The Public Service Minister is an open book, but there are some limitations.
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Last week, The Canberra Times asked Katy Gallagher about the Public Service Commission's ambition for the bureaucracy to be "accountable and transparent in everything it does".
The lofty reform commitment is nice to hear, but difficult to enact when releasing information at inopportune times can earn you a severe dressing down from ministers.
Perhaps the federal government could step up, say, by publishing ministerial diaries?
While that's "a matter for the Prime Minister", Senator Gallagher said, when it comes to her schedule, just ask.
"I'm accountable for who I meet with. If anyone asked me, I would say who I'm meeting with and what I'm doing," she said, artfully skirting around the issue of publishing her diary.
"We don't do it routinely, but it's ultimately a matter for the Prime Minister on that one. But I have no problem being accountable for who I meet with, and how I spend my time and how hard I work. I've been very pleased to talk to people about that."
Ministerial diaries are accessible through freedom of information requests, but it's not exactly a smooth process. It can take months to gain access, with redaction likely.
Some other jurisdictions already proactively publish diaries, and advocates have recently called for it as a transparency measure to counter the secretive influence of lobbyists.
And then there's the issue of questions on notice, which the government says are just piling up in departments as the Coalitions lobs them in every direction at Senate estimates.
Repetitive questions on capability, culture and spending within agencies, sent out at every Senate estimates by the Coalition, have drawn the ire of the government.
It has issued advice to ministerial offices on when to pull the "unreasonable diversion of resources" card.
Senator Gallagher told us the government looks set to answer double the QoNs of the previous Coalition government.
"It's not actually about not being transparent," she said.
"It it is about the sheer volume of what's coming through.
"I think there's got to be a middle point, you've got to be transparent and accountable, but you've also, you know, don't be ridiculous."
Public Eye - which also strives to be transparent and accountable in everything it does - must note that when departments do answer these questions, they tend to end up in this column.
Please see, the very next item.
The AAD's coffee mugs
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) and its cultural issues have been pored over in a series of recent reviews, and now a 157-page Senate committee report.
The Environment and Communications References Committee had been probing a mysterious funding shortfall in the division - which undertakes scientific research into Antarctica - for months.
While the government says a $25 million drop in its operating budget in the 2023-2024 financial year was mostly due to terminating funding for Australia's Antarctic icebreaker, the committee called for more transparency on funding.
Its report even called for an additional review into the division's culture, after the inquiry heard of dozens of complaints about inappropriate, fraudulent and corrupt behaviour within the division.
This builds on findings of intentional exclusion, gender discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment in the AAD.
But it seems that agency's HR team has been working hard to lift morale.
In a response to a question on notice from the last Senate estimates, the division revealed every new expeditioner gets a coffee mug from People Safety and Remote People Services.
The 504 mugs ordered during the last financial year have set the division back $4407.48.
Pocock's star power
ACT senator David Pocock's rise to the top was so successful, now others are hoping his star power will rub off on them.
Senator Pocock was briefly out of town last week to launch an independent campaign for Queensland, in the electorate of McPherson.
He made the celebrity appearance at the launch of the McPherson independent community campaign on his own dime, and in a private capacity.
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