A bigger agenda: Why public sector leaders can’t wait for permission to reform

This article by ANZSOG Dean and CEO Professor Caron Beaton-Wells first appeared in The Mandarin. 

With an unprecedented election victory and parliamentary majority, inevitably there is a high expectation that the new government will now deliver!  

Perhaps also inevitably, before the ink was dry on new Cabinet appointments, debate had turned to what ‘delivering’ means. Is it building on the first term agenda in line with election promises, or is there now need and opportunity for even more ambitious reform? 

Australians appear to have voted for the stability and certainty inherent in continuity – in hindsight, an arguably unsurprising result given the uncertainty and volatility of the global environment.  

But there is also an unmistakeable sense that governments need to think long-term and make the difficult decisions needed to safeguard Australia’s place in this environment. 

Whether Labor’s mandate extends beyond those policies on which it campaigned is something of a red herring. Name your ‘crisis’ – cost-of-living, housing, energy, productivity, climate change or healthcare – the public is expecting outsized change for the better.  

Others can comment on whether our political system is up to that challenge. But for public services – in the States and Territories, as well as the Commonwealth – the ramifications are material.  

Across their leadership ranks, public service leaders will be turning their minds to what this authorising environment means for their services, agencies and teams. What will be required of them to support the government in meeting the expectations of citizens? 

Assistant Minister for Productivity Andrew Leigh recently fired a shot across the bows – calling out systemic issues in delivering on infrastructure, housing and energy policies. 

Clearly, implementing the government’s agenda in a resource-constrained environment, while at the same time investing in capability for the future will require some seriously creative thinking about how public sector agencies operate.  

One approach is to prioritise opportunities where delivering the government’s agenda will also strengthen and deepen public service capability to respond to long-term complex challenges. 

Arguments for such alignment are being made elsewhere.  In Canada, Jocelyne Bourgon, a senior public servant instrumental in the major fiscal turnaround in the 1990s, has highlighted the significance of public service reform for delivering on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s economic agenda. This isn’t a reduction in the public service, but a re-allocation of resourcing and capability to what really matters. A similar convergence is manifest in the policy and civil service reform debates taking place in the UK. 

But beyond reallocating resources, public sector leaders need to take the initiative in reforming systems, reducing cultural and structural barriers to innovation, building partnerships, and encouraging risk-taking and new ways of thinking.  

We know from the example of the National Agreement on Closing the Gap that tinkering at the edges isn’t enough – inertia and the pull of business as usual is just too strong.  

In Australia, the opportunities for alignment are evident in at least four respects. 

Productivity.  The government has clearly indicated this will be an economy-wide focus.  For the public service, alignment means considering how it can lift its own efficiency – by breaking down silos, removing duplication and making better use of data, digital and AI to improve delivery.  

Social compact.  A range of government commitments tackle social priorities, including extension to Medicare, increasing opportunity through education and fixing the housing crisis. In these and other areas, strengthening the social compact requires public services to double down on meaningful engagement with communities and building public trust in government to address social problems. More empathy and humility will be required as we move from purely technocratic solutions to ones based on a relational approach that is flexible and prioritises people in policy and process.  

Systems and transitions.  Several of the challenges we face entail significant systems reform to enable Australia to make transitions – energy being an obvious example. Public services need the capability to develop policies from a systems perspective, recognising that issues are often interconnected across portfolios and jurisdictions, and solutions require an iterative and adaptive approach that involves all stakeholders in collaboration and/or co-design.  

Regional engagement.  The government’s platform emphasises making Australia secure in the region, and a time of global uncertainty is a time for public services to build links with governments and institutions in the Asia-Pacific. Building understanding and relationships, and working out areas of common interest with our neighbours, should be part of the work of all agencies at all levels of government, not just those charged with foreign affairs.  

These are all important areas of reform where senior public sector leaders can take the initiative without compromising or pre-empting the government’s agenda.  By building capability that can address current problems, and anticipating and readying for future ones, they are also preparing themselves for the next change in electoral fortunes.