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

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The priorities ten years later reflect a greater international focus, new technologies and a different social inclusion agenda. For example, the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper; Australia’s role in supporting security transition in Afghanistan; the National Broadband Network; health reform, including mental health reform; the National Disability Insurance Scheme; environmental regulation reform; and preparing for G20 2014. The priorities differ, but both equally reflect those of the Prime Minister of the day. The reports also show that PM&C has grown over the decade, as the responsibility and the role of the Prime Minister has grown, as the complexity of government has grown, and as centralised implementation and implementation monitoring has become more important to governments. But one thing that hasn't changed is the leadership PM&C has shown in appointing women to 3 senior positions. In 2000-01, 40 per cent of PM&C SES were women, it is now 43 per cent2F . I am proud of the strong female presence in senior PM&C ranks, including that four of my seven direct reports are women. I also report to three women – the Prime Minister, my EA Beryl Knox and my wife Lorraine. I am a member of the Male Champions of Change and Chair of the APS Diversity Council, roles I take very seriously. And I do so because I am committed to a public service that employs and promotes the best, and believe that the APS should be able to reflect the diversity of our community. (More on that later.) How does the APS rate? There are around 167,000 APS employees. We are located in every state and territory and in many locations around the world. This makes us one of the largest and most complex organisations in Australia, if not the largest and most complex. We employ people with a mind-boggling range of skills and qualifications. We are highly skilled, and we recruit well educated people. Thanks partly to the rapid expansion of Graduate Recruitment Programs, we have over 48,000 people with graduate or equivalent qualifications or better – nearly 30 per cent of our workforce. And of those, nearly 5 per cent have Doctorates and nearly 16 per cent have Masters qualifications. Finally, we do everything from serve on the counter at Centrelink to undertake macroeconomic forecasting; from carrying out world class defence scientific research to running a world class and low cost pharmaceutical benefits scheme; from delivering multimillion dollar aid projects in far flung corners of the world to accurately and precisely writing up the minutes of Cabinet meetings. How do we rate as a public service? In my view, pretty well. 3 Internal PM&C data. 4
The 2009 report by KPMG, Benchmarking Australian Government Administration, which compared the APS with eight other high-performing national public services, found that the APS was among the best performers in its perception as an independent and values-based public service, and in its responsiveness to change. I have a more intuitive test, and that comes from Chairing the OECD Working Group of Senior Budget Officials over the period 2005 to 2009. During that time I saw how highly influential Australia was in those meetings, and how seriously our views were taken by other, often larger, OECD nations. That to me was a sign of our reputation as having high quality officials and a high quality public service. But, no matter what we do now, no matter how highly we now rate amongst the developed world, and whether we are ready or not, there are plenty of challenges coming our way that we will have to rise to meet. Looking to the Future: the Challenges The APS will, from time to time, face challenges in remaining the policy advisers, developers, implementers and delivers of choice for the Australian Government. There is, after all, competition in all these fields, and that is a healthy spur for all of us. Why do I consider it important that we retain that role? Simply because we have something unique to offer in it, including: • the capacity to stand aside from vested interests and to properly support governments focusing on governing in the national interest; • experience in what works in the Commonwealth Government and what doesn’t; and • being accountable to current and future governments for our actions. Are we well placed to meet the coming challenges and to remain in that role? Reasonably so, but we can do better and we will need to. My predecessor, Terry Moran, was correct when he said that “the APS is not broken. It is not 4 a renovator’s opportunity”.3F However, the APS – like all organisations – needs regular review and reassessment, and incremental change and improvement to keep it in top condition, and among the very best public services in the world. Past change tended to be somewhat episodic, the result of occasional reviews such as: the 1976 Coombs Royal Commission; the 1983 Reid Review; or more recently, the Review of Australian Government Administration which lead to the 2010 Blueprint for Reform. 4 Moran, 15 July 2009, Address to IPAA, http://www.dpmc.gov.au/media/speech_2009_07_15.cfm. 5
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Address by Ian Watt to IPAA 04 October 2012 - The Department of ...

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