It's one that ministers should take more often, and not just for the health benefits. For many senior members of the Morrison government, their sources of public service advice are based in offices at Barton, including many in buildings on National Circuit.

No doubt bureaucrats visit their ministers in Parliament House. But the fact they need to might symbolise a problem, a new Grattan Institute report suggests. The physical distance between Parliament House and Barton - about 1.2km according to Google Maps - may be a symptom of what the report describes as 20 years of policy reform gridlock.

The think tank last month published a 90-page analysis of the many factors to blame for the well-documented slowdown in Australian policy reform. One of them is the public service, or more specifically, how it interacts with the government.

It's partly summed up by real estate. Ministerial advisers, who are less inclined to encourage their bosses to take political risks by advocating worthy but complex or unpopular policy, share office space with their ministers. Public servants, less likely to care about public opinion and more willing sometimes to advise reform, are in Barton, or Civic (about 3.7km from Parliament), Belconnen (12km from Parliament), Tuggeranong (20km), or farther.

"While there are far more public servants than advisers, advisers have much more regular contact with ministers," the report said.

Physical distance isn't everything. The point is, the Grattan Institute has raised some important points about the involvement of bureaucrats in policy making. Right now, it says, public servants are too far from the action.

This manifests itself in ways that don't involve office space. Many ministerial advisers are experienced only in politics, and don't know enough about the public service or its policy making value. One former public servant describes the growth in ministerial advisers during the Howard government, coinciding with the erosion of frank, fearless public service advice after John Howard sacked six departmental secretaries shortly after winning power.

Another former bureaucrat this week suggested that, to help solve the issues raised in the Grattan report, ministers operate from their permanent suites in their department's building, as they once did. They should only return to their offices in Parliament House for the entire day during sittings, the former public servant said.

Many observers and reviews have thought hard about solutions. The Grattan Institute looks to the recent major review of the public service for some. The Morrison government swiftly rejected Thodey report proposals that would have gone furthest in restoring the independence of the public service, and arguably given it more licence to advise and design policy reform that was in the nation's interests.

Among Thodey's recommendations were rules for the appointment and firing of departmental secretaries, reforms that would stop ministers sacking senior bureaucrats for doing their job creating and implementing policy under previous governments. Using more ministerial advisers who had been public servants would, Thodey said, help build trust and understanding between the two.

No need for shared offices, then. But while those Thodey recommendations gather dust, maybe a 1.2km walk says a lot about policy reform in Australia.

A version of this article appeared in last week's Public Service Newsletter. Click below to receive your weekly analysis.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: