Australian Public Service Commission | Departments/Agencies

APS Commission wants to develop 'digital career pathways' but first has to define digital careers

By Stephen Easton

News

Do you work in digital? What does that even mean? The Australian Public Service Commission and the Digital Transformation Agency are inviting public servants to…

Lowe stirs the pot with talk of 3% pay rises in the public sector, and that's all he wanted to do

By Stephen Easton

Economy & Industry

Governments were predictably unmoved by Reserve Bank governor Phillip Lowe’s view that caps on public sector pay rises are a factor in low wage growth…

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Columnists

You cannot administer government policy and relentlessly criticise it online. Governments, whatever you think of them, have to be able to trust public servants

By Bernard Keane

Features

The High Court got it right in the Michaela Banerji case, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t overdue for a serious rethink about public servants…

APS equality council prioritises Aboriginal employment strategy

By Shannon Jenkins

Culture

Three Commonwealth diversity strategies took top priority at the Australian Public Service Secretaries Equality and Diversity Council meeting in July. The council discussed future directions…

New era of APS performance management: all staff and supervisors must pitch in

By Stephen Easton

Federal

APS commissioner Peter Woolcott has strengthened the obligations of all federal public servants with respect to their own performance, and those of managers at all…

Silver linings: APRA told to fix culture, leadership and structure but may escape APS pay-rise policy

By Stephen Easton

Federal

The four members of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority need to encourage more “internal debate and contestability” within the agency and a higher level of…

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Interviews

Underperformance in the public sector is difficult and painful: Linda Waugh talks about how to guide and advise a way through it

By Verona Burgess

Features

With her first year as the Merit Protection Commissioner under her belt, Linda Waugh reflects on public service merit, the Canberra bubble and some service-wide…

APS commissioner Peter Woolcott takes the field for NAIDOC footy comp, but AGD wins the day

By Stephen Easton

Australian Capital Territory

The Attorney-General's Department has won the 17th NAIDOC Week touch football carnival for public servants. Australian Public Service commissioner Peter Woolcott took the field this…

Attorney-general open to reforming 'obtuse' federal whistleblower protection law

By Stephen Easton

Federal

Attorney-general Christian Porter is reportedly open to reforming federal whistleblower-protection legislation to sharpen up the blurry line between legitimate and unauthorised disclosures of information from…

Federal Budget 2019: incoming APS workforce strategy to 'have regard' to APS Review

By Stephen Easton

Economy & Industry

A new whole-of-government workforce strategy under development by the Australian Public Service Commission and the Department of Jobs and Small Business will be finished by…

APS tenders call for executive coaches, plus designers, reviewers and evaluators

By Stephen Easton

Federal

Leaders at the top level of the Australian Public Service will soon have a go-to list of executive coaches, and separately, foreign aid officials are…

APS Review draft: everyone's heard it all before, implementation is the challenge

By Stephen Easton

Features

David Thodey says that implementing lasting reform for the APS would be challenged by the requirement for both realism and and optimism. As always, reform…

What 'common pay' really means and other things we learned questioning David Thodey

By Stephen Easton

Federal

One of the more interesting ideas that emerged from the Australian Public Service Review this week was a move towards “common pay”, but as excitement…

Federal government's new Transparency Portal set to transform APS reporting

By Stephen Easton

Communications & Technology

The Australian Public Service is expected to complete the long-discussed shift to online planning and performance reporting by the end of 2019, which could see…

Have your say: OECD group drafts commitments to public sector innovation

By Stephen Easton

Australian Capital Territory

An OECD body is working on a declaration that would see signatories commit to public sector innovation, and help cement a better common understanding of…