Judges pick the best pictures in the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards
Turns out public servants can laugh at themselves after all
A joke at the expense of some officials slipped from the lips of an unlikely mandarin-cum-comedian.
It’s been a big year, and as PM&C secretary Professor Glyn Davis settled into one of the things he does best — delivering a thought-provoking and eloquent sermon for his annual address to the APS — there were some delightful jibes about departmental stereotypes that got an otherwise stuffy crowd giggling at the end-of-year event.
The instigator of the rare break from the civil service archetype was a newly minted public servant whose time in the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) graduate program ended last week.
Cameron Strauss asked the most powerful public servant in the land what his advice was for a green bureaucrat operating “without training wheels”.
Davis reassured the young grasshopper that he would do well because his training had equipped him with the tools necessary to navigate the path forward, but he also acknowledged it was hard not to be anxious sometimes about professional next steps.
The secretary then began reminiscing, with a wide grin, that when he returned to the public service after completing his PhD at ANUin the early ‘80s, peers in his graduate cohort who joined the Department of Agriculture all seemed to be speaking distinctively slowly, and those who had started illustrious careers with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade didn’t mind about the content of conversations as long as they went on and on.
Laughter erupted from the crowd, a few caught by surprise by the otherwise softly-spoken Davis’ wicked candour. Did anyone say ‘frank and fearless’? Australia’s chief mandarin has a healthy supply of it.
“The experience [of working in the public service] is going to be like nothing you planned… I say that as someone sitting in this job,” Davis said, encouraging Strauss to lean into new roles and to make friends in roles he never dreamed of holding.
The secretary has previously gone on record to say that he never expected himself to be approached by the prime minister for the position of Australia’s top public servant.
“Personally and professionally it will pay off — go into your first job full of enthusiasm, committed to the idea of public service and open to [new experiences],” he said.
Davis made his remarks for the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) ACT branch in a speech entitled ‘Who needs a public service?’
Canvassing themes such as teamwork and collaboration, the importance of separating advice to ministers and policy analysis, APS independence and being an effective partner with ministers, the secretary highlighted the effort he was privileged to witness every day to serve the community.
This year that endeavour included the spectrum of work from a review of NDIS rules, establishing a Net Zero Energy Authority, policy work to support the national care economy, distilling and preserving policy lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, Future Made in Australia, and updating Commonwealth emergency management plans.
“I see this preference for teamwork every month at secretaries board [meetings], including this morning — the best outcomes are achieved by agencies working together, informed by shared values — and each willing to put forward the best ideas. And these decisions are published soon after the secretaries meet,” Davis said.
“I’m very fortunate to work with a like-minded group of departmental leaders. Lots of opinions, some great debates, some disagreements but an underlying shared commitment to co-operation.”
According to Davis, the government made extensive use of multi-agency taskforces in 2024 to tackle cross-cutting issues. Some of these taskforces were chaired by his department but many were not, he added.
Davis described the APS as an enduring project in the interest of citizens, as well as an inspiring vocation, but he warned that this should not deter people from listening to critics and being concerned with the demands of efficiency and effectiveness.
“Public office is a public trust, and the APS is not some personal machine, but a reflection of our national aspiration,” Davis said.
“It is a repository of our democratic choices — embodied and embedded in programs and institutions, a storehouse of experience and future capability.
“It’s guided by stewardship, the sense of doing the right in the right way, so [democracy] endures.”
“We must reflect on what we do and find ways to do it better,” he said.
This year’s PM&C secretary’s address was the last for the first term of Anthony Albanese’s Labor government, with a federal election expected to be called sometime in the first quarter of 2025.
In fact, Davis’ department released advice on caretaker conventions just days ago. A number of public servants who fronted to hear the secretary’s address spent the mingling session afterwards trying to discern when the PM might set the election date.
The event also attracted APS top brass, including Attorney-General’s Department secretary Katherine Jones, Finance boss Jenny Wilkinson, Treasury’s Steven Kennedy, Education head Tony Cook, DCCEEW secretary David Fredericks, Services Australia’s David Hazlehurst, ABS head honcho Dr David Gruen, and APS commissioner Dr Gordon de Brouwer.
Standing to offer a vote of thanks, de Brouwer reminded the audience that stewardship was now officially the sixth legislated value of the APS. The new value not only added to the responsibility public servants must live up to but also gave them agency to exercise that responsibility, he said.
“[Professor Davis has] invited us to lift our gaze, to see the big picture, and invited us to lift our heads and be confident as public servants,” the commissioner said, thanking him for “walking the talk” in his own leadership.
“Stewardship is really important for everyone in the public service. That’s something that [Davis has] advocated very strongly for, because it means that we’re all responsible for our part of the system,” he said.