Senator Katy Gallagher has shared a sketch of her ambitious reset and rebuild plans for the APS, declaring the days of “mothballing” the 2019 Thodey Review over.
When the minister for the public service stepped up to the podium at the QT Hotel in Canberra on Thursday, she was addressing the APS at large. But beyond the conference’s in-person attendees, mostly EL1s based in the nation’s capital and a handful of interstate bureaucrats, were also key advisors to the new federal government.
There was also public sector reform secretary Dr Gordon de Brouwer (himself a former department secretary), with a crack team of advisors and support staff in tow in attendance, having played a guiding role in curating the conference program and worked closely with the minister on the substance of her speech.
PM&C boss Professor Glyn Davis made a special appearance to support the senator, as well as APS commissioner Peter Woolcott, who stayed around after participating in a Q&A session on how public servants can deploy soft power and diplomacy with impact.
“Public service is one of the critical pillars of political integrity – it must be empowered to be honest and truly independent, to defend legality and due process, and to deliver advice that the government of the day might not want to hear just as loudly as the advice that we do,” Gallagher said.
“What does good government look like? This can’t be answered without the Australian Public Service” @SenKatyG at the #IPAA2022Conference @IPAAorg on #APS reform & the need for the whole system to work together. pic.twitter.com/ldB15i0zoF
— IPAA Victoria (@IPAAVic) October 13, 2022
Five months’ worth of strategic appointments such as Davis and de Brouwer’s, and with the planning and political know-how of the APSC, and the minister was ready to offer up the ‘what next’ for the public service under a Labor government.
When she entered the conference room, the audience seemed to also double in size.
What Gallagher had to offer was a neat four-point list of priorities to guide her direction for the bureaucracy, including:
- Building an APS which embodies integrity;
- To put people and business at the centre of policy and services;
- For the government to be a model employer; and
- Investing in APS capability so public servants can respond to current and emerging needs.
“These reforms are about putting the people who use our services at the centre, about rebuilding what’s been allowed to erode, and about valuing and reinvesting in the APS’s most valuable resource – its people,” Gallagher said.
“My intention is to implement enduring reforms that would require a conscious and public decision should any future government want to wind them back. At its heart, this is about restoring the public’s trust and faith in government and its institutions – in the APS.”
To cure the years of government inaction and cuts to the APS, which bordered on neglectful, Gallagher said she wanted this reform period to include changes that were baked-in either through legislation – including a reference to the term “stewardship” in the Public Service Act chief among them – or in other cultural and structural ways which would be hard to reverse.
“As referenced in the Thodey review, stewardship can encompass building a service that is committed to the public interest and sustains genuine partnerships and is the holder of institutional knowledge, throughout changes in government and societal shifts,” Gallagher said.
“As servants of the public, we are all responsible and accountable for leaving the APS in better shape than we found it.”
The minister added she wanted to explore ways to ensure APS values and principles applied more broadly to PGPA Act agencies such as the CSIRO or ANSTO.
“Agency-specific values matter too, like ingenuity and innovation for science agencies, or creativity and courage at our cultural institutions and they can co-exist alongside the APS values,” she said.
The APS’ most valuable resource is its people.
Today I’ll be announcing how the Albanese Government will invest in each and every public servant through our ambitious APS reform agenda.#auspol pic.twitter.com/ZUkELOkWvS
— Katy Gallagher (@SenKatyG) October 13, 2022
Since Labor came into power, a number of reports and policies have been endorsed which are relevant to the APS workforce – from Kate Jenkins’ ‘Set the Standard’ report to the Respect@Work, the APS Hierarchy and Classification Review and its parent Thodey Review, there is no denying change has been underfoot.
To what extent the government supported these changes in the context of the APS however remained foggy until this week, when Gallagher said in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century the public service would need to embrace a more contemporary approach to “spans of control”.
Broadening spans of control in the APS will literally mean forgoing what can be a stifling form of micromanagement and excessive multi-layered approvals process, and creating a culture where junior public servants have more agency to do what they were capable of doing.
An attempt to tackle the APS’ hierarchy problem in this way was met with a lukewarm response in 2015, then again four years ago. Now mandarins at the top of the pyramid have decided it is time to get serious about spans of control, with a refreshed guidance on optimal management structures.
“We want to ensure APS jobs provide interesting careers, which attract talent to the public service and bring down more traditional siloed roles,” Gallagher said.
“I support a more contemporary approach to widen spans of controls and encourage work to be done at the lowest capable level possible. This supports our commitment to interesting careers and fewer reporting lines which emboldens and creates space for more employees to contribute.”
.@SenKatyG wants all govt agencies to participate in the State of the Service report (and census), and has announced SES performance will now be assessed on outcomes & behaviours. Select agencies will also be subject to future-looking capability reviews. #IPAA2022Conference https://t.co/bFohG42A3E pic.twitter.com/PfRTdbho2B
— Melissa Coade (@Coadem) October 13, 2022
In part, breathing life into the federal bureaucracy and reinvigorating a more open culture that values contribution over rank and status has something to do with the previous Coalition government left it in. However, the minister also noted lifting capability was as much an inside job with efforts at the APS Academy to train 20,000 staff going some way to shifting the dial.
Gallagher said both a four-year workforce strategy launched in 2021 and a Learning and Development Strategy published by the APSC earlier this year in May had the aim of embedding deeper capability across the service.
To complement these strategies, she said independent capability reviews would also be re-introduced to identify what agency or department-specific capability was needed for its unique emerging work and challenges.
“The APSC will have carriage of the work and this year they will start as pilots, providing independent and transparent reviews of a select number of departments and agencies,” the minister said.
“Over time, I hope that capability reviews become a standard way of operating and a positive vehicle to encourage innovation, change and systems that support the best delivery of service to the people of Australia.”
The first cab off the rank to participate in the pilot review will be the APSC itself, with PM&C overseeing the process.
“Understanding our capability, knowing our strengths and weaknesses, and being transparent about how we can do better is fundamental to building a stronger APS that is committed to improving the lives of Australians,” Gallagher said.
The minister acknowledged the work of Davis, de Brouwer, and Woolcott to get the whole-of-APS vision this far. But she also cautioned the map for APS reform was a work in progress and the government had only the very first steps in a much longer journey.
“I want you to think deeply about your impact on the experience of all Australians – how you influence their life and how your actions can better support them; how you can make a real difference to communities facing complex problems.”
A highlight from today’s #IPAA2022Conference was hearing from Minister for Public Service @SenKatyG outlining her vision for public sector reform: #integrity, #community, #APS as model employer & APS capability to deliver for Govt & community. @IPAAorg pic.twitter.com/HwSBPyq9Pr
— Adam Fennessy (@adamfennessy) October 13, 2022
On an individual level, the minister’s designs for the APS mean outcomes and behaviours will now be examined as part of SES performance assessments. This will be implemented alongside a new qualitative metric to be reported in the annual State of the Service report on perceptions of SES behaviour.
“This aligns with the Charter of Leadership Behaviours that was announced in August – [it] is a reflection of contemporary practice that should be adopted by the APS. The point is, we need to be open about it, transparent,” she said.
The senator also underscored her desire to see the APS build other capabilities for a “highly uncertain world” such as strategic thinking and foresight, and knowledge and networks in Asia and the Pacific.
“Evaluation is also a priority for this government. It helps us see if we’re actually doing what we said we would, to understand what is working and what isn’t, and being accountable to all Australians,” Gallagher said, adding work was underway by teams in Finance, Treasury and the Office of Best Practice Regulation to help agencies develop best-practice policy.
“We will align these functions and build the evaluation capability to drive service improvements.”
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