The Albanese government filled one of its most coveted and highly paid roles without the customary public disclosure just ten days before it launched political attacks on the previous prime minister for transparency failures.
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Officials in the Prime Ministers' department have claimed responsibility for the "unintended" secrecy, saying it was "an unfortunate oversight" and not a request of the government.
Greg Moriarty, secretary of the Department of Defence, was re-appointed to the $942,000-a-year role by the Governor-General on August 5 for another five-year term, the Prime Minister's office has clarified in response to a Canberra Times inquiry.
No public statement was made about the appointment until this newspaper queried the four months of silence since Mr Moriarty's term was supposed to have lapsed.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's department said there was no legal requirement for the appointment to be gazetted and placed on the public record, but acknowledged it was convention to do so.
Public administration experts say not disclosing the re-appointment and length of term breached conventions and in the Australian community's reasonable expectations of transparency.
Responsibility for ensuring governance conventions were followed was not an issue for politicians, rather it was for the Prime Minister's department to manage, said ANU's Professor of Public Policy Andrew Podger, a former public service commissioner.
"Certainly, there's an expectation and it ought to have been published. Such things should always be gazetted like any appointment or promotion in the public service as a matter of course," he said.
The failure was compared to the findings of the Bell Inquiry report into Scott Morrison's multiple secret ministries. It found PM&C officials did not inform other departments that the former prime minister was given ministerial powers over them.
A senior governance official who spoke on condition of anonymity said while the unannounced appointment was not as serious as the failure to disclose former prime minister Scott Morrison's multiple secret ministry appointments, standards of governance and transparency in the APS were falling.
"They've been falling for some time," the official said.
"Those inside the Defence department would have been told, but the statement still needs to happen. There was no reason not to make a statement [which] might have only been read by a few people anyway - this is about maintaining public confidence."
The official said this incident clashed with the Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher's calls for greater transparency from the public service.
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In her first major speech to the APS after the Morrison secret ministry scandal erupted, Senator Gallagher said she "would hope that in a few years when we look back, an increase to transparency and integrity is clear, that the sharing of information is habitual and deeply embedded as part of our culture."
Since coming into power eight months ago, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has frequently issued media releases about senior appointments to government agencies and statutory roles. One of these releases, announcing Megan Quinn was appointed to head the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, was issued on the same day as Mr Moriarty's re-appointment by the Governor General.
Mr Albanese took a hard line against his predecessor for failing to disclose five secret ministries, ordering the public release of solicitor general advice and launching the Bell Inquiry in August. On releasing the first of the reports, the Prime Minister's media release was titled "Safeguarding against 'shadow government' appointments and strengthening Australia's democracy".
The Canberra Times sought comment from Mr Moriarty and the Department of Defence.
Below are the current terms for the department secretaries, including the upcoming handover at the Department of Veterans Affairs'. Long-time secretary Liz Cosson, whose term expires this year, will be replaced by Alison Frame.
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