Address by Ian Watt to IPAA 04 October 2012 - The Department of ...

How do you know whether you are a good steward? No doubt there are a lot of refined
metrics we could discuss – but I ask myself a simple question: will I leave the organisation in
better shape than I found it?
e. Encouraging diversity
As Secretary of PM&C, I want to ensure that PM&C is the best that it can be. This means
having the best people working for PM&C, including people who are representative of the
broader community. I feel the same way about the APS.
I talked earlier about gender diversity in PM&C and how I am proud of it. PM&C has a long
history of encouraging women to compete for jobs and, because they are often the best
candidates, they get appointed. The APS has also come a fair way in improving general
equality – we now have four female Secretaries out of a total of 20; 29 per cent of our Band
5
3s are female; and 38 per cent of our SES4F . But we can all do better, and some departments
and agencies must do better.
We also have to do better in other areas of diversity. In the PM&C 2000-01 Annual Report
there was no mention of how many Indigenous Australians or staff with disability were
employed.
We now employ six Indigenous staff and 15 staff with disability. A good start, but not the
finish for PM&C or the APS.
I am confident that the APS can and will do more to employ a more diverse group of
employees.
And I am confident because I consider that the APS has been better than most in building a
diverse workforce, and has given opportunity where others have not. The APS does not have
a tradition of elitism or of senior staff coming from privileged backgrounds (as some of civil
services do). Rather we supported socio-economic diversity in our recruits, well before most
white collar organisations.
In the 1950s, 60s and 70s the APS was welcoming to blue collar or working class kids who
often found the professions, parts of the financial sector and some of the other traditional
pathways to success in Australia much more difficult.
This was shown by Ian Castles in his 1987 article highlighting the working class backgrounds
6
of former Treasury Secretaries5F . And our senior leaders still often come from relatively
humble backgrounds.
Take Peter Shergold, a former Secretary of PM&C, the son of a London bus driver. Former
Secretary of Treasury, Ken Henry, the son of a timber worker.
5
APSC, Stat of the Service Report 2010-11,
http://www.apsc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/3336/completereport.pdf.
6
Castles, I, 1987, ‘Facts and Fancies of Bureaucracy’ in Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration, No. 53,
December 1987.
10