The Role of Departmental Secretaries: Personal Reflections on the Breadth of Responsibilities Today

212 Pages·2009·2.273 MB·English

by  Andrew Podger

The Role of
Departmental Secretaries
Personal reflections on the breadth
of responsibilities today

The Role of
Departmental Secretaries
Personal reflections on the breadth
of responsibilities today
Andrew Podger
Published by ANU E Press
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
Email: [email protected]
This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/dep_secs_citation.html
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Podger, A. S. (Andrew Stuart)
Title: The role of departmental secretaries : personal reflections
on the breadth of responsibilities today / Andrew Podger.
ISBN: 9781921536816 (pbk.)
9781921536809 (pdf)
Series: ANZSOG series.
Subjects: Government executives--Australia.
Australia--Officials and employees.
Dewey Number: 352.3
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
Cover design by John Butcher
Printed by University Printing Services, ANU
Funding for this monograph series has been provided by the Australia and New
Zealand School of Government Research Program.
This edition © 2009 ANU E Press
John Wanna, Series Editor
Professor John Wanna is the Sir John Bunting Chair
of Public Administration at the Research School of
Social Sciences at The Australian National University.
He is the director of research for the Australian and
New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).
He is also a joint appointment with the Department
of Politics and Public Policy at Griffith University
and a principal researcher with two research centres:
the Governance and Public Policy Research Centre
and the nationally-funded Key Centre in Ethics,
Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University. Professor Wanna has
produced around 20 books including two national text books on policy
and public management. He has produced a number of research-based
studies on budgeting and financial management including: Budgetary
Management and Control (1990); Managing Public Expenditure (2000),
From Accounting to Accountability (2001); Controlling Public
Expenditure (2003); Yes Premier (2005); Westminster Legacies: Democracy
and Responsible Government in Asia and the Pacific (2005); Westminster
Compared (forthcoming) and most recently The Reality of Budget Reform in the
OECD (forthcoming). He is completing, with John Butcher and Ben Freyens,
a study of service delivery in the Australian government, entitled Policy in
Action (with UNSW Press). He was a chief investigator in a major Australian
Research Council funded study of the Future of Governance in Australia (1999-
2001) involving Griffith and the ANU. His research interests include Australian
and comparative politics, public expenditure and budgeting, and government-
business relations. He also writes on Australian politics in newspapers such
as The Australian, the Courier-Mail and The Canberra Times and has been a
regular state political commentator on ABC radio and TV.

Table of Contents
Foreword ix
Margaret Guilfoyle
Preface xi
1. Responsibilities of secretaries 1
2. Know and pace yourself: personal style and time allocation 7
3. Know the boss: working with and supporting the minister 17
4. Know the real boss: support to the Prime Minister and the whole of 37
government
5. The lion’s den: respecting and working with the Parliament 53
6. It’s lonely at the top: management of the agency 65
7. The art of persuasion: management of the portfolio 87
8. Juggling the players: working with external stakeholders 97
9. Fourth estate or fifth column? Working with the media 117
10. Dead poet society duties: promoting APS values and contributing to 131
APS capability
11. Secretaries’ personal development, support and performance 143
assessment
12. Inside or outside the tent: the role of the Public Service Commissioner 159
13. Some conclusions 183
Appendix A 191
Appendix B 193
Appendix C 195
Appendix D 199

Foreword
It is a rare privilege to read a
personal career history in which so
many of the principal features allow
for reflection and others are
instructive of later developments in
the role of departmental secretaries
in our system of government.
I have observed Andrew Podger’s
career in the Australian Public
Service since the 1970s with
interest, admiration and gratitude
for the insight and competence he
has assiduously given to his
increasing responsibilities.
It is timely that the history of reform
in public administration over three
decades is recorded in this
monograph and revealing to study
relationships with Parliament and
government. It is important that leadership development of public administrators
should be a leading objective.
Andrew’s understanding of the support valuable to a minister invokes personal
recollections and experience. My first ministerial appointment was in the Fraser
Caretaker Government in 1975. The support of the secretary and the officers of
the Department of Education is remembered with respect. The Prime Minister’s
guidance to new ministers was to value and seek the advice of the department.
This was indeed pertinent advice, not only initially but throughout my ministerial
appointments from 1975 to 1983.
I noted Andrew’s comments about differing approaches from ministers with
regard to Section 64 of the Constitution. I must say that I was always conscious
of the appointment ‘and to administer the Department of’ and I found that the
closest collaboration with the departments of Social Security and Finance resulted
in the effective implementation of government policy. All ministers are bound
by cabinet’s authority and they should ensure that cabinet is fully informed of
the political and whole-of-government outcomes of decisions taken.
Andrew was exemplary in his anticipation of information needed to support a
cabinet submission or to defeat a conflicting Expenditure Review Committee
imposition. The close association with my office was enhanced by the inclusion
ix
The Role of Departmental Secretaries
of a staff member from the department to facilitate a valuable forthright exchange
of views and information.
This monograph is remarkable for the breadth of experience it discloses through
changes of government and some of the questions posed are signposts to the
future. I am confident that Andrew will continue to be a contributor to excellence
in public administration as it adapts to the needs of modern and sound
government in Australia.
Margaret Guilfoyle
March 2009

Dame Margaret Guilfoyle was Minister for Education (1975), Minister for Social Security (1975–80) and
Minister for Finance (1980–83). (Photo by kind permission of the Parliamentary Library.)
x