Department of Finance | Departments/Agencies

Prizes for purchasing: there’s still time to enter the first ever APS procurement awards

By Stephen Easton

Federal

There are now awards for federal public servants who feel they make the world a better place when they buy things, and they only have…

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Public servants tell harrowing tales of harassment after a mention in an FOI release. Their leaders want to shield them from the trolls, but anonymity comes with a price

By Stephen Easton

Features

The Australian government's guidelines for dealing with Freedom of Information requests help balance many of the competing interests that come with having a democratic, accountable…

Australian public servants are uniting to demand a change to FOI guidelines

By Stephen Easton

Federal

Federal public service leaders want the official FOI guidelines changed to support their standard practice of shielding the names and contact details of staff below…

PM asks APS to publish gift registers: News Corp achieves what the auditor-general could not

By Stephen Easton

Communications & Technology

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has decided Australian Public Service agencies should publish their lists of gifts and benefits.

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…

How about speaking normally? Jane Halton and Gordon de Brouwer on institutional trust

By Stephen Easton

Federal

For institutions that need to rebuild public trust, “starting to speak normally" instead of in stiff bureaucratic language is a necessary step on the journey,…

Cost recovery audit: APS still getting the hang of putting industry on the hook

By Stephen Easton

Case studies

Setting prices for government services is not always a simple task but three federal agencies could still do a much better job of it, according…

Federal Budget 2019: shared services and productivity

By Stephen Easton

Economy & Industry

The Australian Public Service is expected to save $17.3 million every year from 2019-20 onwards through shared corporate services, according to the budget, on top…

How a WA department's graduate program came out on top of the nation

By Stephen Easton

Federal

Australia's best public sector grad programs, indexed. Public sector agencies generally don’t do enough to explain what working in a government department is really like…

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…

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…

Hayne’s failure to tackle bank structure spells another royal commission in a decade or so

By Andrew Linden & Warren Staples

Economy & Industry

While many of Kenneth Hayne's recommendations are laudable and absolutely necessary, they are not sufficient to end the regular cycle of appalling misconduct and inquiries.

Andrew Podger's brilliant reimagining of the Australian Public Service

By Verona Burgess

Editors' Picks

Verona Burgess analyses former APS Commissioner Andrew Podger’s thought-provoking 8800-word submission to the Thodey review.

Flexible, affordable, practical: what cloud really offers government

By Julian Bajkowski

Communications & Technology

The demands, expectations and security of government information and technology carry a different weighting of governance and public expectation. Microsoft Azure finally unleashes the capacity…

Federal Budget 2018: tax cuts and slow spending growth

By Tom Burton

News

Tight spending controls and windfall of tax revenue has enabled the federal government to fund modest medium-term tax cuts, while continuing to invest heavily in…