It is a delight to be back in Adelaide.
A city where powerful history was made just nearby, on Victoria Square - Tantanyangga - where the Australian Aboriginal Flag was flown for the first time.
The flag was raised by the artist himself, Luritja man and former local, Harold Thomas.
Fifty-one years on, this flag flies in squares, schools, Parliaments and parks right across the country.
A symbol of where we are as a nation, and where we can walk together.
It is with these thoughts in mind that I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains.
I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with us today.
I restate our Government’s commitment to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full.
Including a constitutionally-enshrined Voice to Parliament.
I acknowledge Megan Motto, CEO of the Governance Institute of Australia.
I am delighted to join you today.
To recognise the vital role of good public sector governance.
And to share with you the Government’s commitment to place evidence, clarity and integrity at the heart of everything we do.
To be in government is an enormous privilege.
But it is also an enormous responsibility.
For me, good public sector governance is about having the utmost respect for the work we get to do.
To serve the people of Australia.
To deliver a stronger, fairer future.
To protect the institutions on which the success of our democracy depends.
Good governance and a strong democracy have a symbiotic relationship.
They strengthen each other.
With policy that improves the lives of all Australians as the beneficial output.
This should be the mindset for public servants just as it is for elected members.
It must also be the mindset for those support and influence the operations of government.
Policy analysts, civil society think-tanks and management consultants alike.
Good policy needs good governance
Most of you don’t know me.
I won’t bore you with stories about working at McDonalds while studying at Curtin University or working alongside Kevin Rudd and Mark McGowan.
I will bore you, briefly with my enthusiasm for under-appreciated Australian history.
Today we will go to the constitutional debates of the 1890s.
Stay with me!
The late 19th century was a pivotal time in Australia’s history of government.
Representatives from the six Australian colonies worked out the detail of our Federation and Constitution.
Everything was on the table:
- Trade tariffs.
- Elections.
- Number of politicians.
- Rail gauges.
- Time zones – still not fully resolved 122 years later
- The lot.
These early drafters imagined large.
But they did not imagine what we are today.
They did not want the successful multicultural nation which we chose to become.
Nor did they expect the rail gauge arguments would be replaced by a debate about check-in or carry-on.
These representatives — all men, of course — were building the foundation of the system of government we know today.
They really did want to get it right.
You can see from the records an incredible commitment to robust negotiation and thorough decision-making.
The level of detail in the debates is astonishing.
And they’re often very funny.
A short time after Federation was formed, the debate turned to what to do about Australia’s capital — namely, where should it be?
The way historian Dr David Headon put it:
“Numerous towns came and went, crashed and burned, sometimes re-emerged, phoenix-like, from the flames, only to burn again, until, in the last months of 1908, amidst controversy and name-calling, brinksmanship and hectic behind-closed-doors number-crunching, [Canberra] emerged victorious.”
We know there were some proud South Australians fighting the good fight for Adelaide.
They felt Adelaide was the centre of gravity of this continent.
But on the whole, those pioneering Members and Senators were a risk-averse bunch.
More often than not, the arguments they put forward were reasons not to put the capital in a particular spot.
Rather than the reasons for.
The options closed in on somewhere between Sydney and Melbourne.
The arguments against the proposed locations came in thick and fast.
- Too cold!
- Too dry!
- Too much bushland!
- Too remote!
- Too close to Sydney!
- Too close to Melbourne!
...and on it went.
Perhaps it is human nature to find it easier to come up with reasons to not do things.
Reading these debates, it seems a miracle that the terms of our Federation were able to be negotiated.
Our Constitution was signed and settled and the choice of Capital eventually agreed.
Against the odds.
And we all benefit.
However, this tendency to avoid risk is relevant to the discussions we are having today.
Too often conversations about governance encourage a level of closed-mindedness.
I can see why that happens.
Just like a century ago.
It is easier to find the reasons against, rather than for.
It is easy to avoid things if there is a risk of failure.
Done well, robust governance is not about stifling creativity.
Or stopping innovative ideas from being heard.
Governance is not the quest to find reasons not to act.
It is about making sure the ideas that succeed are our best.
In reflection on the life of John Curtin, the late former Prime Minister Bob Hawke said:
“Refusal to change has not been an option for Australia, for the Australian economy, (or) for the Australian Government.”
Hawke was right.
Curtin was right.
Australia can not refuse to change. The risks are too great.
We must use the power of the public sector to drastically improve Australian lives.
That is what the business of good, robust and effective policy is all about.
And I believe good governance is at the heart of that.
Since the election, we have sought to set a high standard.
A high standard for policy development.
And a high standard for policy outcomes.
Announcement of the office of impact analysis
Part of that high standard is the highest possible quality of policy analysis.
We have got to do our homework.
Consider every last detail of the policies we seek to implement.
Broader impacts and the greatest possible benefit.
As the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, I am fortunate to oversee the team in the public service responsible for this.
The team was formally known as the Office of Best Practice Regulation.
Today, I am announcing the evolution of this function, now to be named the Office of Impact Analysis.
The OIA for those who love an APS acronym.
This more accurately reflects the work they do.
Their focus is helping policy-makers analyse the impact of their policies.
The OIA sees all forthcoming policy changes and reviews thousands of new policy proposals each year.
Their core business is ensuring the “total effect” of policies is understood.
Take the Government’s recent improvements to Paid Parental Leave, for example.
The OIA team asks us to think about the impacts on families and children.
As well as the regulatory burden, and parental frustration, of filling out yet another form.
But they also ask us to consider the cross-cutting issues.
For example, what will the changes mean for the labour market?
For industry?
For the economy?
Having a dedicated team to ensure policies are considered holistically is how we achieve good policy outcomes.
It is the kind of detail Australians deserve.
Australians also deserve to be in the loop.
To be given the chance to see for themselves how policy changes affect them.
That is why the OIA publishes completed analyses online, for all to see.
I encourage you to check out their website at oia.pmc.gov.au
You can see for yourself the impact analysis behind the biggest policy decisions of our government.
When we improve the quality of policy, we improve Australian lives.
That is the commitment of this Government.
Policy that represents good value for money, and most importantly, policy that works.
Accountability, transparency and integrity
Setting a high standard also means being prepared to put policies already in effect under the microscope.
Likewise with agencies.
We simply must have confidence that Government agencies are fit-for-purpose.
The Australian people expect that.
That is why we initiated a review into the Reserve Bank of Australia.
To ensure our monetary policy framework is fit for the times we are living in.
It is why we are looking at a review of Infrastructure Australia.
To ensure that organisation is positioned to provide the highest-quality nation-building advice it can.
And it is why we have launched a review into the NDIS.
A proud Australian achievement that is needing urgent attention to ensure its sustainability.
These reviews are an important part of the policy process.
They help us to take a temperature check of how our institutions are going.
Whether, and where, there are gaps in skills, capability, funding or compliance.
And whether taxpayers’ money can go further, to benefit more Australians.
These reviews help us learn, and act.
They add to our collective wisdom.
Help us improve for next time.
Because not every decision is the right decision.
The Royal Commission into ‘Robodebt’ recently began hearings in Brisbane.
This will report on ways to prevent any public administration failures identified from happening again.
Preventing the tragedy of ‘Robodebt’ from being repeated.
Another egregious example that comes to mind is the AWB wheat for weapons scandal.
We see failures occurring on a couple of levels.
We see governance issues at the Board level.
But we also see the government-level failure in allowing the issues to perpetuate.
It’s our job to hold each other — especially those in positions of high power — accountable for that.
Not ‘sometimes’.
Not ‘often’.
But always.
That is why we’re putting a tough federal watchdog at the top of the agenda.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission will give Australians a renewed faith in Government.
Critically, the Commission will carry out its functions independent of Government.
It will have jurisdiction to investigate serious or systemic corruption.
And discretion to commence inquiries on its own initiative, or in response to referrals from anyone.
The Commission will have the power to hold public hearings where it is in the public interest, and exceptional circumstances justify doing so.
It will create a national standard of integrity.
This is as it should be.
I am pleased additional corruption prevention measures are on the agenda.
More protections for whistle-blowers and a robust Code of Conduct for ministers and staff.
Because, it is important to have strong measures in place where activity has the potential to be corrupt or illegal.
But I will also say this:
These initiatives are about much more than just drawing a line under a minimum accepted standard of behaviour.
They are not about passing the pub test by the slimmest possible margin.
These initiatives are about prevention.
And lifting expectations across the board.
They are about setting a high standard, and building a system whereby the public sector sets the example.
In a handful of recent cases, we see private sector governance under pressure.
The most recent examples, of course, are the rolling data breaches which have severely damaged the contract of trust between corporations and their customers.
I would like to see the public sector show the private sector where the bar is set.
A strong and trusted APS
I also believe we hold ourselves accountable by investing in a strong and trusted public service.
Under the leadership of Minister for the Public Service, Katy Gallagher, we are embarking on a broad-reaching Australian Public Service Reform plan, to build:
One, an APS which embodies integrity in everything it does.
Two, an APS which puts people and business at the centre of policy and services.
Three, an APS which is a model employer.
Four, an APS with the capability to do its job well.
In the Minister’s words, these reforms are:
“about valuing and reinvesting in the APS’s most valuable resource – its people.”
Because the people of the public service aren’t just workers.
They are our neighbours, friends and family.
For me, it goes back to my great grandmother, Lucy Thomson, who worked for decades at the Australian Taxation Office in Perth.
During the war there were some serious staff shortages.
And the Australian Tax Office did what most organisations did — they boosted their ranks of women.
At the start of the war, women made up less than a quarter of all Australian Tax Office employees.
By 1945, they were the majority of the Australian Tax Office workforce.
The Curtin Government had established the Women’s Employment Board.
It set women’s pay rates outside normal wage settings so they could be paid at higher rates.
Many women in the Australian Tax Office actually started being paid at male rates — sadly unheard of at the time.
And many were given tax assessment positions which would never have been open to them before.
Part of my great grandmother’s role at the Australian Tax Office was to ensure government pensions were getting into the hands of women who had been widowed, like she had been.
A difficult and important job.
And the point I’m making through this example is this:
In complex and challenging times, it so often is humble public servants who step into the breach.
Public servants are the backbone of the institutions and services that keep our nation running — in good times and bad.
People just like Lucy Thomson and her pioneering female colleagues at the Australian Tax Office all those years ago.
I am looking forward to working with Minister Gallagher to get this reform work underway.
To reinvigorate and re-empower the Australian Public Service that contributes so much to our country.
Keep an eye out for the Charter of Partnerships and Engagement, which will support the design and delivery of services in a more people-focused way.
You will also see us restart capability reviews.
And we will be embedding corporate memory back into the APS, by reducing reliance on contractors, consultants and labour hire.
We ask a lot of our public servants.
I am proud to be part of a Government that is reinvesting in our public servants.
And supporting the Australian Public Service to be truly world-leading.
Conclusion
I began my address today with the constitutional debates of the late 19th century and early 20th century.
By comparison, the governance debates we’re having today could not be more different.
For one thing, instead of squabbling over the ideal weather for a national capital, we are having a much more meaningful national conversation about genuine recognition of Australia’s First Nations peoples.
Our constitution fails to recognise the tens of thousands of years of continuing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
The Uluru Statement is an extraordinary act of generosity, friendship and reconciliation.
A collective voice, from across land and country reaching out, speaking as one, asking to be heard.
The Australian Government has a mandate to put the question of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the Australian people.
We will do it this term.
Work is underway, with the appointment of the referendum working and engagement groups.
These groups will advise on how to harness the goodwill in the Australian community on this important nation building project.
Our goal though is not just holding a referendum.
Our goal is holding a successful referendum.
The Australian Government is clear this is a journey all parts of our nation must walk together.
We want this to be a moment which brings people together.
As a nation, we must recognise the people who have cared for this country for 65,000 years.
Our broader operating environment is unrecognisable, too.
Over the entirety of last century, the world experienced just a handful of major global recessions.
This century, we are confronting the prospect of a third global downturn in just a decade and a half.
Add to that a rolling global pandemic.
A war in Europe.
The risk and reward of the digital economy.
And the immense task of confronting global climate change.
The expectations on our public sector to manage complexity are greater than ever.
And what that requires most is trust.
Trust that the systems of governance we have in place can meet the moment.
Australians deserve to understand the impact of the policies their tax dollars pay for, and the evidence which proves it.
Australians deserve elected officials who act with integrity.
Australians equally deserve a strong and capable public sector.
That is what our Government seeks to deliver.
Thank you very much.