ministerial advice

The relationship between ministers and the Australian public service has transformed from a partnership to one more like “master-servant”, with the “master” including the minister’s staff, according to former senior bureaucrat Andrew Podger. Podger, who headed various federal departments and was public service commissioner, said this had come about through the “thickening” of the interaction

Simon Lewis, the departing Commonwealth secretary who had six ministers in five years, says don’t blame ministerial staffers for not knowing their role.

For a fantasy series, Game of Thrones has done well at recreating the institutions of advice that inform our political and administrative systems. Viewed from the outside they can offer insight into how different advisor styles matter.

Senior public servants can still give frank and fearless advice — unless they’re cowards, says former Department of Defence secretary Dennis Richardson. He also believes the inability to say yes or no is a cultural problem in the public sector.

New Zealand’s head of policy profession shared his perspective on balancing the preservation of institutions of state with the needs of ministers, staying on the cutting-edge of policy, and managing risk when so much can go wrong. Don’t do it alone, he advises.

How do you resist attempts to pre-determine advice by the ministerial office? Top mandarin Andrew Kibblewhite has some advice for public servants facing political interference or an inaccessible minister.

SPEECH: There a few ‘F words’ to consider when providing “free and frank” advice, says Andrew Kibblewhite, the head of New Zealand DPMC. Advise without fear or favour — but don’t be foolish. Facts, focused, future and … fallible?

Make risk assessments part of Cabinet proposals, put advice in writing, give businesses a direct say in how the public service is run … Highlights from Peter Shergold’s radical wish list for administrative reform.

Australia’s quasi-independent nature of its statutory officers requires a mutual civility and respect. When politicians break that model, it undermines our democratic credentials, writes Danielle Celermajer.

Have senior bureaucrats become politicised? And what do new demands of ministers and media mean for the way they function? The nation’s former top public servant muses.

The fuel fight facing Joe Hockey today was born from a political solution in 2001. One bureaucrat remembers how staffers frantically fed the Howard government.