The public service is moving further into the private lives of its workers, with the Prime Minister's department laying down tough rules for its public servants' online activities.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's new rules go further than before in trying to gag comments on current affairs, but there are also instructions on how staff must manage personal Facebook profiles.
Details of the policy, sent to all PM&C staff and contractors last Friday, threaten dismissal for non-compliance.
The department, which has already asked its workers to dob in colleagues for their online activities, now insists its public servants lock their personal Facebook accounts with the tightest possible privacy settings and tells them how to configure their passwords.
The Community and Public Sector Union is furious about the policy, saying it portrayed a nanny-state attitude and intruded unreasonably into public servants' private lives.
CPSU deputy secretary Melissa Donnelly said the rules were causing widespread resentment in the department.
"This new policy from the Department of [the] Prime Minister and Cabinet absolutely goes too far in policing the private lives of staff," she said.
"Our members resent this nanny state attitude from the department.
"There's a fundamental contradiction in this policy, stating that staff don't need to be apolitical in their private lives but then all but banning criticism, and it's insulting the intelligence of staff to impose rules on what password and security settings they should have for their Facebook account.
"PM&C already had a social media policy that stretched the bounds of what's reasonable and went significantly beyond the already tough rules that apply through the APS code of conduct.
"There absolutely have to be rules in place, but that shouldn't mean applying a virtual gag on staff."
The policy contains a blanket ban on PM&C staff revealing their workplace on social media, something millions of Australians do routinely, and the rules leave little doubt on online freedom of expression.
"Expressing disparaging opinions about the government, the opposition, the department or government policies, or expressing strong political affiliations in any public forum is not appropriate behaviour for [Australian Public Service] employees," the policy says.
"Your personal opinions on these issues should be confined to closed forums."
There are strict new rules on how individual employees should manage their social media accounts and PM&C employees were left in no doubt about the consequences of "failing to comply" with the policy.
"Profiles must use a robust and secure password to protect the account from brute-force hacking attempts," the policy says.
"This password must be at least seven characters long and contain a mixture of punctuation and alpha-numeric characters.
"For your security, ensure that privacy settings on your accounts are set to private and high. Facebook has developed a privacy basic tool to help you keep your account secure.
"Those who fail to comply with this policy may face disciplinary action and, in serious cases, termination of their employment or engagement."
