Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Public Service Amendment Bill 2023. The Australian Public Service is the skeleton upon which the body of our society is built, from our healthcare system to tax obligations, employment systems, social services, migration and many more. In my electorate of Fowler our constituents come to see us most of the time with concerns about the competency, efficiency and accuracy of the Public Service departments in handling their cases. For example, for a constituent who was on unemployment benefits of $850, Centrelink showed that $495 would be deducted from his benefits due to a deduction of immediate payment. Upon investigation, there was no such deduction of immediate payment. Centrelink had made a mistake. They offered a solution to fix it within seven days or so. Due to this error, this man was unable to pay his weekly rent and bills. The only comfort he was offered was to be able to contact the urgent payment request line, on which he had to wait for one hour and 37 minutes and was eventually cut off. There wasn't even a Vietnamese translator option to explain the long wait. Can you imagine waiting for one hour and 37 minutes and not understanding fully what is said on the line and then getting cut off abruptly? This inefficiency is what's wrong with our Public Service system and processes. We're now in 2023, and with technology at hand, systems and processes can be set up to better serve and deliver for the Australian public.

Another local constituent of mine was rejected for NDIS housing on the basis that he did not have enough physical impairment. I met with the constituent and I can attest that he was paralysed from the waist down and had a speech impairment. He was living in a rental house which his support coordinator had reported was not suitable for him, as he struggled with accessibility and couldn't reach basic utilities like the kitchen and bathroom sinks. How did our Public Service system enable an assessment that this constituent did not have enough physical impairment? If our system is set up to such a level, where accurate assessment couldn't be achieved, what hope do we have for an equitable and fair society?

I commend the Albanese government for taking the initiative to reform the Public Service through this bill. I hope this reform will help build public trust and confidence in the Australian Public Service. And I hope some of these reforms are reflected in other aspects of the Public Service, such as the Social Services and NDIS portfolio, where many of our residents have direct contact with Australian Public Service systems. I look forward to seeing Minister Bill Shorten address some of these shortcomings within his review of the NDIS. However, I would like to stress that in attempting to reform the Public Service the government must also be careful when it comes to spending the taxpayer dollars of hardworking Australians. To put this into perspective, it will cost $40.8 million for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Australian Public Service Commissioner to reform and strengthen the APS and $25 million over the next year for an APS capability reinvestment fund.

These are not small numbers. For example, $25 million is the number that Fowler missed out on and so missed out on its health and wellness centre, which would have provided seniors and people going through rehabilitation after major operations a place to recover and a place where their families could stay with them through this period, like Ronald McDonald House.

Before I go further, I want to make my position clear that my feedback on this bill is in no way intended to undermine the hard work of the Public Service officers and people employed to do their best within the current environment and framework to support the Australian community. I am grateful for their work and service. My feedback is directed at the overall Public Service structures and practices.

In 2019, the eminent David Thodey delivered an independent review of the Australian Public Service, resulting in 40 recommendations that could result in far-reaching change. The review outlined that government support was critical for effective APS transformation.

We now see the Albanese government is hoping to transform the Australian Public Service by implementing some of the recommendations in the bill. In the spirit of the Thodey report, there are four core elements that would be addressed through this bill: (1) embodies integrity in everything it does, (2) puts people and business at the centre of policy and services, (3) is a model employer and (4) has the capability to do its job well.

The first step was to ensure the existing APS values would require the Public Service to be impartial, committed to service, accountable, respectful and ethical within their role. The government will implement recommendation 5 of the review, which sought to add the value of stewardship to the APS values and in which public servants would need to support the public interest and understand the long-term impacts of what it does. Essentially, this would require all of those in the APS to foreshadow the future and implications, which, realistically, may be beyond some in the service to do so because of their capability and experience. It's important to consider that most decisions made are made by senior officials and departmental secretaries. APS officers at a junior level would have little control, such as what occurred with robodebt.

If you look at the royal commission's report findings for robodebt published on 7 July 2023, you will find there was an absolute failure from the senior public servants who oversaw the wrongdoings of the scheme. They knew about it but did not act on the information, allegedly misled their staff members and failed to do anything of substance to rectify the debt inaccuracy. The result was the welfare system severely let down Australians who relied on it. Peoples' lives were severely impacted because of the actions of the bureaucrats involved. To add insult to injury, the very same public servant who had spearheaded the robodebt scheme was then quietly promoted to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to lead the AUKUS scheme with a $900,000 salary package. While that public servant has now been stood down, it is situations such as this that only deepen the mistrust in the Public Service. While I'm not against the addition of the stewardship, it will be in the best interests to narrowly define it so that it applies to APS employees who do hold the power to mitigate risk and make decisions for the good of the public interest.

Other recommendations that were outlined in the bill was a proposed insertion of section 64A, whereby a secretaries board must cause at least one long-term insights report to be prepared each financial year and it must be made public. This is to address Thodey's focus on building capability and so that the workforce remains robust. I can appreciate that this will allow greater transparency and potentially keep the APS being future fit. However, I note that Thodey's point on building capability also requires developing deeper professional expertise, greater diversity, real inclusion, digital capabilities and dynamic management structures and ways of working. I ask the government how can we give more significant effect to these points in this section of the bill and how can we structurally alter APS governance so that building capabilities are centralised?

While the bill doesn't take into account some recommendations of the Thodey report, I am not convinced that it makes the most of the budget allocated for the reform that the Albanese government envisioned. The Thodey report recommendations highlighted the need for innovations, the nature of jobs and productivity. These were not particularly addressed in this bill. If we are spending millions of dollars to reform the APS, what form of innovation are we introducing so that the APS can operate effectively, efficiently and with integrity?

In recommendation 27, Thodey proposes that the Secretaries Board could establish protocols to support timely research publication and trial a Public Service innovation incubator to drive innovative approaches to policymaking. It's expected that there will be 191,861 staff within the general government sector for this financial year. It would be wise that the bill implement changes that can encourage better departmental practices, structure, innovation and diversity.

One Thodey recommendation which I believe is critical is No. 25:

Strengthen the APS by recruiting, developing and promoting more people with diverse views and backgrounds.

This has not been addressed in this bill. This particular recommendation also gives effect to the overarching point of building capabilities within APS. Thodey recommends:

Secretaries Board to set a 2030 diversity goal: the APS to reflect and understand the people and communities it serves.

Australia has grown to be multicultural, and we can no longer operate with a few voices to make decisions that affect a diverse population. As you would expect, diverse voice in the Public Service matter, which is evident in the constituent cases shared earlier in my speech. A particularly relevant quote from Frances Adamson, DFAT secretary, within the Thodey review notes:

We in DFAT cannot possibly provide the advice that we provide to our government, or be effective internationally unless we are broadly representative of the Australian people, unless we can draw on a wide range of experiences, and thoughts from our own workforce.

Diversity in workforces, particularly in the Public Service, will ensure adequate cultural representation and share lived experiences, expertise and challenges. Thodey states that a whole-of-service diversity and inclusion strategy within APS will ensure that the service takes advantage of people's talents from all corners of life and their varying perspectives. An APS workforce with a promoted focus on diversity and inclusion will assist with delivering critical targets, as the service delivered will be able to reflect the needs of the wider Australian community.

According to Thodey's implementation guidance, targets are to be set for:

… a transformational lift in representation of people from diverse backgrounds at the EL and SES levels …

And, most importantly, amending the Public Service Act 1999 to strengthen the employment principle on diversity. To give effect to Thodey's implementation guidance, I ask the government to consider amending section 10A and 18 of the Public Service Act 1999 to promote and foster a diverse perspective, which is in line with Thodey's recommendation that the APS should address the need for greater representation of diverse groups and perspectives.

Overall, transforming the APS is a significant process, and caution must be taken to ensure that Australian taxpayers' money is not taken for granted in this reform, especially in the current economic climate with the cost-of-living crisis. Although this bill proposes some commendable changes, the government can do much more to transform the APS and incorporate more of Thodey's recommendations.

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