Path of public sector reform paved with roadblocks aplenty

Public servants are conditioned to lap up praise from their ministers and, conversely, to fume silently when copping blame for disasters, especially when they are not of their making.

So when former PM Scott Morrison told the Australian Public Service clunkily that its job was to deliver services and implement government policy (and, by implication, not to worry its pretty head about producing fresh policy ideas), public servants collectively fulminated for the next few years.

Times have changed. When PM Anthony Albanese did his recent backflip with a triple wedge on the Stage 3 tax cuts, he made much of the fact that the policy change had originated in the Treasury.