The Role of Departmental Secretaries Personal reflections on the breadth of responsibilities today The Role of Departmental Secretaries Personal reflections on the breadth of responsibilities today Andrew Podger Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/dep_secs_citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Podger, A. S. (Andrew Stuart) Title: The role of departmental secretaries : personal reflections on the breadth of responsibilities today / Andrew Podger. ISBN: 9781921536816 (pbk.) 9781921536809 (pdf) Series: ANZSOG series. Subjects: Government executives--Australia. Australia--Officials and employees. Dewey Number: 352.3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design by John Butcher Printed by University Printing Services, ANU Funding for this monograph series has been provided by the Australia and New Zealand School of Government Research Program. This edition © 2009 ANU E Press John Wanna, Series Editor Professor John Wanna is the Sir John Bunting Chair of Public Administration at the Research School of Social Sciences at The Australian National University. He is the director of research for the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). He is also a joint appointment with the Department of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University and a principal researcher with two research centres: the Governance and Public Policy Research Centre and the nationally-funded Key Centre in Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University. Professor Wanna has produced around 20 books including two national text books on policy and public management. He has produced a number of research-based studies on budgeting and financial management including: Budgetary Management and Control (1990); Managing Public Expenditure (2000), From Accounting to Accountability (2001); Controlling Public Expenditure (2003); Yes Premier (2005); Westminster Legacies: Democracy and Responsible Government in Asia and the Pacific (2005); Westminster Compared (forthcoming) and most recently The Reality of Budget Reform in the OECD (forthcoming). He is completing, with John Butcher and Ben Freyens, a study of service delivery in the Australian government, entitled Policy in Action (with UNSW Press). He was a chief investigator in a major Australian Research Council funded study of the Future of Governance in Australia (1999- 2001) involving Griffith and the ANU. His research interests include Australian and comparative politics, public expenditure and budgeting, and government- business relations. He also writes on Australian politics in newspapers such as The Australian, the Courier-Mail and The Canberra Times and has been a regular state political commentator on ABC radio and TV. Table of Contents Foreword ix Margaret Guilfoyle Preface xi 1. Responsibilities of secretaries 1 2. Know and pace yourself: personal style and time allocation 7 3. Know the boss: working with and supporting the minister 17 4. Know the real boss: support to the Prime Minister and the whole of 37 government 5. The lion’s den: respecting and working with the Parliament 53 6. It’s lonely at the top: management of the agency 65 7. The art of persuasion: management of the portfolio 87 8. Juggling the players: working with external stakeholders 97 9. Fourth estate or fifth column? Working with the media 117 10. Dead poet society duties: promoting APS values and contributing to 131 APS capability 11. Secretaries’ personal development, support and performance 143 assessment 12. Inside or outside the tent: the role of the Public Service Commissioner 159 13. Some conclusions 183 Appendix A 191 Appendix B 193 Appendix C 195 Appendix D 199 Foreword It is a rare privilege to read a personal career history in which so many of the principal features allow for reflection and others are instructive of later developments in the role of departmental secretaries in our system of government. I have observed Andrew Podger's career in the Australian Public Service since the 1970s with interest, admiration and gratitude for the insight and competence he has assiduously given to his increasing responsibilities. It is timely that the history of reform in public administration over three decades is recorded in this monograph and revealing to study relationships with Parliament and government. It is important that leadership development of public administrators should be a leading objective. Andrew's understanding of the support valuable to a minister invokes personal recollections and experience. My first ministerial appointment was in the Fraser Caretaker Government in 1975. The support of the secretary and the officers of the Department of Education is remembered with respect. The Prime Minister's guidance to new ministers was to value and seek the advice of the department. This was indeed pertinent advice, not only initially but throughout my ministerial appointments from 1975 to 1983. I noted Andrew's comments about differing approaches from ministers with regard to Section 64 of the Constitution. I must say that I was always conscious of the appointment `and to administer the Department of' and I found that the closest collaboration with the departments of Social Security and Finance resulted in the effective implementation of government policy. All ministers are bound by cabinet's authority and they should ensure that cabinet is fully informed of the political and whole-of-government outcomes of decisions taken. Andrew was exemplary in his anticipation of information needed to support a cabinet submission or to defeat a conflicting Expenditure Review Committee imposition. The close association with my office was enhanced by the inclusion ix The Role of Departmental Secretaries of a staff member from the department to facilitate a valuable forthright exchange of views and information. This monograph is remarkable for the breadth of experience it discloses through changes of government and some of the questions posed are signposts to the future. I am confident that Andrew will continue to be a contributor to excellence in public administration as it adapts to the needs of modern and sound government in Australia. Margaret Guilfoyle March 2009 Dame Margaret Guilfoyle was Minister for Education (1975), Minister for Social Security (1975±80) and Minister for Finance (1980±83). (Photo by kind permission of the Parliamentary Library.) x Preface The purpose of this monograph is to provide a comprehensive description of the role of a departmental secretary today, how that role has changed, the range of issues involved in exercising that role and some lessons from my experience. Some of my predecessors have written on aspects of the role (for example, Crawford 1954, 1970; Cooley 1974) or provided a formal enunciation of the role (for example, Codd 1990). There is also some previous academic commentary such as Spann (1976, to the Coombs Royal Commission) and Weller (2001). This account, however, is both more comprehensive and more contemplative, drawing illustrations of the full range of work involved and the challenges faced from my personal experience. It is also, of course, more contemporary. Appendices A and B to the monograph summarise my career in the Australian Public Service from 1968 until 2005, including the departments I headed between 1993 and 2002, my time as Public Service Commissioner from 2002 to 2004 and the ministers I served. It is written primarily for those who might be secretaries in the future and for those working closely with secretaries including ministers and ministerial staff as well as other senior public servants, with summaries of the lessons I learned that others might find helpful. In addition, I hope it is informative for a wider readership of officials at all levels and parliamentarians, academics, students of government and others who work closely with the political process such as journalists, lobbyists and senior people in business and non-governmental organisations. The responsibilities of secretaries are substantial and even those who interact frequently with them rarely see the full picture. From time to time, some elements will hit the headlines, sometimes as a success but more often as a failure or a xi The Role of Departmental Secretaries scandal when responsibility is quickly sheeted home to the minister and the secretary. The wider context (including whether either the minister or the secretary was or should have been involved) and the full range of work being done are, however, rarely appreciated. Political and media judgments of performance often rest on narrow perspectives, which may or may not accurately reflect overall performance. Government has also become more complex and ministers and senior public servants are facing greater challenges than in the past. There might be more players on the stage of national politics and public administration, and the Public Service has long lost its pre-eminent position, but this has not diminished the role and responsibilities of secretaries: indeed, it has generally added to them. Notwithstanding the changes to the Public Service during my career, there is also much that remains substantially the same. The basic principles