The public servants who ran the country over the summer

Much like your favourite Monday columnists, department secretaries need holidays, too.

Luckily the Senior Executive Service is stacked with reserves, waiting for their 15 minutes in the top job.

These short stints at the helm separate up-and-comers from the rest of the pack, showing us who to watch when more permanent vacancies arise. And ah, *checks notes*, there were seven such vacancies last year (across the departments, Services Australia, and the Public Service Commission).

Treasury deputy secretary Roxanne Kelley, who stepped up while Steven Kennedy was off over December and January, could be one to keep an eye on this year.

Mr Kennedy's term is due to expire in September, and the Albanese government has not yet said whether he'll be staying on.

He is one of just a handful of major agency bosses who have survived the change of government, alongside Chris Jordan, Greg Moriarty, Katherine Jones and Ray Griggs.

But then-shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers was singing his praises even back in 2019, so Mr Kennedy may well be sticking around.

Here's everyone else we know was in charge, temporarily, this summer:

A contract from Department of Parliamentary Services caught our eye over the summer for the provision of emotional intelligence training.

The contract, worth $18,000, was awarded through an open tender process to McMillan Staff Development - a company that promises on its website to "empower your workforce".

Naturally, we at Public Eye had a lot of questions: why does DPS want emotional intelligence training? What prompted this decision? What will the training cover?

To those questions, we gained limited answers.

A department spokesperson said that DPS "recognises its people as a valuable resource and is committed to their ongoing professional development".

They said that the training would be accessible to all departmental staff, and would be run through face-to-face sessions.

As for what will be covered, or why, we received a series of classic APS buzzwords to make sense of.

"This EQ training is designed to enable individuals in teams to better support their work both internally (collaborative) and with our stakeholders," the spokesperson continued.

McMillan's own website is slightly more specific. The company says that it offers workshops that teach staff "different techniques to help develop self-awareness, self-management, and other dimensions of emotional intelligence".

Hopefully those who need this training will have just enough self-awareness to undertake it.

A team of ex-public servants, defence personnel and Canberra locals is heading off to Canada on a 15-day pond ice hockey tour.

The Canberra Senators is the national capital's oldest active ice hockey club, and (naturally, being a Canberra team) includes two ex-APS staff and two ex-defence personnel.

But journalists were surprised to see that the media release sent to their inboxes last week detailing the team's plans came from none other than Sandi Logan, former Department of Immigration spin doctor (back when it was still known as the Department of Immigration).

The tough-talking Canberran, who was at the department from 2005 to 2018, was known by reporters from that time for his combative approach to defending department conduct - especially on the website formally known as Twitter.

Just a few months before his departure from the role, the newly elected Coalition government of the day actually silenced Mr Logan on social media.

A senior departmental official at the time told Nine newspapers that the department's tweets would instead focus on "good news stories" under the Coalition.

Hopefully the same rules don't apply here, and Mr Logan will be able to keep us up to date online with any kneeing, fighting or spearing happening over on Canada's ice.

We know that Health secretary Blair Comley loves to cook (remember his recipe-infused team health messages last year?).

But it looks like secretary is in for a different sort of grilling next month.

The inquiry into probity and ethics in the APS has released its program for February 1, which includes just one person being called up for questioning: Mr Comley.

While we don't know what Mr Comley will be asked about, we imagine it will include some mention of the audit office's damning report into the department's management of $2 billion worth of health and hospitals grants under the Morrison government.

The Australian Public Service Commission has released its latest circular on COVID-19 (and what appears to be its first one in more than a year), as case numbers rise in the country thanks to the new JN.1 variant.

The biggest takeaway is that agencies are no longer required to provide staff with paid discretionary leave when staff are sick with COVID-19 or have to take care of a family or household member who has it.

The circular explicitly says that employees should access personal or carer's leave in these circumstances, but does go on to say that agencies can still choose to give employees unpaid discretionary leave.

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Agencies are also instructed to provide temporary flexible working arrangements for staff who are sick or caring for someone with the virus, where possible.

While decisions to require vaccination are up to individual workplaces, the APSC says agencies should support employees to maintain their full vaccination status, such as by allowing them to get the jab on paid time.