Public Service Amendment Bill is too urgent to mess up

By Verona Burgess

July 14, 2023

Anthony Albanese holding back falling dominos
The government should withdraw the defective Public Service Amendment Bill 2023 from parliament and send it back to the drafting table. (Emma Bemrose/Private Media)

If the Albanese government is serious about preventing a future robodebt scandal, one of the first things it should do is withdraw the defective Public Service Amendment Bill 2023 from parliament and send it back to the drafting table.

It won’t, of course, because that would be admitting it made a mistake by introducing the bill before the robodebt report came out. And, as we’ve seen, governments and bureaucrats do hate admitting their mistakes.

A pity, because the need for a top-quality piece of legislation that truly strengthens the Australian Public Service is too urgent to mess up.

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