Call for Senators to be less nasty in Estimates go unheeded

Senate Estimates has again been used to attack public servants and accuse them of allowing themselves to be politicised.

Just a week after retired Social Services Department secretary Ray Griggs said publicly that Estimates hearings had become nasty and were harming the mental health of too many bureaucrats, one of Wednesday’s sessions (25 February) sunk to a new low.

Coalition ringleader on that front, Jane Hume, used her time in the spotlight to read out a list of senior public servants from Treasury who had been seconded to work in ministerial offices.

Emphasising they were Labor offices, Senator Hume posed the question as to whether Treasury had been politicised.

She completely ignored that it is normal practice, whoever is in government, for bureaucrats to spend stints in ministerial offices.

Treasury boss Steven Kennedy was keen to remind the Liberal senator of that fact.

He said “enormous experience and frankly, empathy and insight” was gained by such secondments – perhaps suggesting Senator Hume might do well to embrace more of those qualities in herself when asking questions.

Dr Kennedy had himself been seconded as a Treasury official to the prime minister’s office during the Global Financial Crisis and noted that other senior public servants had been seconded to the offices of Liberal Party prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott.

“I think it would be a real shame if public servants felt that it would be a negative for their career if they did not take up those opportunities,” he said.

“I do completely reject that the department or the officials are politicised, as you pointed out through these remarks … I am very confident that we do not act politically, so I do reject that assertion.”

Senator Hume was floating the suggestion that perhaps Dr Kennedy had worked closely with Jim Chalmers in former treasurer Wayne Swan’s office and was now possibly politicised in Labor’s favour.

Dr Kennedy, respected across the political spectrum as one of the Australian Public Service’s most professional and capable secretaries, was having none of it, however, and all but rebuked the Senator.

He noted that he had served as a departmental secretary under Liberal and Labor governments, serving them both the same way.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher also expressed her alarm at Senator Hume’s line of questioning.

“Disgusting and outrageous,” Senator Gallagher said.

“An outrageous personal attack on people who have served their country with distinction for governments of all persuasions.”

Senator Hume then said to Dr Kennedy: “I’m sorry this has happened to you.”

But it wasn’t clear if Senator Hume was apologising for her questions or for the fact that Dr Kennedy had been seconded to a Labor ministerial office.

This is just one encounter in a week of fiery exchanges in Senate Estimates this week.

But it is a shining example of the depths some Opposition senators will go to when they don’t have any questions of substance to pursue.

Take it out on the public servants with a sloppy effort to score political points.

Indeed, the top brass of the public service are there to answer questions and account for their respective agencies’ roles in public administration and the handling of taxpayers’ money.

Vigorous questioning is sometimes warranted (and often entertaining).

Cocky secretaries who display their contempt for the senators questioning them, who show little respect, and who are counting on their ministers to “have their back” deserve to be shot down and reminded just who the elected representatives in the room are.

But respect goes both ways – or at least it should.

If the Opposition believes the public service has been politicised, then those questions should be asked of the government, not the bureaucracy.

But Senator Hume knows full well that senior public servants are regularly seconded to ministerial offices no matter which party is in power.

She had some in her office when she was a minister in the Morrison government, and she will have them again if her party returns to the Treasury Benches.

So this was just a cheap shot. A cheap and nasty shot.

“There is an enormous power imbalance when we appear before a parliamentary committee,” Mr Griggs said last week when delivering his valedictory speech at the National Press Club.

“Most parliamentarians understand this and respect it.

“Many acknowledge the performative side of estimates, in particular.

“But in the last few years, it has become increasingly personal, belittling and nasty … Neither I nor my colleagues shrink from robust discussion or uncomfortable scrutiny.

“We all understand, embrace and value the oversight role of the parliament and of parliamentary committees.

“I, however, hold statutory responsibilities for the safety and wellbeing of my staff in workplace settings.

“So, I do again ask that these hearings are conducted in an appropriate manner …

“What’s our biggest growth area in compensation? It’s psychological – and people are getting destroyed at estimates. Really damaged.”

It seems Senator Hume wasn’t in attendance at that speech.