3.2 Stewardship

Central to the success of a high-functioning APS is its overarching stewardship role. The Public Service Act 1999 specifically aligns the concept to Secretaries and the Secretaries Board. Stewardship goes well beyond effective planning and resource management to ensure high performance and sustainability into the future. It takes on the mantle of ensuring the long-term interests of the Australian community, through fit for purpose and innovative policy advice, regulation and services to meet changing priorities and circumstances.

Trust is central to the role of stewardship. The integrity of advice and the ability of the APS to deliver policies and programs that respond to community needs not only builds government trust in the APS, most importantly it builds the Australian community’s trust in government itself.

To be effective stewards, public servants must reach beyond institutional barriers to work collectively to harness experience, diversity and resources and to deliver common objectives.

The Government has made clear that it will enshrine the responsibility of stewardship in the Public Service Act 1999. As Minister Gallagher stated on 13 October 2022, 'As servants of the public, we are all responsible and accountable for leaving the APS in better shape than we found it'.[31]