The future of the Australian Public Service is on the ballot at this election. Tonight I argue that all Australians, especially conservatives, should cherish our public service. Peter Dutton has put public service cuts front and centre of the imminent campaign. I am happy to have that fight.
The values of public service run deep in my family. My parents were both primary school teachers. My grandmother Pat worked in administration at WA Health. My great grandmother Lucy, was a proud Commonwealth public servant. She worked at the Australian Taxation Office. After World War II, she helped collect revenue and support war widows like herself get the support they needed.
Prime Minister John Curtin urged Australia to win the war and win the peace. And we did.
Yet we began underprepared.
As Curtin said in his 1943 campaign speech:
"…finance on war production, while maintaining essential civilian living conditions, would have been impossible but for the work of the Department of War Organisation of Industry.
This was the department which, under the Menzies and Fadden Governments, had been a department with a Minister, a typist and a bare room."
Australia now faces the most challenging set of strategic circumstances since World War II. Is it really the time to be launching an attack on the public service?
At best, deep cuts to the public service will take our nation backwards. At worst, deep cuts will make us less secure, less safe and unable to shape the world around us.
Only the powers of our nation combined can ensure Australia is prepared for that challenge. No individual business can. No single citizen can. In other words, there has never been a worse time to cut the public service by 20 per cent.
John Howard's public service legacy
The modern Australian Public Service is core to John Howard's legacy as Australia's second longest serving Prime Minister.
Upon coming to office, Prime Minister Howard made significant cuts to the Public Service. However, it is what he did after that which became his most defining legacy in relation to the APS. As Prime Minister, John Howard introduced the Public Service Act
To quote Mr Howard:
"Let me state at the outset my firm belief that an accountable, non-partisan and professional public service which responds creatively to the changing roles and demands of government is a great national asset.
Preserving its value and nurturing its innovation is a priority for this government."
- Prime Minister John Howard, 19 November 1997, Sir Robert Garran Oration
I agree, wholeheartedly. That is why I am proud that our government has ensured a right-sized public service.
The Budget papers tell us the entire public service today is some 209,000. If it were proportionally the same size as when Mr Howard left office it would be 226,000.
At the same time we deliver on more than two decades' worth of additional responsibilities across the NDIS, AUKUS, the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the demands of the digital economy.
And some of our biggest agencies are essential to our national security.
19,465 public servants in Defence.
15,215 in Home Affairs.
And 8,212 Commonwealth employees in the Attorney-General's portfolio.
Our officials are governed by the Australian Public Service values that Mr Howard encoded in law in 1999 and continue to this day.
Impartial. Committed to Service. Accountable. Respectful. Ethical.
The Albanese Government added the value of Stewardship in 2023.
It is when we see government officials stray from these values that the service comes into disrepute. The Robodebt Royal Commission showed us this writ large.
Then, an anecdote at a much smaller level. In 2023 there was an increase in staffing for members of Parliament. For every electorate office of every member. It tells you everything that not a single member of the Coalition said that they themselves were so efficient they did not need the additional resource.
More seriously, while I may disagree with the policy conclusions of the Coalition, I value their work. Political parties are a vital part of our democracy. The public service also has a fundamental role in the functioning of a democracy.
Last year I released the Trust and Satisfaction in Australian Democracy survey. 95 per cent of respondents said living in a democratic country was important to them. That is a relief. And where problems in our democracy might exist, 85 per cent agree it is worth trying to fix them. This is encouraging.
The survey also looked at trusted sources of information. Friends, family and government all rated as highly trustworthy. Then comes social media. One in two Australians outright distrust or strongly distrust what they see on Twitter, TikTok and the rest. And this is deeply concerning.
It shows that the challenges for our democratic system are real. That citizens demand factual and impartial information. And the role of the public service is vital.
From servant to partner
It is an honour to work with Minister Katy Gallagher on public service reform. And while I defend the service. I also demand much more from it.
On coming to government we faced major capability gaps across the APS. Three years ago, under the Coalition, it had become so bad that there were agencies contracting out the writing of Cabinet submissions. The very core of the Westminster system, contracted out to the nearest consultant.
It felt like some agencies couldn't even write an email without one of the big four consulting firms raising an invoice. So we set upon an ambitious reform agenda. An agenda that has seen $4 billion in savings through reduced labour hire.
Central to our agenda is an APS that puts people and business at the centre of policy and services. I talk about going from servant to partner. Because partnership is where the next big policy breakthroughs are.
Partnership is how Australia closes the gap. Partnership is how we ensure cybersecurity for all Australians. Partnership is how we deliver the defence industry our nation demands for the decades ahead. And partnership is how we stop the decline in democratic values.
This means new expectations on departmental heads and secretaries. We have spent the last three years lifting expectations. Our government gave the service the resources they need. It was also clear we expected much more of public service leaders.
It is now an expectation of all APS staff to know how to partner and engage effectively with business. The 2023-24 APS Agency Survey told us that 64 agencies had a need for increased engagement and partnership capability over the next 3-5 years. Because officials should not develop policy without being informed by stakeholders.
Our guidance now clearly tells officials they cannot achieve the best outcomes unless they collaborate with businesses and communities that have shared interests.
This is a massive shift in mindset. To take the Public Service back into the public. And make sure the impacts on business, especially small business, are thoroughly assessed though robust impact analysis.
Recruiting the best of Australia
Our other goal is to be an employer of choice. There is no doubt that the public debate about the public service deters some of our brightest minds from joining. We need to turn that tide.
The fundamental rules of the public service have not changed for a quarter of a decade.
It was John Howard who passed the Public Service Act 1999. Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey both held the role of Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service.
Looking closely at the Coalition frontbench you will also see there is no shame in a career as a public servant. We all know that the Opposition Leader was a Queensland police officer.
But it goes much deeper.
Sussan Ley was a senior officer at the Australian Taxation Office.
Dan Tehan and Dave Sharma both were career DFAT officers.
Anne Ruston was CEO of a South Australian government owned entity.
Even the comically titled "Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction" was more than happy to take a well-paid role under the South Australian Public Sector Act 2009.
So Coalition members know there is honour in a public service career. And the skills needed are changing.
Data and digital is one of the core skills of the 21st century. The Australian Public Service Commission advises 71% of agencies identify critical digital skill shortages and 70% data skill shortages. This is not where we want to be in this pivotal decade.
My message to any young Australian who wants to make an impact on this country is simple:
We need your talents to protect the Australia we know today and build the Australia we want for the future.
Australia's public service is only as good as the best of our people. That is why tonight there is one partner I want to call on to do more.
The Commonwealth Government is a significant employer of degree qualified graduates. 53,378 at 30 June 2024 to be exact. But too often university graduates are not well prepared for the demands of the modern Public Service. This is unfair on graduates.
Every graduate who applies for a role with the Australian Government should have excellent written skills and the ability to work in the Australian policy cycle.
The Australian Universities Accord Review told us of the problem:
"…graduates need the transferable generic skills sought by employers. Australian workers now need to be digitally literate, creative, collaborative, good communicators, and able to solve complex problems. Our tertiary education providers must teach these skills more effectively."
I agree.
Vice-chancellors need to ensure they are meeting the needs of the public service now and the demands of the future. They owe it to their students and to the nation.
Supporting the public service is not a partisan statement
In the past it was not partisan to be a supporter of the public service. It was widely acknowledged that the Parliament, not the government of the day, was the largest driver of the size of the public service.
The best contemporary example of this is in Veterans' Affairs. The Albanese Government did put more staff into the Department of Veterans' Affairs. Because 41,000 compensation claims were unallocated.
The Parliament had passed laws to guarantee support to veterans. But there weren't enough people to enact these laws. Veterans going without more than $6.5 billion of healthcare and financial support our nation had promised them.
Those backlogs are now cleared.
And across Social Services, Medicare, Defence, Attorney-General's Department and more - the bulk of public servants are there to implement the laws the Australian Parliament passes.
That is why when David Littleproud, as leader of the National Party, says:
"…the first thing we'll do is sack those 36,000 public servants in Canberra."
I get a little concerned.
Wielding the knife is rarely a good start to any government. John Howard, Tony Abbott and Campbell Newman can tell you that.
And while it is many decades since my Great Grandmother worked at the tax office helping deliver war widow pensions, it still sends the wrong message to those who serve Australia in uniform if there is no one there for them after their service has concluded.
Let alone the politics of this decision.
On the ABC's Insiders just over a week ago we saw JWS Research outlining that the only policy less popular than public service cuts was Mr Dutton's tax break for business lunches.
The challenges ahead
That is enough of the immediate electoral horizon. Now to look to the longer-term challenges on the economic horizon.
One of my responsibilities is to assist the Prime Minister with our legislative program and to help oversee the Office of Parliamentary Counsel. In other words, ensuring government prepares for and drafts the laws we need in a timely manner for the challenges we face.
At a fundamental level of drafting our laws, the challenges of the decades ahead are much more complex than those that have been. The Treasurer when launching the latest Intergenerational Report told us what would transform our economy in the decades ahead.
From hydrocarbons to renewables. From IT to AI.
From a younger population to an older one, which changes our industrial base and places a bigger emphasis on the care economy.
And from globalisation to fragmentation.
Anyone putting themselves forward at the coming election will have to legislate to prepare Australia for these changes. It will present complex challenges for Independents and the Senate as we need to move faster, not slower.
Managed well we maintain and grow Australia's position as one of the wealthiest and most successful multicultural countries anywhere on earth at any time in human history. Managed poorly and it will only compound other challenges on our doorstep.
An unprepared public service is an unprepared nation
A seismic transformation is happening in our region. We enter an era of great power contest. The outcome of that contest is not guaranteed.
As Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said here at the Sydney Institute less than a year ago:
"… a passive assumption that 'this is how things have always been done', was a recipe for continued failure."
The Deputy Prime Minister is correct. That is why public service reform is so important.
Rolling out reform is hard. Rolling out redundancies is easy.
At this election, Labor puts ourselves forward as the only Party who can ensure Australians have the public service and services they expect.
That they will be able to easily apply for a pension. That if they serve in our armed forces, their veterans claims will be processed with speed. That somewhere the brightest minds in Australia are working to ensure a peaceful and prosperous region for us all.
There has never been a worse time in Australia's post-war history to be launching a civil war on the public service.
Thank you.