Parliament should review Thodey's APS report, not government alone: Professor Andrew Podger

A Senate committee is examining the current capability of the Australian Public Service, more than 12 months after former Telstra chief executive David Thodey delivered the government 40 recommendations for improving it in his nearly 400-page report.

In a submission to the committee, former APS commissioner and health department secretary Professor Andrew Podger slammed the government's failure to adopt any of the report's key recommendations and suggested the government should not be the report's sole assessors.

While Parliament examined pieces of legislation, Professor Podger said its role in receiving and assessing reports was limited.

"The failure of the government to agree, even with some qualifications, key recommendations in the Thodey Report raises questions about whether such reports into the APS should be subject to assessment by the government alone, or whether the Parliament should be actively involved," he wrote.

The legislation outlines the public service works for the government, the Parliament and the public and reports relating to its efficiency should not be determined by the government alone, Professor Podger said.

"Reviews of the APS should not be considered by the government alone but, as standard practice, the Parliament should consider the reports provided and the government's responses," he wrote.

Professor Podger said Thodey's report had found Australia's public service was falling behind in its data and digital capacity compared with other countries' sectors but little had been done in response to it.

Instead, the committee should be allowed to examine the reports to determine a non-partisan approach, he recommended.

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Thodey's report was publicly released in December 2019 and recommended a slew of sweeping changes that would reform the public service's aging approach.

"The panel's findings are unequivocal: the APS needs a service-wide transformation to achieve better outcomes," the report's executive summary read.

"It needs short-term change and long-term reform to serve the government, Parliament and the Australian public more effectively and efficiently - now and in the years ahead."

The Morrison government welcomed the review but knocked back many of the report's key recommendations.

It partly accepted more than half of the 40 recommendations but several others were rejected, including a push to remove the staffing level cap, to make pay scales and conditions more consistent and a move away from labour hire reliance.

Labor's public service spokesperson Senator Katy Gallagher said the government's response to Thodey's review was a "missed opportunity".

"There is no doubt that there are challenges ahead for the APS but the government's response ... indicates that it will do very little to prepare for those challenges," Senator Gallagher said in 2019.

The committee's inquiry into the service's capability will deliver its final report before the end of October.

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