COVID-19 gave Glenys Beauchamp's long public service career an unexpected postscript in the weeks before her retirement from the Health Department.
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The department secretary spent her final days at the agency helping early efforts to contain the coronavirus at a time she was initially scheduled to hand over leadership to her appointed successor, Brendan Murphy.
Ms Beauchamp met with the then-chief medical officer and other health officials more than once daily, looking at the measures needed to prevent the worst scenarios unfolding in Australia.
Meanwhile, the government set up its internal machinery coordinating its response to the crisis.
"We were looking at what we needed to do in the health portfolio and then I also took to the secretaries board with [Home Affairs secretary] Mike Pezzullo some of the scenarios that were likely to happen under a pandemic which could be localised or national," she says.
By January 25, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Australia.
In the early days of the crisis, the government shut Australia's borders, set up quarantine centres, rolled out social distancing rules, and upped its public messaging to stop the virus spreading. The Health Department on January 22, 2020 stood up its national incident room coordinating the response to the pandemic.
I absolutely am a stickler for those what I call hygiene factors in public administration.
- Glenys Beauchamp
As Health Department chief, Ms Beauchamp had worked previously with the World Health Organisation on a year-long assessment of Australia's readiness for a health emergency.
"It was interesting that about a year earlier we had gone through that joint external evaluation exercise and came out pretty well in terms of our relative preparedness compared to most other countries," she says.
Among the priorities for federal health officials responding to COVID-19 was developing vaccines for Australians against the coronavirus.
"We had many representations from international pharmaceutical companies and a health minister who wanted to make sure we had vaccines available as soon as possible," Ms Beauchamp says.
The government anticipated it would take 12 months to understand the effectiveness of a vaccine, and how to roll it out.
"Minister Hunt has been clear about ensuring that vaccines are available early this calendar year, he's still on track and has always been on track with that," she says.
Ms Beauchamp rejects claims that public servants are taking their time on the vaccine rollout.
"I can assure you, having come out of the public service, I think everyone wants to make this happen as quickly as possible, and we do want to make sure it happens in a very deliberate and considered way and that the efficacy of the whole vaccine roll out program is one that protects all citizens," she says.
'People understand how I operate'
Compared to some of her peers, Ms Beauchamp kept a behind-the-scenes, low profile approach at the senior ranks of the bureaucracy.
Despite that reputation, her last day as Health Department secretary was marked with controversy after her appearance at a Senate hearing into the sports grants saga.
Ms Beauchamp made headlines when she told senators she had destroyed her notebooks, including one she used at an impromptu high-level meeting held in 2019 about the sport grants program.
She told the Senate committee the destroyed notebooks only contained her "scratchings" and were not necessarily a record of meeting outcomes.
Labor believed Ms Beauchamp had potentially destroyed official Commonwealth records and asked public service commissioner Peter Woolcott to investigate whether there was a pattern of record destruction in the bureaucracy.
Mr Woolcott said in a letter to Labor senator Katy Gallagher in March the agency saw no reason to investigate.
Asked this month about the furore, Ms Beauchamp says the document she destroyed was not a record of decisions or actions, but a book she used as a to-do list.
It did not contain any notes in relation to her meeting with Sport Australia officials, she says.
"It didn't relate to the meetings that I held.
"I thought at the end of my career I probably don't need those to-do lists.
"What I should give comfort to some of the commentary around that is when I do have meetings, I normally have agendas, I always have people there who take notes, I take notes, not in my notebook but transcribe them onto emails and the like.
"So there's always a record of conversation. There's always records of actions and decisions, and I do know my obligations, so I think that was absolutely blown out of all proportion."
Ms Beauchamp says she was aware of her record keeping obligations.
"If you talk to anyone they would absolutely well understand how I operate and how I absolutely am a stickler for those what I call hygiene factors in public administration."
She believes there are broad lessons from the sport grants program for the public service, starting with the need for consistency on administration of grants.
The national audit office in its report on the grants program recommended applying a single framework of rules for all circumstances where a minister decides upon the award of grant funding.
Acknowledging it is a government policy decision, Ms Beauchamp says there should be some consistency across Commonwealth entities in applying the grants rules and guidelines to corporate Commonwealth entities where - as the audit office pointed out - the government is making the decision.
There is also a need for clarity about the role of public service secretaries in relation to other Commonwealth entities in their portfolio, and for agency heads to focus on staff capability in administering grants and procurement.
"When I was coming up through the ranks we spent a lot of time on records management and filing and each part of the management process of being a public service whereas I think there is less focus on that and I think that a third learning is making sure you've got good skills and capability for administering grants," Ms Beauchamp says.
Living history
After retiring from the Health Department, Ms Beauchamp stayed involved in the nation's COVID-19 response and led efforts to secure supply of personal protective equipment for health workers.
She also helped the federal government develop a $1.5 billion manufacturing strategy to Australia's recovery from the economic shock of the pandemic.
Of Ms Beauchamp's 36 years as a public servant, she had 23 in the Australian Public Service and 13 with the ACT public service. In the APS, she spent nine years as a secretary, heading the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, and other agencies.
Ms Beauchamp lists among career highlights her work on the medical research future fund, efforts to renew focus on mental health, the review of Medicare Benefits Schedule items, and new pharmaceutical benefits scheme medicines including the HPV vaccine.
"One of the things I came into, and Minister Hunt put me on notice that I had to make sure it was rolled out without any further delay, was the new cervical screening," Ms Beauchamp says.
"I feel very privileged to be part of all of that."
In the Industry portfolio, she was involved in work on gas security arrangements, and new resources and mineral exploration programs. Working under Labor government minister Simon Crean, she set up the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport.
Before she reached the highest ranks of the federal bureaucracy, Ms Beauchamp was also front and centre in events following the historic 2010 election result leaving a hung parliament.
She was deputy secretary of governance at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, overseeing parliamentary processes, while crossbench MPs negotiated with Labor and the Coalition on forming a government.
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The public service had to treat both Tony Abbott's and Julia Gillard's offices the same in what was essentially a caretaker period after the election. Bureaucrats also had to make sure information was developed for consideration by the Greens and the independents.
"It was coordinating that, it was quite a bit of effort across central agencies, and making sure that all the other departments still understood that they were still in caretaker mode and had to operate absolutely as per the caretaker conventions," Ms Beauchamp says.
"That was absolutely ground breaking and being in a sense the go-between, between offices and coordinating the development of information to be shared was really interesting at the time.
"It was really testing governance and making sure you treated everyone equally and fairly and transparently through that process, so it was a terrific role to have. I was lucky I was there at the time."
She also remembers working through the night earlier that year to deliver a briefing for Julia Gillard as the new prime minister, following Kevin Rudd's removal from office.
Ms Beauchamp names one regret in her career: she did not get private sector experience. Her new role working for Canberra-based government consultancy firm Proximity will give her the chance. She'll draw on her experience by helping the firm advise government clients.
Ms Beauchamp says the company, which also counts former senior public servant Kerri Hartland among recruits, aligns with her values including her commitment to the national capital.
"It's good still helping out in any way I can in terms of excellence in public administration."