Experts say the new-look line-up at the top of the Australian Public Service points to an agenda of reforming the federal bureaucracy.
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The Prime Minister on Wednesday announced four new faces were joining the top ranks of public officials, in addition to his pick of Professor Glyn Davis to head the Prime Minister and Cabinet department, and the return of Dr Gordon de Brouwer into a newly created role of Secretary for Public Sector Reform.
Former public service commissioner Professor Andrew Podger said the appointments suggested major changes were being considered by the Albanese government, and in particular Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher.
"The signs are there that they are serious about doing something substantial," he said.
Both Professor Davis and Dr de Brouwer were on the panel of six experts that co-wrote the 2019 report for the Independent Review of the APS.
"When you add also Jenny Wilkinson, the new head of Finance, and Peter Woolcott as the APS Commissioner, Katy Gallagher is in a very good position to look at public service reform," Professor Podger said.
He suggested four areas where the Albanese government might be looking at reforms include updating the Australian Public Service Act and even changing the role of the public service commissioner in senior appointments, reforming remuneration and APS conditions, updating how the public service is budgeted in the future and reforming the way political and parliamentary staffers are managed.
"You pull those together and you can have quite a substantial, useful agenda," he said.
The new appointments, which include Jim Betts to lead Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, Jan Adams in Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Natalie James in Employment and Workplace Relations, also come with some departures.
Of the four departing departmental heads, two are former political staffers of the previous Coalition government - Phil Gaetjens, Scott Morrison's former chief of staff, who stepped down from his role leading the Prime Minister's department when Mr Albanese took office and Mr Atkinson, once a chief of staff to former Liberal minister Mathias Cormann.
Finance head Rosemary Huxtable's retirement had been expected regardless of who won the election.
Kathryn Campbell, however, was seen as someone with a short expiration on her time in the role as secretary of DFAT if Labor won government, as it did in May.
Ms Campbell in a previous role was the architect of Centrelink income averaging program unofficially called robodebt and ruled unlawful by the Federal Court. She will be taking up a senior appointment in the Defence portfolio in an AUKUS-related role where she is also holds a senior Army Reserve rank.
Government Services Minister Bill Shorten, a fierce critic of the robodebt program, rejected suggestions on Wednesday that Ms Campbell was removed because of her role in the scandal.
It was "no night of the long knives", according to another Labor frontbencher, Senator Tim Ayres, who led the recent Senate inquiry into the public service capability and has been a critic of the nature of the relationship between the APS and the previous Morrison government.
He, along with Mr Shorten, were quick defenders of the reshuffle bringing "fresh blood".
"There are a lot of experienced faces there, current secretaries who have maintained their role," Senator Ayres said on Wednesday.
"I think we've got the balance right. No night of the long knives. No precipitous changes. It is a steady, methodical approach."
Labor was committed to a strong public service and "the right relationship" between ministers and the public service, he said.
APS department secretaries
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet: Professor Glyn Davis
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry: Andrew Metcalfe
Attorney-General's Department: Katherine Jones
Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: David Fredericks
Department of Defence: Greg Moriarty
Department of Education: Dr Michele Bruniges
Department of Employment and Workplace Relations: Natalie James (from July 11, 2022)
Department of Finance: Jenny Wilkinson (from August 9)
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Jan Adams
Department of Health and Aged Care: Professor Brendan Murphy
Department of Home Affairs: Michael Pezzullo
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts: Jim Betts (from July 11)
Department of Industry, Science and Resources: TBC
Department of Social Services: Ray Griggs
Department of Veterans' Affairs: Elizabeth Cosson
Department of the Treasury: Dr Steven Kennedy
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