Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Public Service Amendment Bill 2023 makes amendments to the Public Service Act 1999 and is a key element of the Albanese government's APS reform agenda. The need for ambitious and enduring reform of the APS is clear. The independent review of the Australian Public Service, led by Mr David Thodey, concluded that the APS lacked a unified purpose, was too internally focused and had lost capability in important areas. The Thodey review called for a Public Service that is trusted, future fit, responsive and agile to meet the changing needs of government and the community with professionalism and, of course, integrity.

This bill delivers on several important recommendations of the Thodey review, recognising that the case for reform has only strengthened in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, geopolitical disruptions and increasing economic volatility have highlighted the importance of an APS that acts with agility and common purpose. The experience of recent years has also highlighted the enduring importance of the existing APS values to be impartial, committed to service, accountable, respectful and ethical. To model these values and embody integrity, the APS needs to be honest, truly independent and empowered to provide frank and fearless advice and to defend legality and due process.

The APS needs to listen to and engage with the Australian community, developing policy and delivering services with empathy and in a spirit of partnership. We should expect greater transparency about the state of the Public Service and its ability to deliver. That helps build trust in government—in the institutions of our great nation. We want the APS to be confident and capable, acting with a clear purpose, demonstrating thought leadership and taking a long-term view of the implications of each decision and action.

Reform of such a large and complex organisation takes time, and it takes sustained effort and commitment. That is why the Albanese government is introducing amendments to the Public Service Act to embed reform in the legislation that guides and governs the Public Service. The Albanese government's APS reform agenda has four priorities. They are: firstly, an APS that embodies integrity in everything it does; second, an APS that puts people and business at the centre of policy and services; third, that the APS is a model employer; fourth, an APS that has the capability to do its job well.

This bill supports each of these priorities. At its heart, this bill and the Albanese government's broader APS reform agenda is about restoring the public's trust in our Public Service, in government and in our institutions. The reforms in this bill will strengthen the APS's core purpose and values, build the capability and expertise of the APS and support good governance, accountability and transparency in our nation. The Australian Public Service is a complex organisation made up of tens of thousands of people working across dozens of departments and agencies. The work, naturally, of the APS is incredibly varied and diverse. To ensure that the APS works as an integrated organisation—as one APS—the Thodey review recommended strengthening the APS's purposes and values. Amendments in the bill deliver on this intent and support the government's APS reform priority to create an APS that acts with integrity in everything it does.

This bill adds a new APS value of stewardship. The APS values articulate the culture and operating ethos of the APS. They reflect expectations of the relationship between public servants and the government, the parliament and the Australian community. The new stewardship value has been developed through extensive consultation, with responses from over 1,500 APS staff from across the country, all the way from the graduates to the senior executives. Informed by this consultation, the bill outlines the stewardship value as meaning, '… the APS builds capability and institutional knowledge, and supports the public interest now and into the future by understanding the long-term impacts of what it does.' By requiring all APS employees to uphold stewardship, the bill will strengthen the important and enduring role that all public servants play as stewards.

Stewardship involves learning from the past and looking to the future. It involves conservation and cultivation, leaving things in a better place than you found them. It involves seeing your role as part of the whole, preserving public trust and promoting the public good. Stewardship has deep roots in Australia. As all honourable members know, First Nations Australians are the country's original stewards. There is no doubting that; that is a fact. Caring for country over tens of thousands of years and multiple generations is what First Nations Australians have done.

To compliment the addition of stewardship as an APS value, this bill will require the Secretaries Board To oversee the development of a single, unifying purpose statement for the APS. This will provide a common foundation for collaborative leadership, align services and share delivery across the many departments and agencies that make up the APS. It will contribute to a shared sense of purpose for tens of thousands of APS employees, reinforcing a one-APS approach. This purpose statement will be developed through consultation by the service, for the service and it will not be set in stone. The bill requires that it be refreshed every five years, accounting for the APS's evolving role over time. The purpose statement should guide the way the APS works.

The first APS value is for the APS to be impartial, and this value is crucial to the successful operation of the service and to maintaining public trust. It is important that we defend it. Having an apolitical and merit based approach to APS employment matters devoid of political interference is key to maintaining an impartial Public Service. This bill will strengthen the relevant provision in the Public Service Act to make it clear that ministers cannot direct agency heads on individual APS staffing decisions. This will reaffirm the apolitical role of the APS and provide confidence to agency heads to act with integrity in the exercise of their duties and powers.

The bill also embeds ongoing measures to build the APS's capability and expertise. Talented, committed people are the foundation of our Public Service. To be future fit, the APS needs to continually build the capability of its staff to create a skilled and confident workforce to remain a robust and trusted institution that delivers modern policy and service solutions for decades to come. The APS needs to be future focused, looking ahead to solve the challenges facing Australia. The Thodey review noted concerns that the capability of the APS has been eroded over time. It also called for the APS to strike a better balance between short-term responsiveness and investing in the deep expertise required to grapple with long-term strategic policy challenges. This bill will help the APS to maintain that balance and build expertise by requiring the Secretaries Board to commission regular, evidence-based, long-term insight reports developed through a process of public consultation. These apolitical and evidence-based reports will encourage the APS to engage with academics, experts and the broader Australian community on long-term policy challenges. By partnering in this transparent way, the APS can build trust in its expertise and understanding of cross-cutting issues that matter to all Australians.

Transparency can shine a light on the culture and make-up of the APS and prompt changes to ensure it remains a great place to work for people from all walks of life. The Thodey review called for the APS to adopt best-practice ways of working by reducing unnecessary hierarchy and empowering APS employees to make decisions. This recommendation was prompted by findings that decisions involving risk tended to be increasingly escalated upwards in the APS. This bill introduces a healthy counterweight to that tendency by including a provision to require agency heads to implement measures that enable decisions to be made by APS employees at the lowest appropriate classification level. To be clear, this isn't about pushing work or risk down to an inappropriate level. Instead, it is about ensuring that decision-making is not raised to a higher level than is necessary. Ultimately, it is about improving decision-making processes, reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks, empowering staff and fostering professional development. All of those things will be done with an appropriate level of shifting decisions and empowering employees at the appropriate level. It's important, of course, that managers don't use this as an opportunity to shift work, and I'm sure that they won't. More so, it is to make sure that they're developing their people and no allowing inertia to stop the important work of the Public Service.

The challenges facing Australia over the coming decade are immense. The APS will continue to play an integral role in meeting the changing needs of government and the community with professionalism and integrity. The Thodey review provides an important blueprint for ongoing public sector transformation that can endure while adapting to changing needs and circumstances. Our government has responded with its ambitious APS reform agenda. By amending the Public Service Act, this bill advances that agenda significantly and locks in important reforms. Through this and other measures, we can uphold and build the public's trust and faith in government and one of its most important institutions, our Australian Public Service.

The APS makes a real difference to the lives of all Australians in delivering essential services, and that's true in my electorate of Solomon, too, where public servants play a very prominent role. I'm glad that I've been successful in having the DFAT office in Darwin increase its footprint in recent times. It's a win for the Northern Territory, helping to deepen our international linkages with our immediate region, especially with Indonesia and Timor-Leste, and it's something we want to see more of. The APS needs to reflect the whole of Australia in its hiring decisions but also in a balanced geographic spread of its regional offices, such as those we proudly host in Darwin. I'd like to highlight in particular the Commonwealth APS Academy campus initiative in data and digital training for entry-level jobs. This APS Academy campus is based at Charles Darwin University, in my electorate, and will provide vocational education and training courses. It will have 300 spots open to Darwin residents wanting a career change or to boost their skills in digital roles in the APS. The academy is set to open this year, with graduate placements to follow in 2024.

Like the private sector, the APS is struggling to find enough people with the technical skills to fill roles in the data and digital space. That's why this academy program is the latest positive step in the right direction to deal with this issue and, ultimately, to keep those workers in the APS. The CPSU's NT branch welcomed the announcement of this new APS Academy, with regional secretary Kay Densley saying:

New jobs and new opportunities in the Territory are welcomed after years of the Coalition Government's cuts to APS jobs and services.

And CDU vice-chancellor Scott Bowman said he was 'delighted' with this innovation.

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