[Peetwo]

PM Malcolm: "Have a go you mugs!" -  

Off the Mandarin today..

Turnbull: ‘look to other jurisdictions’ and plagiarise the best ideas

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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has urged Canberra’s public servants to keep a closer eye on the successes and failures of other governments in Australia and overseas.

Policymakers in the federal sphere “pay insufficient attention to what is happening in other jurisdictions” and the public policy scene is too “parochial” for the times, Turnbull said this morning, following an address to the Australian public service at Parliament House hosted by IPAA ACT.

Given all developed countries face a lot of the same policy challenges, the PM said he found it surprising how little attention was paid to what had and had not worked elsewhere. A good start for the APS, he suggested, would be to look more closely at the states and territories and New Zealand.

Turnbull encouraged his public servants to shamelessly “plagiarise” good policy ideas, and said he wanted independent bureaucrats who would advise on what is best for the nation, not just what they think ministers or their advisers want to hear.

“Very few propositions are not improved by discussion and debate.”
 
The head of the service, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Martin Parkinson, enthused that since the PM took office, “a rich period of opportunity” had dawned for APS members with the courage to seek out bold ideas and advocate for them.

“He is an open book, he wants our ideas, he will seek our advice … and from what I’ve seen, he won’t be reckless or hasty,” Parkinson said. “This presents us public servants with opportunities like we’ve never had before.”

Turnbull unsurprisingly endorsed former federal mandarin Peter Shergold’s vision of an “adaptive government” that has more room for experimentation, to test imaginative new ideas in the most challenging policy areas at small scale.

The PM said “agility and adaptability” were the “best tools” available to the public service, which finds itself disrupted by “forces it cannot control” in the same way as other long-standing institutions.

He also agreed with Shergold’s argument that government messaging needs to change, when questioned about how ministers should support a much more experimental approach to public policy.

“When we produce a new policy, we’ve got to say that this is the best policy solution that we have available to us today… but [also explain] if it turns out to be deficient in some respects then we will change it, and if it doesn’t work at all then we will dump it,” Turnbull explained.

The political pressure can be reduced by governments that are open about what they are doing. “The alternative,” said the PM, “is that you never take a risk, you never change anything.”

Turnbull said he was a “strong believer” in the traditional Westminster system of cabinet government because “very few propositions are not improved by discussion and debate” while the head of his department, Martin Parkinson, spoke of a partnership between public servants and “the political class” with the shared goal of improving the wellbeing of Australians.

The PM praised former Department of Communications secretary Drew Clark for his role in cementing that relationship as his chief of staff, by bringing “a very keen understanding and a strong link to the APS” into the Prime Minister’s Office.

Digital luddites need to ‘swallow their pride’

The digital transformation agenda and the growing promise of data analytics sit at the heart of Turnbull’s vision for a modern APS.

He said a new approach to IT procurement in PM&C and the Department of Social Services which “uses off the shelf products that are configured rather than coded” was a good example.

“The key to success for a 21st Century APS is to embrace innovation and technology.”
 
For public sector leaders to ignore digital disruption is “simply not acceptable” to the PM and he suggests that baby boomers and gen-xers should “swallow their pride” and rely more on the help of “digital native” millennials. He also spruiked the Digital Transformation Office, suggesting APS leaders could be more receptive.

“I encourage you all to familiarise yourself with their work and engage with them directly,” Turnbull said, recalling the words of his former business partner Sean Howard, who said there was always plenty of technology but it was “technological imagination” that was harder to find.

“Open your minds and be bold,” the PM told the large crowd of APS members.

Mentoring women ‘enormously important’

Turnbull also ticked off the topic of women in leadership, confirming that a new strategy for gender equality in the APS would be released this week by public service minister Michaelia Cash.

Parkinson reported the Secretaries Board resolved to create a new Diversity Council at its last meeting to lead implementation of the strategy.

The new measures should help stamp out “practices that go on, sight unseen, to steer women into certain public service roles and men into others”, Turnbull said, paying tribute to Parkinson’s past approach to women in leadership as head of Treasury.

The PM is very much in favour of introducing targets, as Parkinson did in the central agency, but also said mentoring from successful women was an “enormously important” way to help others climb the ladder.

“I want public servants who are filled with curiosity and a desire to make a difference.”
 
And he supports the view that flexible working conditions to support a healthy work-life balance are a must for any high performing organisation, leading to better teamwork and higher productivity.

“As a leader, as a manager of a business, of a department or a unit or a section, it is your job far as you can to ensure that the people who work for you are able to get the right balance between home and work,” Turnbull said.

According to the PM, public servants are the bureaucracy’s “greatest asset” thanks to the experience and institutional memory they possess, which is why a focus on nurturing talent and continuous improvement is vital.

To that end, the Secretaries Board has established a new Talent Council, chaired by Department of Social Services secretary Finn Pratt, according to Parkinson.

“I want to see Commonwealth public servants who are filled with curiosity and a desire to make a difference,” said Turnbull, whose address to the APS was hosted by the Institute for Public Administration Australia (ACT Branch).

“The key to success for a 21st Century APS is to embrace innovation and technology, to think big and bold, and to be committed to learning and leadership at every level.”

Oh and my heart bleeds for the poor PS -

No slowing down — not now, not during caretaker either

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The Turnbull government has its double dissolution trigger after the Senate on Monday voted down the second reading speech of the Australian Building and Construction Commission legislation.

Does this mean Commonwealth public servants should jump into caretaker-mode for the next 74 days? Not yet, and even if Australia does go to the polls on July 2, there’s still a lot of work to be done running the country.

Officially, caretaker period begins when the House of Representatives is dissolved, and a double dissolution is no different. This process is rarely varies — it is after all a convention — but the APS has more recruits from the private sector this time around, so these are the basics:

• The government may not involve any departmental officers in election activities.
  
• The government is to avoid implementing any major policy initiatives, making appointments of significance, or entering major contracts or undertakings that would bind an incoming government and limit its freedom of action — so says the Cabinet Handbook. In practice this is quite a complicated question.
  
• Most importantly of all, the business of government must continue.
  
  

When in doubt, do whatever the secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet says — beginning with the guidance on caretaker conventions.

Major decisions and announceables

Cabinet or its committees may still meet during this period for the continuance of business of government, but to avoid controversy and general messiness, decisions that can be made now will be made now.

In Australia, decisions that have already been made may still be announced during caretaker, although this isn’t encouraged. A former British minister last week gave her account of breaching that convention by announcing more police officers during the “purdah” — the British description for caretaker. Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith explained:

“Despite being well received, my announcement landed me in hot water. I had made it during the official pre-election purdah period and received a civil service ‘telling off’ for breaching purdah.
“I’d like you to imagine this as me knocking nervously on the door of the Cabinet Secretary/headmaster with exercise books down my trousers in anticipation of the punishment I was to receive.  It was rather more a ‘disappointed’ word passed on from the Cabinet Secretary via my Permanent Secretary to me and my special advisers. Why the fuss?
“Outside the political world the word ‘purdah’ is associated with the idea of women being screened or veiled from the eyes of men. In government it requires civil servants and politicians to coyly draw a gauzy veil over the business of party politics in the run up to elections or referendums … It does not – and should not – mean the closing down of government.
“I accept I was wrong to make that announcement.  Purdah has an important function. However my transgression doesn’t change my view that for many civil servants – and even for many others with very little relationship to elected government – local or national – purdah is an excuse to close down any public facing or vaguely innovative government activity.”

But keeping public servants out of politics is not easy thing. David Charles, former secretary of the Department of Industry, Technology and Commerce joked to The Mandarin that public servants could use such times to “take a holiday … If you wanted to be a politician, you’d go into politics.” But on a serious note, there is still some important work that needs to be done for the incoming government:

“During the caretaker period public servants give themselves some time off for a while before the red and blue books are prepared,” Charles said.

“Avoid any indication you’re taking sides in the process. Public servants have to work with whoever is in government, so you need to be there to work with whoever ends up in charge.”

When does it start?

If we’re all reasonably certain the election will take place on July 2, as per the PM’s own public warning to the senate crossbench last month, then why doesn’t he just go to the Governor-General now? First, he wants at least one budget under his belt — that’s coming May 3, with a convenient countdown on Treasury’s budget site in case you forget. Second, by convention he must also allow the opposition an opportunity to respond.

That’s scheduled for May 5.

At some point between May 5 and May 11, the election writs will be issued, parliament will be dissolved and caretaker will begin.

Hmm...I seem to recall the former miniscule - for non-aviation - Albo took the piss out of the average punters knowledge of the 'caretaker convention' to completely obfuscate all responsibility for responding to the Senate PelAir cover-up inquiry report and personally I am not going to let him forget it, courtesy of Planetalking:

...Ex deputy PM and Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese carries some excess baggage related to the Pel-Air crash fiasco and the abuse of due process he tolerated in CASA and the ATSB should he contest or win the Labor leadership, as widely speculated today.


Albanese had an outstanding term as minister in those portfolios in relation to rail and roads, and a dismal record when it came to his responsibilities in relation to air safety in this country.


The evidence for this is on the parliamentary record in the proceedings of the recent Senate committee inquiry into the ATSB’s investigation into the crash of a Pel-Air ambulance flight near Norfolk Island in 2009.


While the jet involved was a small Westwind, and no one died (miraculously) the accident gave rise to a series of appalling disclosures of deliberate malpractice in the two aviation authorities, the safety regulator, CASA and the accident investigator, the ATSB.


The findings of the Senate committee support fears that neither body has the integrity of management nor the technical skills or the commitments to aviation safety that most Australians would take for granted as being delivered and maintained on their behalf.


The incoming government need go no further than to obtain a briefing from Senator David Fawcett, (Liberal, South Australia) who with his state’s independent Senator, Nick Xenophon, pursued and disinterred a rotten state of affairs in both bodies which ought to be of considerable concern to whomever becomes the minister responsible for aviation in the Abbott Government.


The findings of the committee include an entire chapter detailing its dissatisfaction with the testimony given by the chief commissioner of the ATSB, Martin Dolan.


Anthony Albanese had a responsibility to parliament to respond to the Senate report in 90 days, and late in May gave such a commitment in the clearest of terms, yet he did not honour his word.


Senator Fawcett made a measured speech concerning the state of affairs in relation to the Pel-Air crash which should be read in conjunction with the committee’s final report.

While aspects of the crash, its investigation, and the Senate’s own inquiries have been reported at great length in Plane Talking, these are among the main matters:-


CASA withheld from the ATSB, contrary to the wording of the Transport Safety Investigation Act, an internal document related to the crash which revealed that had CASA carried out its duties of oversight in relation to Pel-Air, it may have prevented the accident happening.


The Director of Safety for CASA, John McCormick, admitted in testimony that he withheld the document, saying inter alia that he didn’t think it mattered to the investigation the ATSB was conducting, and that he didn’t want to pollute its deliberations.


The documentation that McCormick withheld containing damning evidence of CASA’s inadequacy and incompetence as a safety regulator.


The documents reveals that Pel-Air the operator of the crashed jet was in multiple serious breaches of its air operators certificate at the time of the crash, and that it had no rigorous fuel policy for oceanic flights like that being performed by the Pel-Air jet.


The Senate inquiry, comprising Senators of all parties, heard that the ATSB report into what was the world’s first ditching of a fully functioning Westwind jet (but which was about to run out of fuel) failed to make any safety recommendations even though all of the safety equipment on board the aircraft failed to work as intended.


It also learned that the ATSB had declined to recover the flight data recorder from the wreckage, which lies at a recoverable depth near Norfolk Island, and which should have established what meteorological updates were given to the pilot during a flight that had started in Apia, and whether that information was in fact correct.


The captain of the jet, Dominic James, says he did not become aware of the deteriorated state of the weather at his intended refueling stop at Norfolk Island until after he had flown passed the last point of opportunity to divert to airports in Noumea or Fiji.


(After four missed approaches and nearing fuel exhaustion, he made a controlled ditching at sea, while all of the aircraft’s controls and systems had the benefit of full power).


The ATSB’s final report into the Pel-Air crash stitched up the pilot for incorrectly fueling the flight, ignored the systemic issues in CASA, and does not meet the expectations of the international air safety community in alerting it to safety issues or deficiencies in a particular type of aircraft.


The Pel-Air report is a festering embarrassment in Australia’s once unquestioned place as a first tier state in relation to air safety.


It is an embarrassment Albanese carries with him...

MTF...P2