Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek calls for constructive criticism, sense of urgency in letter to public servants

In a letter to her new department, the senior Labor minister sought the department's "help and expertise" but also warned public servants against aimlessly shifting around paperwork and urged them to take on a sense of urgency in delivering the government's policies.

Ms Plibersek said the public service was an "essential partner" for any government hoping to achieve its aims, but stressed the government would determine policy, while the public service was the engine room to deliver it.

Calling her letter "something like an instruction manual for working with your new minister", she said the Albanese government would set out its goals in a charter letter in coming weeks, and require measurable progress by the end of its first term.

"To get there, we will develop a detailed set of real-world measures to track our progress. Shifting around paperwork is not success," Ms Plibersek wrote.

"Success is achieving something real every day for the Australian people. This will require a sense of urgency. It will require all of us to work at the peak of our capacities.

"I hope you will share this sense of mission with me."

Ms Plibersek said she expected to work closely and co-operatively with her department.

"But I would also like something more from you. I welcome constructive criticism. I welcome creativity. Challenge me. Give me bad news directly. But once a decision is made, I want you all in. Our work is too important to be pursued half-heartedly," she said.

The letter is another sign of a shift in relations between government and the public service under Labor, after years of job cuts and competition with consultants to deliver advice under the Coalition government.

Ms Plibersek also advised public servants to think problems through, propose a solution, and use clear language to ask for a specific decision.

In an apparent warning not to obfuscate and dissemble by using bureaucratic jargon, she referred them to George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" about clarity in writing. The essay includes the observation: "Never use a long word where a short one will do".

She also told staff to spell-check and proof-read their work.

"If your signature is on a brief, I expect you to have read it carefully," Ms Plibersek wrote.

She also advised against leaving work unfinished and letting it drift, urging public servants "Whatever it is, land it".

"Tie up loose ends. Take responsibility," she said.

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The new minister also urged public servants to respond to members of the public when they called, wrote or emailed the department.

"They are almost always doing it because it is their last resort, or they feel strongly about an issue. Please treat the public in the way you would want someone you love to be treated if they contacted a government department. Never fob people off," Ms Plibersek said.

"The best answer after yes is a clear no with reasons. But first, ask yourself, can we help? Because if we can, we should. Draw lessons from every interaction. Has the one person who contacted us raised an issue that needs a systemic response? What do we need to change to improve the situation for everyone? What action should you take to genuinely fix the problem?"

Ms Plibersek wrote to Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment staff after her surprise appointment to the environment and water portfolio this week after years serving in opposition as Labor's education spokeswoman.

Not long after her appointment, the Albanese government announced the mega-department would be carved up, with environmental portfolios moved into a new Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to be established from July 1.

The new government has flagged it would work more closely with the public service than the previous Coalition government, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed in his first press conference after being sworn in that Labor would respect public servants.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison, whose mantra was to "respect and expect" when it came to public servants, told them in 2019 that governments and not the bureaucracy set policy. The speech was widely interpreted as diminishing the public service's role in providing policy advice.