Serving the Public
Public or civil servants come in a whole bunch of shapes and sizes, from bus drivers to directors of departments, from teachers and nurses to Secretary’s — overall their job is to serve the Australian public.
Less talked about, but equally as important, is the overarching responsibility that public servants also have, which is to remain politically unbiased and to work in harmony with elected governments as they come and go.
Politicisation is a term often thrown around when governments are being criticized for appointing “mates” to public positions, or according to the Australian Public Service (APS),” appointing known government sympathizers or preventing civil servants from providing frank and fearless advice to their ministers”.
For Australia, it seems the dream of a body who unflinchingly serve their elected government, while also remaining neutral and objective has always been just out of reach.
Australia’s public service is modelled off the Westminster tradition of being politically neutral. But with removals and appointments within the departments as regular as changes to the PM — is an independent watchdog needed?
So just a stab in the dark, you are probably at one of the following three right now;
- What does this mean for the Australian public?
- Is this actually a thing?
- Urgh I clicked on this story because of Ron Swanson, I feel robbed
Well if you’re a fan of democracy at all, and less of a fan of Nazi political regimes, you probably want to read on.
One of the biggest instances of politicisation in Australia was John Howard’s 1996 overhaul of the Public Service, where six departmental heads (or one third of the total) were dumped to make way for his government’s own appointments.
An exodus like that of the Howard Government’s, is often referred to as a “Night of Long Knives” — a play on Hitler’s removal of SA leaders who were opposed to his regime.
We hear this “Night of Long Knives” thrown around a lot by opposing governments, following the sacking or appointment of certain public figures. Queensland Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg called out the Palaszczuk Government just last year over their sacking of three Senior Health Public Servants.
“We’ve not only had the night of the long knives, we’ve had eight months of long knives,” he said.
Evidence of politicisation can also be found in appointments made by incoming governments to departments, integrity agencies, government agencies, or in the case of Joe Hockey — diplomatic postings.
[caption id=”attachment_8629" align=”alignnone” width=”300"]
So how much did you deserve that diplomatic position Joe?[/caption]
While some of these appointments are seemingly fair to the naked eye, the Abbott Government’s replacement for Secretary to the Treasury, John Fraser, ruffled some feathers.
As a way of avoiding being controlled by the previously conservative public service at the time, Former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam introduced the role of Ministerial Advisors, as an alternate source of advice than the Public Service for his government.
The Hon. Neil Brown, QC and former Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, wrote a book titled ‘On The Other Hand’, documenting the experience under the Malcolm Fraser ministry. In the book, Brown says that the Public Service usually divide ministers into “good” and “bad”. The good, who act on behalf of their department and approve proposals, and the “bad” who try to control them and scrutinize or reject policy recommendations.
Similarly, today Government’s shy away from the advice of independent agencies that rely on funding through the budget process, by using this against them.
While there are a variety of agencies in place for minimizing politicisation, unlike our Commonwealth Counterparts the UK, Canada and New Zealand — Australia is yet to implement an independent Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Currently in place, overseeing publicly owned corporate bodies is a role for the Finance Minister, which many believe is insufficient. As a result, once again calls for a federal-level ICAC that were rejected by the previous Labor Government, are currently being considered by the Turnbull Government.
If this practice is to continue to be overlooked, experienced public servants that act as a somewhat permanent anchor in constantly changing Governments, will become a thing of the past.
It won’t be the last “Night of Long Knives” that this country will see, and public servants will increasingly lose stability in their positions, rarely staying on long enough to see out the consequences of their policy decisions.
Just last year Australian Financial Review’s Political editor, Laura Tingle, wrote in her quarterly essay of the ugly state of politics in Australia, suggesting a switch to private service over public as a result.
And she’s not alone in this opinion.
While privatisation is not always a disastrous result, in some areas of government it can be less than ideal.
Stephen King, former commissioner for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, wrote the report Privatisation: A Review of the Australian Experience for the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.
So it’s your call Turnbull. Before you sell this country off to the highest bidder, let’s have one more crack at bringing democracy back to the Australian Public Service.
