“It’s unique, like the public sector itself”: what Libby Stratford learned from the EMPA

Libby Stratford finished her ANZSOG Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA) with new insights and frameworks to help understand how the political zeitgeist shapes the work of senior public servants, and to work within a political environment.

Ms Stratford, Chief Financial Officer, UNSW said that the EMPA had provided her with a chance to learn and share experience with colleagues in other jurisdictions.

“There are very few tertiary level opportunities to do that. The EMPA is unique, like the public sector itself, and it give public sector professionals an opportunity to share and learn from their interjurisdictional peers,” she said.

Ms Stratford was formerly employed by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, and says that EMPA gave her a better understanding of how to manage the conflicting pressures on public servants, and still get an outcome that delivered public value.

“Delivering in a public sector space with three tiers of government is never straightforward. The EMPA provides a space to consider that challenge more theoretically and then apply that in your practice,” she said.

“It gives you time and space to step back and consider the zeitgeist and take that into your practice of how you present things to government, so you are trying to put the best policy forward but also trying to deliver for the government of the day, because it is the government of the day that we serve.”

“It is about understanding how to operate in order to get the best possible outcome, whilst trying to maintain all stakeholders and what their expectations are in that delivery. That does take practice and patience, and I think that the EMPA equips you to consider those things more thoughtfully.”