Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority

What do a virtual-reality system that lets Australian athletes experience being drug-tested and efforts to educate politicians on appropriate use of public money have in common with a secure communications system for diplomats? They have all been recognised as good examples of clever ideas from the minds of public servants in the 2019 Public Sector Innovation Awards.

The first Australian Public Service F@#kup Night is being hosted by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science on July 25. Attendees are promised an afternoon of open and honest stories of the lessons learned from failure, told by three senior executives from the federal government.

Labor would at least match the Coalition’s commitment to spend $104.5 million over four years on a federal anti-corruption commission, and while 80% of Australians

The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority is treading carefully around its first high-profile case: whether Barnaby Joyce or former staffer Vikki Campion misused their entitlements.

COMMENT: A new federal watchdog is the only concrete idea on the table that confronts declining public trust in government. The APS would have to adapt to a new reality where there is more chance of dirty laundry being aired, but would that be such a bad thing?

A purely administrative approach to parliamentary expenses hasn’t lifted our pollies’ abysmal public trust, but it could be worse. Britain’s former top civil servant tasked with cleaning up their expenses scandal offers a warning.