Commissioner's Overview

It has been another challenging year for the Australian Public Service (APS). We have had to manage the impact of natural disasters; the continuing social and economic reverberations from COVID-19; the transition to, and the settling in of, a new Government with an ambitious agenda; and the consequences of geopolitical upheaval.

Kierkegaard said 'life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards' – mistakes are sometimes made but overall the APS continues to serve the Australian people well.

The fundamental purpose of Government is to keep the Australian people safe and to keep Australia prosperous. Government establishes laws and regulations. It provides services that the private sector cannot or would not provide. It is good government and a professional APS which makes bad things less likely to occur and good things more likely to happen.

We have done this in a myriad of ways. The public service is vast and we touch upon every aspect of the lives of Australians.

This is a great responsibility and one we continue to carry out with integrity and professionalism.

Every day I know that thousands of public servants are striving to make Government services more accessible and more efficient for the people of Australia.

That is the constant.

But we also know that the public service in 10 years’ time is going to look different to the public service today – because society is changing, expectations are changing and technology is galloping at pace.

The APS needs to continue evolving to ensure we are always ready to deliver what the Australian people expect of us.

We need to be flexible and able to share ideas, resources and accountability. The issues we are facing are increasingly complex and interconnected. What we need is a public service that deals effectively with issues that cut across silos and old patterns of work. We need to attract, develop and leverage the different skills, knowledge, experiences and networks that characterise Australian society and we need to have a public service that is outward facing and more porous.

A great deal of hard work on public sector reform continues to be done by the Secretaries Board. Much of this has flowed from aspects of the Independent Review of the APS by David Thodey. The new Government has made it clear that it wants public sector reform accelerated and the Review’s recommendations advanced more widely. The appointment of Gordon de Brouwer as Secretary of Public Sector Reform has been an important driver of the reform effort. Gordon has also been a great ally of the Commission in this endeavour.

This year’s State of the Service Report provides data and stories to paint an accurate portrait of how the APS is meeting its responsibilities and tackling public service reform to ensure we are fit for the challenges of the future.
 

Peter Woolcott AO
Australian Public Service Commissioner