Two reviews and a few royal commissions later, is the Australian Public Service ahead of the game yet? Not quite, minister

No review or royal commission can survive a government that pays little more than lip service to the moral and ethical framework that underpins sound public administration, says Verona Burgess.

As we watch the botched American-led withdrawal from Afghanistan and the humanitarian disaster unfolding in that failed state, back here in Australia one thing is as certain as death and taxes.

Once the Taliban-controlled gates clang shut (or are torn down) and retribution takes hold, there is bound to be a high-level public investigation at the Australian end, such as a parliamentary inquiry by the joint intelligence committee or the Senate, or, more likely, a royal commission, ­ into how it all went so disastrously wrong.