Public servants are providing their 'frank and fearless' advice on post-it notes: Metcalfe

Speaking on panel at an Institute of Public Administration Australia event, Mr Metcalfe said the combined effect of freedom of information (FOI) laws and the scrapping of the conclusive certificate procedure has ensured written advice to ministers has become more accessible to the public.

Conclusive certificates allowed ministers to exempt certain documents from FOI disclosures and were abolished during the Rudd era in a bid to boost government transparency, although other exemptions continue to exist.

"I went around and interviewed virtually every department secretary and they quite often, they would put their ... frank and fearless advice on a post-it note or they would provide it orally," he said, referring to a time when he worked in professional services.

"When you combine the effects of FOI and now the increasing use of public interest disclosure by the Senate, it means that ministers and their offices are operating on the basis that what the department sees will become public and they don't want things coming to that they may not necessarily disagree with or seek to implement.

"I think that there is a wider discussion required at some point as to the right balance between appropriate transparency and the need for the ability to withhold."

Mr Metcalfe, who retired from the public service in August and was this month elected national president of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, shared the panel with deputy ombudsman Penny McKay, Attorney-General's department director Deanne Allan and Education department deputy secretary Kylie Crane.

The panel discussed how public servants can give frank and fearless advice as well as other issues such as managing moral and ethical dilemmas.

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Asked about the importance of protection mechanisms that enable public servants to speak out against wrongdoing, Ms Crane said there are a number of integrity mechanisms now available within the APS.

But she added that "whether we've got all of them in place and how comfortable and safe [people] feel in using them, only time will tell".

Mr Metcalfe said culture also played an important role in the matter, citing an example of a when an officer on Christmas Island helped connect a person in detention with a lawyer despite pressure.

At the time, the government was seeking to implement the "Malaysian solution", under which up to 800 asylum seekers would have been sent to the Southeast Asian country in an effort to deter boat arrivals.

"As a result, the case ultimately went to court and the Malaysian strategy was found not to be supported by the law," said Mr Metcalfe, who was Migration department secretary at the time.

"The pressure on that officer to ignore the law was substantial. The government's hopes of Malaysian strategy, stopping the boats was enormous."

"But she felt absolutely supported in doing her job".

Mr Metcalfe said while rules and protections and needed to be place, its ultimately the "mettle of leaders", including secretaries, who set the culture.

"I think that that's something that we absolutely want to continually reinforce."