executive Level leaders - most of you here today - is to "facilitate the effectiveness of Australian Government leaders in Victoria, by providing a forum for mutual and peer support; leadership development; sharing ideas, knowledge and experience; and facilitating whole of government interactions". The old axiom is true - where there's a will there is a way. And the will has been clearly articulated here in Victoria. I am pleased that the Commission is associated with the Executive Leadership Group in Victoria, and will work to support it in carrying out its mission. That's a given.

Finally, let's start to think about public service regeneration. This is a term used by the Head of the Prime Minister's Department, Peter Shergold, to encompass the reforms he would like to see which will enable the public service to reduce organisational impediments, reinvigorate bureaucratic endeavour, refocus government effort, renew machinery of Government, and to revitalise leadership.

The image problem

I want to talk to you for a moment about an issue that cuts across much of what we do and, I believe, impacts on the quality of outcomes we are able to achieve - especially the attraction and retention of the best and the brightest to the service.

The public service has an image problem - "it's politicised, it rewards mediocrity, and commonsense is a victim of red tape" - so say our detractors.

There are, undeniably, occasions when aspects of the public service are found wanting; where we can do better - must do better. We can rely on the media to bring our most egregious errors to light - and to portray public service policy making as being out of touch with the real-life experience of the Australian people. And, sadly, sometimes they'll be right.

The devolution of decision-making to agencies under the Public Service Act 1999, giving CEOs and senior executives authority for the management of the financial, property, human and IT resources of their agency, and for the negotiation of workplace relations, has clearly been beneficial. The public service is more focussed and productive; we do more with less. But there are risks too.

Peter Shergold, recently argued that, with the proliferation of devolved bureaucratic units (among some 1000 separate bodies in the Australian Government), agencies fail to see themselves as a part of the whole - of the Australian Public Service, or of Commonwealth Public Administration. How do you see yourself?

It is hardly surprising, then, that some agencies haven't adopted collaborative approaches - if they don't even recognise they're on the same side. This is, perhaps, why there have been instances where policy making has been too far removed from the real-world experience of the service delivery agencies charged with implementation.

However, where problems have been identified, the Service has responded. The reintegration of Indigenous policy-making into mainstream policy-making agencies, for example, is an attempt to achieve better outcomes by, in the words of Minister Vanstone "stripping away layers of bureaucracy" and by working "in a coordinated way so that the old programme silos of the past are broken down".

The newly created Department of Human Services, with which many of you are no doubt familiar, is also an attempt to ameliorate some of the problems arising from the 'silo' approach some agencies have taken in the past. It aims to clarify lines of authority, establish responsibility for decision-making and enhance Ministerial and Secretarial responsibility. And, importantly, it should mean that government services are more comprehensible to the users of those services. It is too easy, especially for those of us from Canberra, to lose sight of, not "the public" - they are always with us - but the real, flesh and blood consumer of government services.

So, while acknowledging that the public service is fallible and that there is more to be done to connect government services for example, I also want to focus on the positive and innovative ways that we are working - in individual agencies, within portfolios, across the public service, and across levels of government. We need to celebrate our achievements. Not just because it will make us feel better about what we do - and it will - but because it has material benefits: on the quality of employees we can attract, and how long they stay with us, and on the level of cooperation we can foster in the community - and I use 'community' in its broadest sense here: community of nations, the Australian Public Service community, the Australian public sector community and, of course, the Australian community.

And, I reiterate, this isn't about window dressing, or a marketing ploy - that's not the business I'm in - it's about challenging the myth of a lackadaisical public service. I want to get that straight.

In 2004, for example, the Australian Public Service received a United Nations award for Improvement of the Quality of Public Service Process in the Asia Pacific region, in recognition of the reforms and achievements of the Service in recent years.

I consider that it is part of my role as the Australian Public Service Commissioner to celebrate our achievements - to restore the standing of, and pride in, the public service. I want people to know, for example, that Australia has driven the development of the world's anti-doping code in sport; that the Australian Taxation Office has achieved a 40% increase in revenues from compliance activities; that we lead the world in policing, border protection and settlement arrangements, and in any number of innovative social policy arrangements; and that the Department of Veterans' Affairs is now the second biggest insurer of medical services in the country.

We are not a public service of grey suited bureaucrats, awash in paper - we're a professional service (64% of new recruits in 2003-04 had university qualifications and almost half our workforce has post-secondary qualifications), working in innumerable contexts - making things happen. We are virtually corruption free. We are innovative and reforming. We are a really significant national asset, in both economic and social terms. And, it's about time we said so.

I can say it on the national stage. You should be saying it locally and regionally and across this State. Let's start at the simplest level by stating proudly, when someone asks what you do, that you work as an Australian Public Servant for AQIS, tax, Customs or Centrelink and the work you do is..collect revenue to provide services like age pensions, hospitals and roads or to assess families entitlements to payments or to protect the environment by keeping out non-native species, pests and diseases and conducting scientific research.

I know, for example, that the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Victoria developed and delivered an 'Introduction to Indigenous Statistics and Data Analysis' training programme for uses by other Commonwealth agencies - to improve the range and quality of Indigenous data they are collecting. The participants to date include Centrelink, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Family and Community Services, the Department of Health and Ageing, and the Department of Education, Science and Training - all of which have an important role in Indigenous policy, especially with the break-up of ATSIS. The Victorian public service has also shown an interest in the ABS programme, as have local Indigenous communities. The programme was recognised with an innovation award at the 2004 Executive Leadership Group Victoria Annual Awards. But, award or not, these are the sort of initiatives we should be celebrating, because they make a difference and they speak to a public service of the 21^st Century. You change attitudes by attacking ill-informed beliefs at all levels - and we should work together to do that.

Then there's the policisation question. Do you feel that you are politically compromised? Or, is it that as senior public servants we can operate professionally in an a-political way, but that we swim in a political sea? A good public servant understands the climate they work in, the subtleties of managing that climate, the stakeholders involved and how to be responsive to Government. A good senior public servant helps their staff to work effectively in that environment, and teaches them to do it well.

The direction I intend to take as Commissioner:

That brings me to the direction I intend to take as Commissioner.

I see the role of the Australian Public Service Commissioner to be:

to take responsibility for the Public Service Act and its provisions - especially in terms of the employment arrangements for public servants;
to develop public servants - I want to rebuild the Commission's suite of leadership programmes for the SES and to establish new programmes for EL staff (and for APS staff a little further down the track) based on the core business needs of a modern public service - where, for example, the trend is to lateral recruitment of our graduate workforce;
to highlight issues of concern to the public service - some of these will be longer-term issues that will be reflected in the Commission's work programme for some time, including, for example, Indigenous employment, organisational renewal and performance management; others will be raised by me as they emerge;
to identify areas for reform;
to bring agencies together where they have common issues and to draw out the lessons when mistakes are made; and
as I mentioned a few moments ago, to celebrate our achievements - to restore pride in the public service, and in being a public servant.

What legacy do I want to leave when my term expires in 3 years?

I hope that I will have made a contribution to restoring the status of the public service.
I hope that people across agencies will have a common understanding of what binds them together as public servants.
I hope that the Australian Government will be on top of the issues facing the public service and will have dealt with a number of them. Like Peter Shergold, I hope that our traditional values will be complemented by new qualities - courage of our convictions, creativity of spirit, commitment to action and collegiality of approach.
I hope that the public service will have contributed to a whole new set of major policy reforms which will drive economic growth and social policies for the next decade or so.
And, I hope that I will be able to stand before you and say, without fear of contradiction, that the Australian Public Service is the best in the world.

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