Former Human Services Department secretary Renée Leon urges against chill on APS advice

Ms Leon also said public servants should not be left to "swim in murky waters" in having to explain government decisions that lacked a clear basis.

The former federal department secretary, recently appointed Institute of Public Administration Australia national president, said she hoped and believed the Albanese government would be committed to respectful relations with the public service.

Ms Leon said all ministers should be open to hearing both good and bad news from departmental officials.

"I understand that the government has made commitments to respectful dialogue. And I think that's really critical, because you can't have a partnership relationship with the public service, if you are not treating them with just a normal respect," Ms Leon said.

"That is really critical to have open conversations where ministers make it clear that they are willing to hear even uncomfortable news. You have to be able to tell the minister if that program they announced is not working. Otherwise, how can you fix it?

"And if you know that you'll be deeply unpopular with the minister, or get frozen out or get yelled at, then it doesn't create an environment that's conducive to telling the minister everything they need to know in order to do their job well."

Ms Leon clarified she was not saying she had personally encountered aggressive behaviour, and said that this behaviour was not the norm.

However, she was aware of ministers in the past 30 years who had yelled at senior public servants, thrown things, refused to speak to secretaries for long periods, and openly criticised them to other ministers.

Bad behaviour could occur on both sides of politics, Ms Leon said.

"I've had very frank, open and respectful relationships with ministers of both sides of politics, and that is the norm," she said.

"But where you do strike a minister who doesn't take that approach, and whose behaviour is allowed or condoned by the government of the day, that does of course instil some reticence in the public service, and that is inimical to good advice."

Since coming to power in May the new Labor government has signalled it wants to work closely with the public service and draw on its expertise - a contrast to the often dismissive approach of its Coalition predecessors.

Ms Leon welcomed signals from the Albanese government that it would turn to the public service for advice.

"The public service has a vast trove of knowledge and expertise that is incredibly valuable for governments when they're coming to make a decision," she said.

"And so it's because I believe in good government and in good service to the people of Australia, that I welcome the fact that the government is working with public service to ensure that they as a government, are well equipped to be the best they can."

Ms Leon was a senior public servant in federal departments before becoming secretary of the then-Department of Human Services in 2017.

Her Australian Public Service career ended when she was axed, along with four other secretaries, under a 2019 machinery of government shake-up by Scott Morrison.

She has spoken previously about the public service's ability to give frank and fearless advice, telling an IPAA forum in June that senior public servants - especially in recent years - had had to draw on their reserves of courage.

"The termination of the secretaries, of which I was one, sent as it was intended to a pretty clear message to the public service about the limits of frank and fearless advice," she told the forum.

"And so I think there has been some risk of damage to the willingness of senior public servants and the extent to which they're prepared to die on any particular hill."

Ms Leon also said at the June forum that while public servants often congratulated themselves on being "comfortable with ambiguity", that had come in recent times to mean "swimming in murky waters and managing somehow".

Asked to elaborate on the comment, she told The Canberra Times that public servants had a role to implement government policy and programs, and to defend and explain them in public.

"Obviously, it's easier to do that being the implementer of and the spokesperson for a policy or a program, if the public servant is confident that the decisions have been made in a way that's appropriate and ethical," Ms Leon said.

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She referred to recent Audit Office reports into grants programs that cast doubt on the basis of grant decisions.

"The challenging thing about the grant programs that have been of some controversy has been the comments the Auditor-General made, which haven't been contradicted, to suggest that the decisions were made on party political lines rather than on the basis of the criteria in the grant programs," she said.

It was more challenging for the public service to implement and explain decisions, if they did not understand the basis on which they were made, or weren't able to explain it publicly, Ms Leon said.

"That's what I mean by 'murky waters', is if you're trying to implement a government decision, where there's some doubt already in the public arena about the basis of that decision, what's the role of the public service in managing that potential integrity conflict?

"These things ought to be rare, and I hope they will be."

Ms Leon, who became IPAA national president in July, said she intended to be a voice for the public service, speaking out about the values, trends and events that were important for it to be effective.

She also wants to help build capability in the public service through IPAA's events, and to support state and territory public services.

"All of that is very dear to my heart, because I've been a public servant most of my working life. And I have really seen from the inside and from the impact that we have, how important the public services as an institution, and how critical it is that we invest in its capability and continue to value its role," Ms Leon said.