The public service is so busy doing the Government's bidding it lacks time to properly check whether its policies actually work, a former top-ranking bureaucrat says.
The former head of the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and Arts, David Borthwick, said the public service wanted to develop more effective policies, ''but our agencies are so flat out, so stretched, that we have scant capacity to invest in serious thinking''.
Mr Borthwick, who resigned in January after a 36-year career in the bureaucracy, delivered his valedictory address at the National War Memorial last night to an audience of senior public servants.
He said governments were now so captured by the immediate demands of special interest groups and the media that they failed to focus on the nation's needs.
''[More] than ever, governments are reactive to the intense pressure of the 24-hour news cycle. Sadly, responding to the shrill voices of sectoral interests too often gets in the way of long-term policy development in the national interest.''
He said the recent focus on placating media-savvy lobbyists had been the ''most challenging and sometimes frustrating aspect'' of his career.
''Some might say: is there harm in making a few concessions, here and there, to sectoral interests? However, the accumulation of bad decisions or indecision will catch up with nations.''
Mr Borthwick also suggested the public service would gain from being more open.
''Uncomfortable though it may be at times, we need to allow ourselves to be questioned and probed about the quality of service we are delivering on behalf of the Australian people,'' he said.
''Releasing more information into the public domain helps builds trust in government and government processes and, most importantly, it encourages a more open debate on longer-term policy issues.''
Mr Borthwick, the son of Victorian Liberal minister Bill Borthwick, entered the federal public service as a Treasury graduate in 1973, and became a senior executive six years later. He worked in Treasury, Health and Ageing, and Prime Minster and Cabinet before he was appointed Environment secretary in 2004.
His replacement at Environment, former NSW bureaucrat Robyn Kruk, began her job last week.
Email a friend