Is it any wonder that people sometimes make what they end up conceding are “errors of judgment” in an environment such as this, asks Nicholas Gruen?
Public service
The govt department with a census of humour
Statistics aren’t known for being sexy. Or funny. So how was the 2011 Census Twitter account allowed to be so cheeky? Meet David McHugh, the man behind the account.
Gottliebsen: the public enemy of productivity
Treasury boss Martin Parkinson has called for Australia to lift productivity and wants a return to structural reforms to boost our productivity, writes Robert Gottliebsen.
Budget breakdown: bean counting compromises public service
Can arbitrary cuts under the guise of efficiency deliver a better public service? James Whelan and Jennifer Doggett take a look at the political and policy failure that is the Efficiency Dividend. What will these continued cuts mean for Australians/us?
Public service: if this is a tough love, what does compassion look like?
If this was a tough budget, from the perspective of the federal public service, then you have to wonder what a soft budget would look like. The last tough budget the public service experienced was from Peter Costello in 1996. Since then, it has been pretty much continuous growth. This budget was the same. Employment in […]
Knockers knocks public servant out of a job
A senior federal public servant accessed porn on an employer-provided laptop while at home. He was caught, his employment was terminated and he attempted to overturn the termination in court. Yesterday, that court case failed.
Public service ‘docile and unassertive’
A senior public servant has called for the public service to stop being so “docile” and start asserting itself more in the national interest — and given a backhander to ministerial staff along the way.
The Oz has trouble keeping its story straight
According to The Australian, the mining tax will either have too much effect on the mining industry, or not enough. Either way, of course, a partisan Treasury is to blame.
Crikey Says: Redefining competence
Much of the Coalition’s enormous success in becoming not merely electorally competitive but to reach the verge of forming government lies in its successful selling of the idea of competence.
Abbott’s freeze could devastate The Oz
A government insider with specific experience placing APS jobs ads in The Australian has told Crikey that Abbott’s freeze has the “potential to devastate The Australian.”
Bartos: weary public service in caretaker government mode
Endless commentary about how uncertain the result remains adds to the dismay among many public servants, writes Stephen Bartos.
Robb and Hockey go the lazy route on savings
Instead of ripping into middle-class welfare and pork-barrelling, the Opposition are conjuring savings from fiddling Commonwealth accounts and attacking the Public Service.
Liberal savings initiatives — Abbott rediscovers old-time religion
Don’t set too much store by the paltry savings initiatives on offer from Tony Abbott last night: he’s using it to fund a variant of the Regional Rorts program.
Canberra: no longer crap
Just a few years ago Canberra was a pathetic attempt at a national capital, now it’s a booming, exciting city. And it’s all thanks to Kevin Rudd and his love for bureaucrats and policy wonks.
Swings and roundabouts in the public service: who won and lost last night
There won’t be too many more public servants overall as as result of the No Frills Budget, but that masks some big changes at an agency level.
Lewis: Rudd is a bastard of a boss
Our PM can be a lovely sensitive man when around women and babies. But all the Jeykll-Hyde rumours are true. As a boss, Kevin Rudd is hard nosed, insensitive and rarely praises his dedicated staff, writes Steve Lewis.
Possum: How much money do our top public servants make?
Ever wondered what our Federal MPs, High Court judges and top federal public servants are earning? As it turns out: a lot less than they did 70 years ago.
What does the Moran blueprint mean for public servants?
The public service reform proposals put forward by the Moran advisory group this week are likely to see significant changes for bureaucrats, and sooner than might be expected.
Gottliebsen: Giving the public service a serve
It’s time for a serious shake up of the Canberra public service. Good policies are being destroyed by incompetent management unable to deal with new or large plans, says Robert Gottliebsen.
must read My life as an unqualified, untrained government insider
Former speech writer for Nicola Roxon, Myles Peterson, spills on the secret life of working in a government department. From wasting public money on “training”, to launching large health reforms with no prior planning, the state of our public service is deeply worrying.
Bernard Keane’s guide to writing to Ministers
Want to vent your fury about net censorship? Bernard Keane offers some tips for making your correspondence to your local MP as painful as possible, drawn from his sordid, blood-soaked and adventure-filled time as a public servant.
leaked Crikey Says: The ATO’s business needs: lest we forget
The ATO has asked tax office managers to balance their “business needs” against a minute of silence for Remembrance Day next week.
Exeunt Grech
The curtain has finally dropped on the long and controversial public service career of Godwin Grech, according to The Oz, making a quiet exit stage left from the Treasury last week.
