Australian Greens' additional comments

1.1On behalf of Greens members, I want to thank the Chair for her detailed report and add my support to the majority of the points raised. I would also like to add a personal thanks to all those who provided evidence to the inquiry. In providing these additional comments, the Australian Greens seek to supplement the recommendations included in the Chair's report.

1.2The Australian Greens believe that Australia deserves a thriving, robust, properly funded and well led public sector that can take on the challenges of our time and build a sustainable, prosperous future. However, we are a long way off this goal and major reform is required to put the APS back on this path.

1.3Successive governments have gutted public service funding and resources, capped staff numbers, and outsourced core public sector work to consultants. The erosion of the APS has undermined its capacity to provide frank and fearless evidence-based policy advice to Government and ensure policy decisions are made in the public interest. It has fostered conflicts of interest in the private consulting industry and eroded citizens' confidence in the public sector. In this context we have seen major failings in the provision of public services involving APS conduct.

1.4The role of the APS in the Robodebt scandal reveals the weakened position of the public sector and enabled an appalling failure of public administration that has resulted in great harm and even deaths. This sad chapter in Australia's public administration also showed the lengths that senior public servants will go to, to oblige ministers—no longer serving as a check and balance against policy that does direct harm to the public.

1.5As quality, secure public sector jobs have dwindled, spending of taxpayer dollars on consultancies has increased, with outsourcing of key functions like strategy, management, policy development and the design and allocation of entire government programs and even whole agencies. This overreliance on private consultants has hollowed out public service capability and strategic policymaking—subjecting public services to inappropriate contract management, ethical failures, and poor value for money.

1.6The Government has said that it is committed to rebuilding the APS and restoring integrity and capability. The Public Service Amendment Bill 2023 (bill) does not come close to sufficiently addressing the legacy of recent years. The bill would not have prevented the appalling events of our recent history. It thus represents a missed opportunity to address some of the glaring structural issues in the APS. For the most part the changes proposed are positive, but they are extremely modest.

1.7At the hearing on 21August 2023, Professor Podger AO told the committee that 'if all the provisions in this bill had been in the Public Service Act when the Robodebt scheme was first proposed and managed, there is no reason to believe that they would have, in any way, constrained what happened, the "venality, incompetence and cowardice" that the commission found'.[1]

1.8The same could be said in relation to the recent, and unfolding, scandals of consultancy practice which have subverted the public interest, resulted in extraordinary over-spends and under-delivery, and given the Australian taxpayer very poor value for money while exploiting conflicts of interest in pursuit of private super-profit.

1.9The Australian Greens see the need for much more comprehensive reform that directly addresses these events and recent history. It is vital that more substantive legislative change follows the very modest set of reforms set out in this bill.

1.10In relation to the specifics in the current bill, the Australian Greens are concerned about the Secretaries Board being given the responsibility to set out the Purpose Statement of the APS without oversight from the Parliament. The Secretaries Board should be subservient to the parliament and the Government of the day. The Australian Greens agree with Mr Gourley that 'it is fundamentally undemocratic for the Parliament to be denied the power to decide' and to set the direction and purpose of the APS to serve the Australian public.[2]

1.11Further, this provision seems unnecessary given the Act already sets out the purpose of the APS. Professor Podger made the point that:

Section 3a of the PSA already sets out the first objective of the legislation, 'to establish an apolitical public service which is efficient and effective in serving the Government, the Parliament and the Australian public'.[3]

1.12The Australian Greens believe the requirement for capability reviews of departments is a positive measure that will improve transparency and information collection. Identifying where the gaps and weaknesses are in the public sector is a first step towards addressing them; however, restoring capability in the APS will require ensuring it is properly resourced and has proper structures, laws, and procedures for its operation. It is also a concern that the Government has not committed to capability reviews for all government departments: we believe that such reviews should be conducted in all agencies with more than 100 employees over a five-year period.

1.13While the Australian Greens support the recommendation for the Senate to pass this bill, we believe that the Government should have gone further in this bill to action a much more comprehensive APS reform agenda, one that meets the lessons and challenges of both the Robodebt and consultancy crises. The urgency of the matter is clear.

1.14The Australian Greens call on the Government to commit to an ambitious APS reform based on the Robodebt Royal Commission recommendations and those that come out of the inquiry into consulting services.

1.15Australians want to see a public service run in the public interest with the capability and resources to do the job. Consequently, APS reforms need to squarely and strongly be aimed at turning the tide and reverse reliance on privatising public sector work. The role of consultants should be constrained to specialist support and unexpected levels of demand, with much more transparency about their operation and the nature of contracts. At the same time the Government should commit to creating secure, well-paid jobs in the public service providing the services we all need and making the Australian Public Service (APS) a diverse, inclusive employer of choice.

Senator Barbara Pocock

Greens Senator for South Australia

Footnotes

[1]Professor Andrew Podger AO, Committee Hansard, 21 August 2023, p. 5.

[2]Mr Patrick Gourley, Submission 2, p. 2.

[3]Professor Andrew Podger AO, Submission 1, p. 3.