It has been a time of accountability and introspection for the public service. From the robodebt royal commission, which asked profound questions about the propriety of conduct within the APS, to the establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, issues of transparency and integrity have loomed large.
One critical aspect of preventing future robodebt-style scandals, and enhancing the effectiveness of the NACC and other accountability bodies, is ensuring public servants feel protected and empowered to speak up about wrongdoing. Because if APS workers are afraid of raising concerns, or those concerns are not heard, wrongdoing will go uncorrected.
Thus the royal commission noted that the scheme had received “early and ongoing criticism” from departmental whistleblowers and external stakeholders. “Each example of criticism, as well as its cumulative impact, presented [the department] with further opportunities to investigate the concerns raised and react to them,” the report found. Instead, “those opportunities were not taken up”.
While the full horror of the robodebt saga was only exhaustively set out by the recent royal commission, it has been known for some time that the scheme for public servants to call out wrongdoing is not working.
The Public Interest Disclosure Act, which protects federal public sector whistleblowers, has been described by a federal judge as “technical, obtuse and intractable” – to the point of being “largely impenetrable, not only for a...
Pakistan on April 22, Thursday urged the United Nations to call upon India to restore full implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), warning that New Delhi’s “illegal” decision to hold the ...