Two new directorates as government aims to streamline services and deliver on its promises

Two new directorates will be formed in the ACT Public Service next year as part of a realignment of responsibilities that Chief Minister Andrew Barr had flagged during the election campaign.

Head of Service Kathy Leigh announced the Machinery of Government changes in an email to staff yesterday (16 December), saying the government wanted to more closely align public service administration and resourcing with its priorities.

Transport Canberra and City Services, and the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate will merge, and Access Canberra will come out of the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate along with other related regulatory functions to join the new directorate.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr told Region before the election that combining transport and planning would better support the government’s housing ambitions. He expected one benefit to be improvements in development application assessment times, a regular complaint from the property industry.

Access Canberra also regulates the property industry.

The other change will combine Community Services and ACT Health, where there are overlapping services and common stakeholders.

Mr Barr said the changes were designed to improve policy development, create efficiencies and deliver better services.

“Rather than having three different ministerial units, three different communications units, we’ll have a greater level of efficiency there,” he said.

“We want policy capability … and we want better-aligned government service delivery. It means one single land manager, for example, will also mean that City Services and Access Canberra, which are very similar in terms of the delivery to the people of Canberra, will be in the one directorate.”

On the other merger, Mr Barr said community sector organisations often had a contract with both Community Services and ACT Health, “so bringing them together will streamline service delivery as well as consolidate policy capacity”.

“A major task ahead of the combined directorate in the coming year, in particular, will be the health agreement and the NDIS foundational supports.”

Mr Barr added that the government wanted better frontline service delivery capability.

“There’ll be fewer executives, and there’ll be more people delivering services,” he said.

Ms Leigh reassured staff that their jobs were safe, with redundancies only occurring at SES level.

Mr Barr said the final number was uncertain at this point, but it would depend on the outcome of the consultation in January.

“Not a large number, but the savings that come from that can then be redeployed into frontline services, an example being more park rangers,” he said.

Mr Barr said the changes resulted from internal feedback on how to better provide services and also from stakeholders who felt they had too many different areas of government to engage with.

“So depending on which set of stakeholders, whether they are in the construction sector, for example, or in the community sector, they have provided feedback around wanting to see a streamlining of their engagement with the territory government,” he said.

The changes will bring the number of directorates back to seven from the current nine.

“These changes are designed to provide clear responsibility and accountability, reduce silos, increase information sharing and foster policy capability to better support Ministers,” Ms Leigh told staff.

Former senior Commonwealth public servant Caroline Edwards will chair the MoG Changes Taskforce and will take up the role on 6 January.

Ms Leigh said the taskforce would oversee a review of the structure and capabilities of teams undergoing changes to ensure that the government’s objectives were met.

Ms Edwards will also lead talks with staff and unions and help Directors-General keep staff informed on the progress of the review, which is expected to get down to business in late January.

The MoG changes are expected to be completed by 1 July 2025.