Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Public Service Amendment Bill 2023 and I acknowledge the contributions of my colleague the member of Parramatta and others who have spoken on this side of the House. Our government was elected on a broad platform of reform—reform to our healthcare system and our aged-care system, reform to our universities and our schools, and, importantly, reform of our Public Service. The Public Service is crucial to what we do as a government and what we want to do in the future. That includes supporting the most vulnerable Australians, improving health care and aged care and pushing down cost-of-living pressures.

In order to do that, if we want to do all of those things, we need a Public Service that doesn't just work well; it needs to be world class, the best of the best. But, unfortunately, during the last decade, the coalition diminished the role of the Public Service, relying excessively on contractors and consultants and outsourcing policy. The coalition was deliberate in its dismantling of a robust Public Service that should provide frank and fearless advice to the government of the day.

These legislative changes that we debate today are part of our agenda not just to rebuild but to renew the Australian Public Service. Importantly, the proposed changes have also been informed by consultation with employees, representative groups, agencies, experts, the public and interested parties, including the Community and Public Sector Union. That's because the Public Service is not some collection of buildings in Canberra but dedicated people who commit their working lives to supporting our country.

The bill will strengthen the Public Service's purpose and core values, build the capability and expertise of the Public Service and support good governance, accountability and transparency. This is something we desperately need to do. Take robodebt. It showed us that public administration can fail and, when it does, can result in real human tragedy. It shows us the impact of political expedience and indifference for those most in need, the most vulnerable Australians. It showed us what happens when government does not listen to our experts.

Our Public Service reform is about making sure that schemes like robodebt don't happen, that they can't happen, that they never happen again. The amendments put in place clear, practical steps to support and improve the work of Public Service agencies. They create mechanisms for peer review and for external scrutiny and for guarding against political interference and intimidation, which were clearly so dominant in the robodebt scheme.

The royal commission uncovered a systemic approach to sweeping tragedy under the rug, by the most senior members of the former cabinet, in favour of an inflated budget bottom line. When I look at the royal commission, what stands out to me, in my role as Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, are the tragic stories of two young men who died by suicide as a direct result of this failed scheme. In one case, of a young man, his mother found in his apartment debt letters hanging on the fridge. In the other, prior to his death by suicide, he said, 'I will never get out of debt.'

The final report talks of many others who felt they had no way out, including one victim who recalls thinking, while driving home one night, 'I could just drive my car into a tree and make it stop.' While the illegal and unethical scheme alleged debts against some 526,000 Australians directly, these suicides and suicidal ideation display the true nature of robodebt. We are determined to make sure that that does not happen again. Our government understands that suicide is individual and complex and not exclusively the heartbreaking result of severe mental ill-health. Suicide is the result of multiple contributing factors, drivers of distress, drivers such as childhood abuse, domestic and family violence, relationship breakdown and, importantly, financial distress.

This royal commission is a stark reminder that our policy decisions matter. They have a real human impact, and policies introduced with little regard for the most vulnerable can lead to heightened distress that results in tragic consequences. To quote from page iii of the royal commission:

It is remarkable how little interest there seems to have been in ensuring the Scheme's legality, how rushed its implementation was, how little thought was given to how it would affect welfare recipients and the lengths to which public servants were prepared to go to oblige ministers on a quest for savings.

It is clear we need this bill, that the Australian public need this bill and that the most vulnerable in our community need this bill. At its heart this bill and the Albanese government's broader APS reform agenda are about restoring the public's trust and faith in government and its institutions. We are cleaning up the mess left behind by the coalition. They gutted the Public Service, reduced capability and outsourced billions of dollars of work to consultants and contractors. These reforms will strengthen the Public Service's core purpose and values; build capability and expertise; and support good governance, accountability and transparency. The challenges we face as a country are immense. We must be prepared for the next decade and the future ahead, and to face those challenges we need a strong, fearless public service.

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