Yes, the senior ranks of our public service are swelling, and yes, something could be done about it. But cutting willy-nilly will do more harm than good. Public policy expert Stephen Bartos explains.
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PUBLIC SERVICE
Crikey Calling #8: Abbott’s Top End tax plan and Labor’s NSW woes
On Crikey Calling, Jason Whittaker and Bernard Keane finally get to talk some new Coalition policy. Plus, all the latest for an embattled Labor as the Eddie Obeid and Craig Thomson scandals drag on.
READ MOREBack off, public servants aren’t lazy
Crikey readers have their say.
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‘Not just a whole lot of nice gigs’: life in arts bureaucracy
What does an arts funding agency look like from the inside? Crikey chats with former deputy director-general of Arts Queensland Leigh Tabrett to find out.
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Crikey Calling #3: interest rates fall, political debate plummets
In this week’s Crikey Calling, Jason Whittaker and Bernard Keane discuss the political debate over interest rates and what it means for the economy, as well as the latest state of the public service report.
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The national capital gives and state capitals take away
When governments are forced into budget cost cutting it is at the state level that sackings mainly occur.
READ MOREIs Scientology powerful?
Crikey readers have their say.
READ MORENational environmental approvals and the public service
Crikey readers have their say.
READ MOREPublic service cuts not a curse — if handled right
In May this year the Commonwealth cut public service staff numbers for the first time in 15 years. Most states except WA are also cutting back. As Crikey pointed out in its state-by-state investigation into the cuts on Tuesday, this makes it a tough time to be a public servant. In some states, as with the […]
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Cutting the fat
Crikey readers have their say.
READ MORE‘A tough time to be a public servant’: the 38k forgotten jobless
A Crikey analysis finds 38,000 jobs have been culled from the public service over the past few years — and a further 24,000 positions may follow. But how much fat was there to cut?
READ MOREThe public service and spin
Crikey readers have their say.
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Customers snore on hold as federal cardigans rebel over Wong’s cuts
As Budget speculation reaches fever pitch over a looming Max Moore-Wilton-style disembowelment of the federal public service at the hands of Wayne Swan’s surplus fetish, a survey from the major union representing Canberra cardigans has revealed a tranche of serious workplace issues plaguing the APS.
READ MOREParliament staffers down ties and stick it to Ted on pay
The lot of a Parliamentary staff member can be a tough one — opening doors for insufferable MPs, hanging around until the wee hours while the state’s finest minds debate some arcane piece of legislation and distracting nosy members of the media keen to get their mitts on embargoed Ombudsman’s reports.
READ MORECan-Do’s public service cuts: 7 departmental beheadings and counting
New Queensland premier Campbell Newman’s new appointments to the top of the state bureaucracy are an unwelcome politicisation of key public service roles.
READ MOREGruen: scripted questions are nothing new in Canberra
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?
READ MOREThe 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.
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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.
READ MOREBudget 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?
READ MOREPublic 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 […]
READ MOREO’Farrell won’t slash and burn the public service like Kennett did
Jeff Kennett has had a rush of blood to the head and urged Barry O’Farrell to slash and burn through the public service when he wins the NSW premiership next month. Not going to happen, says Candace Sutton.
READ MOREKnockers 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.
READ MOREPublic 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.
READ MOREThe 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.
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