Glyn Davis has a huge task ahead of him as head of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) and leader of the Australian Public Service (APS). Not merely are there myriad policy challenges domestically and internationally, but he inherits a public service in the worst state of disrepair in its history.
The Abbott and Morrison governments were disasters for the APS, punctuated only by Malcolm Turnbull, who was genuinely interested in public sector reform and established the comprehensive review, chaired by David Thodey, early in 2018 — on which Davis served. But by the time Thodey and co reported, a right-wing putsch had replaced Turnbull with Morrison, and the latter binned the review, telling the APS that it would simply do what he told it to.
Meanwhile, continuing apace were the politicisation of the public service, the relentless expansion of consulting firms in the APS, and the stripping of experience, talent and corporate memory. The appointment of Liberal Party staffer Phil Gaetjens as head of PM&C was the last straw — the once august position of leadership of the Australian public sector reduced to a Mister Fixit for Morrison’s myriad political problems.
Davis carries no baggage within the APS of the past nine years, having been vice-chancellor at the University of Melbourne and then head of the Paul Ramsay Foundation. However, he has deep public sector roots in the Queensland public service in the 1990s.
Routinely described as a “change agent” for his stints leading the Queensland public sector and higher education institutions, Davis faces the challenge now of restoration and repair, so that the APS can once again start playing an effective role in advising on public policy, not just implementing the political whims of the Coalition.
The Thodey review recommended greater investment in public sector skills and improved leadership, with a much greater emphasis on merit-based appointments at the senior level, and tighter regulation of ministerial staffers. Morrison went the other way, sacking the best secretaries, installing Coalition favourites and excluding the APS from policy roles in favour of ministerial staff driven purely by partisan interests.
It is likely not all of the damage can be reversed. The investment required to restore to the APS the talent and experience lost over years of outsourcing would be prohibitive. And the APS will know that, in the event the Coalition returns to power, it is likely to simply pick up where Morrison left off. But without effective leadership, no recovery will be possible. Davis’ appointment is thus the first step toward recovery.
The fact that there was no obvious replacement for Gaetjens within the APS — Mike Mrdak, the brilliant Transport and Communications secretary sacked by Morrison, was the other name touted for PM&C — speaks volumes about the comprehensive failure of Morrison and his handyman to nurture a new generation of APS leadership talent. They preferred yes-men and women who could be relied upon to stolidly defend the government when inevitable scandals and disasters were uncovered, but who were incapable of preventing them in the first place — let alone contributing effectively to public policy in Australia.
Absent a comprehensive overhaul of the current batch of departmental secretaries (though surely Kathryn “Robodebt” Campbell has to be removed from DFAT), it is that generation of thin talent and pliable executives that Davis will have to work with to start lifting the game of the APS. In that task he will thus need the help of every minister and their staff, who will need to manage their relationships with the APS very differently from the Coalition approach.
Whether they can do that while combatting the political challenges of what will be a difficult three years, however, remains to be seen. Never bet the house — or a bureaucracy — on a politician doing the right thing unprompted.
I suspect Scott was just implementing the wishes of the powerful business stakeholders he served. They don’t want a skilled and experienced APS which will say no to their agenda.
What has happened in the APS isn’t an accident, it was the plan.
Morrison wasn’t just implementing the wishes of others, he himself had ego big enough to believe (there’s that word again, always appears whenever Morrison espouses his evidence-free nonsense) he knew better than anyone else – or at least if he doesn;t know better then he could fake it until he made it.
Morrison wanted the APS to be passive, just carrying out his will, not proposing policy options or bringing him identification and scoping of inconvenient problems, let alone possible solutions. Very Trump like. But Morrison also had few ideas or reforms to offer. He did want announcables and it was his backers and cronies wanted things, largely taxpayer dollars it seems. A robust APS was of little use to Morrison, more of a hinderance.
Scotty from Marketing just wanted publicists not public servants that are actually accountable to the public.
Without an exception, all Secretary positions should be spilled and an open merit system (not controlled by government hacks) determine the best fit by each new department. The best decision on departments would be to carve up the horrendous Ex Dutton mess and make Immigration a seperate a department again; Foreign Affairs needs an urgent upgrade too.
Being an ex APS Officer myself, I have watched with disgust and dismay as John Howard and his later clones/clowns reduce the APS into a lackey for the Government, rather than the people. The constitution should be amended (I am positive the public would overwhelmingly pass a Referendum) to ensure that the role of the APS in ensuring frank and fearless advice to the Government and ensuring integrity of Government is enshrined – thank god for the National Audit Office, that has had some legislative protection from Government interference; despite it being ignored by ScoMo’s lot it least managed to squeak out a few messages to those wanting to listen.
I really hope we see a few royal commissions into the disgusting pork barrelling of our taxes soon.
The longstanding US GOP modus operandi as outlined by Thomas Franks in ‘The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule’ (2008) from Good Reads:
‘dedicated to dismantling government. But rather than cutting down the big government they claim to hate, conservatives have simply sold it off, deregulating some industries, defunding others, but always turning public policy into a private-sector bidding war….It is no coincidence, Frank argues, that the same politicians who guffaw at the idea of effective government have installed a regime in which incompetence is the rule.’
Exactly, by rendering government incompetent and impotent you make your ideological claims about government become reality.
I hope the lack of ‘long knives’ action doesn’t come back to haunt Albanese. Rudd taking the high road and leaving Howard acolytes such as Jane Halton in place was devastating for wider morale in the APS and there were always doubts about the commitment and ability of several other department heads at that time to serve a new government, not grieve the last one. Even without being being viewed through the lens of politics, the ongoing incompetence and dodgy practices uncovered by a number of Auditor’s General reports into Home Affairs should have already had Pezzullo sacked.
Morrison’s declaration of war on the APS as a means of paying for his selective munificence had he got another term should be pinned to the wall in every APS cubicle in Canberra – the Liberals have contempt for the public service and always will.
The boning knife needs to come out for the senior levels of the APS – it will be a huge morale boost for the bulk of the committed and hard working muscle and skeleton of the rest of the APS. The problem with most APS bodies is that they tend to bloat at the top and it’s the bottom (customer facing) staff that suffer. The iniquitous ‘efficiency’ cuts need to go for now – it’s just an excuse for neoliberal vandalism of public funding.
I agree that Campbell must go. So too Pezzulo. Given the lack of progress on matters related to veterans, I would be unsurprised if Cosson wasn’t also encouraged to leave.
Labor is less inclined to do long knives, so they will be encouraged to depart rather than shown the door.
I think Labor has wisely decided that the narrative of government should lie in other areas. Do what needs to be done quietly and in the background so as not to be a distraction.
So now, having
wonbeen gifted office by the Greens & teals, despite its own worthless efforts ‘Labor’ intends to continue the gutless tactic of being a microscopically small target – WTF is it afraid of now, except its own shadow?Reluctant to remind the electorate that it was once of a party of vision, courage, ideas and principle?
“Gifted”! Labor won 77 seats and gets to govern in its own right. The Greens won a seat from Labor, hardly a gift. And the teal independents won seats from the Liberals, seats Labor would not have won. Note the last time Labor ran with sound economic policies in 2019, such as removing negative gearing and increasing CGT, it lost. Labor have to govern without the hubris of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd years before it can confidently submit visionary policies to the electorate.
Had the Greens & teals not gutted the Lib vote and directed preferences away from them it would be now a case of “Albo who? I know him not!” as remant ‘Labor’ squirmed down into an even smaller skid mark of irrelevancy.
Your post indicates that you don’t know much about how honorable Governments work. Or perhaps don’t want to know.
If Albo’s govt fails to stabilise, rejuvenate the Public Service then labor will wear a tablet around neck for as far into future as one can see. That is how political game is played. Unfair, unjust, simply how history records. So every labor Minister must be briefed that it is ‘their’ inheritance even though LNP and Morrison the perpetrators. Every initiative Albo pursues must be seen having looked over the shoulder before commencing next renewal, re-build, of Australian Democracy. We citizens desperately need you to succeed.
One can point to our universities too as examples of public sector bodies incapacitated by “relentless expansion of consulting firms … and the stripping of experience, talent and corporate memory.” The dilution of research funds by incompetent management is astounding.
Not to mention gouging of teaching revenue to pay for inflated salaries and perks for managers and to fund research whose only purpose is to stroke managers’ egos by moving their universities up the rankings. Meanwhile, ever-diminishing funds are available to fund the time required for genuinely high quality teaching (as opposed to funding the growth of armies of compliance checkers).