In a recent speech to the Research School of Economics at the Australian National University, Dr Kennedy gave his thoughts on the themes of the independent review of the Australian Public Service with his views of where things are going right, and where improvements need to be made.

"Compared to 40 years ago, the public service is expected to be more adept at providing services, not only to keep pace with modern expectations of service delivery but also because of the growing number of Australian we are expected to serve," Dr Kennedy said.

Dr Kennedy moved into the role of secretary of Infrastructure and Regional Development a year ago, after being a deputy secretary at Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Addressing conversations that claim there has been a loss of capability across the public service, Dr Kennedy said the opposite was true.

"The quality of graduates the service takes in every year is of the highest order. We continue to have little trouble attracting committed and motivated staff, with excellent academic credentials," the secretary said.

He also spoke to the requirements of a modern public servant.

"A colleague of mine once suggested to me that the approach to expertise in the public service must be that of a serial expert. Public servants must spend sustained time on issues, they must be trained, and they must engage with business, the community and academia. This avoids the curse of the gifted amateur where smart and capable people not married with deep knowledge make unnecessary mistakes by not seeing the subtleties."

While the public expected the public service to get policy 100 per cent right, 100 per cent of the time, that wasn't a reason to shy away from taking risks, Dr Kennedy said.

"The response to this heightened expectation can’t be to take less risk or to not take the appropriate level of risk in pursuing policy. Instead, the approach has to be to open up a conversation with the community about why the risk is worth taking, the returns that can be derived, associated with an honest conversation about when it doesn’t come off. Easy to say, harder to do."

In order to increase the public's trust in government and the public service, Dr Kennedy said there needed to be more engagement with the community, with business and academics.

Dr Kennedy's department was one of the few to make a public submission to the APS review, in which it canvassed improving the flow of people in and out of the APS in order to address the "need for APS staff to understand standard commercial considerations but also the unique issues for government, that are different to private sector investors".

The submission said the review should consider recruitment systems, probation and management systems, and the structure of the public service and the average staffing level cap.

The review's chair David Thodey addressed the CPA Congress on September 27, saying that "individual departments and agencies do have some long-term perspectives. However, there is no integrated view of the future operating environment for the Australian public service".

Mr Thodey gave insight on his recent review of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act, refuting the idea that governments should run like businesses, but that both business and government could learn from each other.

Government departments should invest in leadership development, despite criticism of such funding, Mr Thodey said.

"Investing in leadership is challenging for the public service. Some say there’s not enough budget or the public will disapprove of it being used that way. Neither of these should be impediments. As the private sector knows, leadership development is critical to the long-term effectiveness of an organisation and should be prioritised for expenditure. Any external criticism of appropriate investment is misplaced and unhelpful."

Mr Thodey said the themes coming from the submissions and workshops to the review centred around valuing the institution of the public service and those who work in it, developing innovative approaches to policy, corporate, regulatory and delivery functions, ensuring the public service is responsive and the need for agility and new technologies.

Echoing themes in a previous address, he again canvassed the idea of a single purpose across the public service.

"I wonder whether a single, clear, aspirational purpose statement would help clarify this central role? Could that give the system and its leadership another tool to bring people together, work across organisations and ensure the focus remains on the people of Australia and our common good?"

The APS Review is due to report in the middle of next year.