Patrick Gorman launching the Australian Government Style Manual this week. He says the figures reported in the State of the Service Report show the system is working. Photo: Patrick Gorman X.
The Federal Government has mounted a strong defence of the Australian Public Service, just a day after the State of the Service Report revealed an extraordinarily high level of code of conduct breaches by employees.
Labor says the APS remains a great place to work, despite the breaches and despite the report showing the Department of Home Affairs being rated by employees for the second year in a row as the worst agency to work at, with Services Australia and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs also returning among the highest rates of dissatisfaction levels from staff.
As Region first reported on Tuesday (26 November), a total of 555 Australian Public Servants were found to have breached the APS Code of Conduct in the past year, with 61 of them then having their employment terminated.
The State of the Service Report 2023-24 details how agencies across the service reported that 647 employees were the subject of an investigation into a suspected breach of the code over the year.
All up, 581 sanctions were applied to 356 employees, resulting in 264 reprimands, 167 fines, 70 reductions in salary, 61 terminations, 10 reassignments of duties and nine reductions in classification.
Assistant Minister for the Public Service Patrick Gorman responded by praising the service and arguing that the reported figures show the system is working.
“Of course, I want every public servant to comply with the code of conduct. But what those figures show is that our system works, that where there are breaches of the code, action is taken,” he told ABC radio.
“Where there are concerns about corrupt behaviour, action is taken. And I think the other thing that we’ve really sought to do, and we’re now almost a year and a half in from having established the National Anti-Corruption Commission, is there’s a lot more conversation in the public service about avoiding corruption, and what actions public servants can take if they’re aware of corruption, which is equally important.
“We all have obligations … every public servant has an obligation if they’re aware of corrupt or improper conduct, they have obligations when it comes to reporting that conduct … I think anyone who goes about in the public service thinking that they somehow have some level of immunity from any form of action is kidding themselves. They really are.”
Asked about the concerns raised in specific agencies, the Assistant Minister said the report shows “significant improvements” in how public servants feel about their work, but he acknowledged there is a “transformation journey” in the APS.
“What I think is a good reflection of the public service is that you’ve seen from this government very strong respect for the work that public servants do,” he said.
“You’ve seen, in terms of the 347 pages of data that I tabled yesterday in parliament, that we’re really open about the challenges in some departments … My job, as I see it, as the Assistant Minister for Public Service, is not to attack the public service. It’s to back them to make the transformation that they need to make.
“To make sure they have all of the support, and that’s what I’m seeking to do. There are always going to be ways to improve.
“And I think one of the things is that we have set a very high standard of what we expect, and some of those results show that we are not meeting those standards everywhere. I’m comfortable with that because I’d rather know where the problems are and have the data to help make the transformation.”
This year’s State of the Service Report also shows an 8.9 per cent increase in the number of APS employees (over 12 months), standing at 185,343 at 30 June 2024.
The Opposition suggests that figure is too high, with shadow public service minister Jane Hume flagging cuts to the APS if the Coalition wins the next election.
She claims there are more public servants but less efficiency.
Mr Gorman said the APS was far more efficient these days and that the Opposition needs a reality check when it comes to the public service.
“I would say to Jane Hume and others that they need to go and talk to their constituents who were waiting months and months to have their claims processed at Veterans’ Affairs before we made these investments, [and] who were waiting months and months for packages in the National Disability Insurance Scheme,” he said.
“We have taken the approach of clearing the backlogs and also trying to get all of the private contractors out of those core public service jobs.”
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