The return of frank, fearless advice
The former Morrison government’s sidelining of public servants meant that Australian politics lost the benefit of their ideas and corporate memory.
Canberrans – or Ken Behrens as they have become known – are stopping me in the street, their greetings universally featuring the word “relief”. Theirs is a relief that the government of Australia is returning to the Westminster system.
On the day of their swearing in, ministers in the Albanese government were meeting with officials of their departments to discuss the brief prepared for an incoming government.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong was an exception, having been sworn in earlier and travelling to our Pacific Island neighbours to begin repairing relations damaged by years of Australian government neglect and poor jokes about water lapping at their feet as sea levels rose.
The Red Book – a brief for an incoming Labor government – sets out the portfolio issues confronting the new minister and the wider government. Senior departmental officials could be confident that the minister would take the briefing seriously and that their advice would carry weight into the Cabinet Room.
A defining feature of the Westminster system is the freedom of public servants to give frank and fearless advice. Ministers are not obliged to accept that advice but are expected to take it seriously.
The sacking of a departmental secretary during the Abbott government’s tenure sent a chill through the Australian public service, signalling that giving frank and fearless advice could end your career.
Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who did the sacking, later boasted: “I found out one of the only ways I could deal with them when I was minister was I invited the head of the department up, brought him into my office and sacked him, just to remind him where the authority starts from."
The Morrison government ran down the public service, told officials their role was to implement government policy, not to propose ideas, and announced during the election campaign $3.3 billion in extra public service cuts if it were re-elected.
Ironically the Morrison government’s distrust of the public service was reminiscent of that of the Whitlam government. After 23 years in the political wilderness, the Labor government elected in 1972 was suspicious that the public service was stacked with Coalition supporters. It relied overwhelmingly on the judgement of ministers and personal staffers, often at its own political cost.
The Hawke Labor government was very different. Hawke empowered his ministers and their departments to run their own portfolios, intervening only when necessary or where whole-of-government matters were involved.
A few anecdotes attest to the wisdom of this traditional approach.
As a 29 year-old economic adviser to resources and energy minister Peter Walsh I participated in a conversation with Walsh and his departmental secretary, Alan Woods. Walsh asked Woods what he thought of a policy idea he had proposed. Woods replied: “We tried that a few years ago under the Fraser government and it failed”, going on to explain why. The department’s corporate memory was invaluable, helping us avoid mistakes.
Later, in 1986, as economic and environmental adviser to Bob Hawke, I was involved in a dispute with Tasmanian premier Robin Gray over logging at a place called Jackeys Marsh. Gray wrote to Hawke, condemning the Commonwealth’s intervention.
Having been appointed environmental adviser only days before the stoush, I drafted a reply that Hawke signed. I was mortified the learn from Gray’s response that Hawke’s letter contained an error.
Upon noting the error and Hawke’s determination to protect several Tasmanian forests from logging, Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Mike Codd, established an entirely new departmental branch devoted to environmental policy.
Those departmental officials, and their coordination with the Attorney-General’s Department, contributed to a successful outcome, Hawke and Gray jointly signing a nomination of the Lemonthyme and Southern Forests to the World Heritage List two years later.
Then, in 1989, I proposed to Hawke and environment minister Graham Richardson that the government prepare a statement on the environment. Working with Richardson’s adviser, Simon Balderstone, we developed several policy proposals including a Decade of Landcare as put to us by the National Farmers Federation’s Rick Farley and the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Phillip Toyne.
But we also invited the two departments to come up with their own ideas. Their responses enriched the statement enormously.
These stories attest to the value of a well-resourced, professional public service.
Albanese is a strong supporter of the Westminster system. He will run a cabinet government in the Hawke style, one that draws on the expertise of his ministers and the public service.
Albanese’s appointment of Professor Glyn Davis, who is deeply experienced in public administration and policy development, is an important early indicator of his intentions.
Albanese will rebuild the public service, seeking and respecting its advice, a fresh change from the centralisation of power in the prime minister’s office that enabled Morrison to perform political manoeuvres at the expense of sound policy.
It is Albanese’s reversion to the Westminster system that has so many Ken Behrens describing their reaction to the new government as relief. It gladdens the public service, but it is also in the best interests of the Australian people.
Craig Emerson is Director of the APEC Study Centre at RMIT University, visiting fellow at the ANU and adjunct professor at Victoria University’s College of Business.