Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

adversary or attaining an end”, and “the method of conducting operations, especially by theaid of manoeuvring or stratagem”. 249 The same Dictionary defines stratagem as a “plan,scheme, or trick for deceiving the enemy” and “any artifice, ruse, or trick”.Clearly not all of this language is suited to the operations of the ACTPS, but what can bedrawn from it, and from the analysis which follows, is a sense of what is meant by strategicpolicy advice. Indeed, the terms of reference for the Review point the way, in asking that itaddress “strategic and direction-setting advice”. It is here where the importance of clarity ofpurpose expressed in terms of strategic direction and priorities to agile government becomessalient – a government can only be agile in its service delivery if it explains where it is goingand what it is trying to achieve.There is a sense that strategic advice is forward looking, even beyond the electoral cycle.There is a sense that it involves engaging with emerging issues and problems rather thanreacting to ones that have already manifested themselves. There is a sense that it involvesengaging with the big issues. There is an inescapable undercurrent of leadership.It is important to note in this context that public services play a key role in both shaping anddelivering governments’ priorities, providing advice on them, as well as on how they mightbe implemented. That role then extends in many cases to the actual “doing”, to performancemonitoring, to reporting and to evaluation.In Ahead of the Game – a title which itself highlights the strategic aspects of public service –the Advisory Group on Reform of Australian Government Administration (AGRAGA)observed that in striving to deliver the highest quality advice to government and services tothe community, public services engage with:1. Strategic policy, which focuses on the broader, long-term challenges facinggovernment; and2. Organisational strategy, which focuses on the policies, people and proceduresneeded to deliver outcomes on behalf of government. 250AGRAGA also stressed the importance of leadership within public service organisations:leaders in the [Australian Public Service] need to deliver on both elements ofstrategy. … Strong leaders devise effective strategic directions, enunciate themclearly, then build support for them within their organisations. 251In describing the role of officials providing strategic policy advice to governments, and whatconstitutes such advice, the Australian Public Service Commissioner recently remarked that:It is a no brainer to accept that good advice will be timely, clear, persuasive, evidencebased (within the limits of the evidence available), balanced, creative, focused on theissues that matter and, hopefully, be capable of cost effective implementation. It isalso a truism that the contestability of policy advice has grown over the years:249 Macquarie Dictionary Online http://www.macquarieonline.com.au/dictionary.html250 Advisory Group on Reform of Government Administration (2010) p.20.251 Advisory Group on Reform of Government Administration (2010) p.20.Strategy, Resource Allocation and the Vacant Middle Ground: 208