Thank you to everyone who has made a submission to this review of Australia’s public service. Your analysis, experiences and ideas are invaluable.
About submissions
At the close of our call for public submissions on 31 July 2018, the review had received 668 contributions over 8 weeks.
We value all input and continued to accept submissions — bringing us to well over 700.
We stopped accepting submissions on 31 May 2019. And encourage you to read more of the ideas received during this review.
Of all the submissions to this review:
- 80% came from individuals, with the largest group being employees of the Australian Public Service, as well as people using government services and others with public sector expertise
- 18% came from organisations including small and large business, government and industry or interest groups
- contributions came from every Australian state and territory, as well as some international jurisdictions
- and some entities sent in more than 1 submission
What we heard
It’s clear public servants are passionate about their work but there is a sense the service is not always reaching its potential, meeting expectations or being as proactive as it would like.
Public servants and their organisations are grappling with:
- a lack of confidence
- divergent priorities
- working relationships which can be fragile and distrusting
- structures and processes that can get in the way of doing a good job
- getting and keeping the people they need
People told us they want:
- a clear purpose and culture shared across the public service
- a valued and respected institution
- skills and capabilities that are developed, maintained and renewed among employees
- better understanding of the changing nature of leadership and expertise
- new ways of working embedded in the system
- an inventive and nimble public service focused on outcomes modern structures, processes and organisations
- a focus on the needs of the people of Australia
Publishing submissions
Authors chose if they wanted their submission to be published, and were also able to be anonymous if they wished.
Of the total submissions:
- 77% were published
- 23% remain private
Of the published submissions:
- 57% were named
- 43% were anonymous
Submissions were checked carefully against legal and privacy requirements in our terms and conditions. Some were published with personal information or third party references redacted.
The views in these submissions belong to their authors. They also provided us with insights to different experiences with the public service and help to inform a public discussion.