One area where we are unlikely to see Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten battle it out with contesting policies is how they will treat and use the public service.

For most of the country, the federal public service and its role in government isn't the most pressing issue on their minds as they fill out their ballot papers.

But for the approximately 150,000 public servants, and the thousands more with jobs that depend on or are connected to the public service, a strong message from each side about their policies and intentions is needed.

Most Australians don't realise how much a strong, capable and efficient public service affects their lives, until something goes wrong, or takes too long, or makes life harder rather than making it easier.

But all of Australia benefits when the major parties put forward strong policies and visions for how they want the bureaucracy to work. The success of public service reform shouldn't rest on whether the minister in charge is actually interested in the portfolio, as it has seemed to in recent years.

It is not enough to snipe at the other side, but to genuinely have a plan backed up by policy and an ideological basis.

Labor has spent its years in opposition bashing the government for the way it has handled the public service - cutting jobs, instituting the controversial cap on staff numbers, and increasing the rate at which contractors and consultants are being used.

Now, as an alternative government, the party must lay out not that which it is opposed to, but what it is for - what the party's vision is of how government should work. Labor should not take the votes of public servants for granted, but earn their trust and support.

At the same time, the Coalition must also put forward a plan to restore trust and respect to the public service. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has used the term "Canberra bubble" as a device to distance himself from political games and position himself closer to voters, but by doing so has made a joke of the national capital.

Deriding the capital and its residents as separate from other, somehow more real Australians, is not a way to build trust with the public service and won't win their votes either. Moving jobs away from the capital to marginal electorates with limited visibility of the business cases behind such decisions doesn't increase faith that public servants and their lives are valued.

The incoming government, whatever its persuasion, will receive the final report from David Thodey and his team on how to reform the public service and ensure that it is fit for purpose in 2030.

Implementing the recommendations is no small task. It will take political will, leadership, and, last of all, money.

It is seen as unpopular to spend money on the public service and on the administration of government, but investing in reforms in the coming years will be necessary to ensure Australia isn't left behind when it comes to the services its citizens expect, and the complex policy challenges to come.

If both sides talk more about the value of the public service, and what it means for the average Australian, spending promises for the sector may not seem so on the nose.

It may not make headlines in the tabloids in other cities, but public servants deserve to hear well-thought-out, considered policy proposals from the government they will soon serve.