Public Service Commissioner Gordon de Brouwer speaks on APS reform, robodebt and consultants

They even have the same musty smell, Gordon de Brouwer said, reflecting on the graduate program that failed to launch his public service career.

Dr de Brouwer left that Treasury role later the same year, but he did end up spending most of his working life in the federal public service.

"My brother-in-law gave me a grey cardigan for my birthday, and I wore it to work and every other guy in the office was wearing a grey cardigan," he said. "And I took it home and gave it away to the Salvos."

"I couldn't be like that, I felt homogenised and there was no respect for the individual or for not working within a particular way," Dr de Brouwer said.

"And [work] hours, which were very long hours, and not a growing culture, and to my mind, not a culture as focused on achieving outcomes, at least for me in the areas that I worked in."

Despite the early departure, Dr de Brouwer returned to the public service, working in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and serving as a secretary of the Department of Environment.

"So I didn't stay in the APS in 1987. I left and went to live overseas in Japan, but I came back to work in this APS."

This APS is one that has embraced change, he said, including through the government's reform program - a project which Dr de Brouwer has spearheaded.

"I see people so driven by purpose now.

"So driven by wanting to be the best they can in the workplace and be who they are ... and serve the government as well as they can, and the people in the Parliament, as well as they can."

His appointment to one of the federal public service's top jobs signifies a change to the role, which has absorbed reform responsibilities.

It is a natural evolution, Dr de Brouwer said: Reform rests in the institutions of state, especially with the commission, and not in one person.

Those reforms seek to champion integrity, place people at the centre of policy and services, and improve the sector's capability, as the government tries to reduce its reliance on consultants.

"It's a decade of change that we're looking at," Dr de Brouwer said, asked about the timeframe for reform.

Some bids for change are already playing out. The commission is meeting weekly with unions and agency representatives for APS-wide bargaining.

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But offers on increasing pay and fixing wage disparities between agencies have been criticised by the main public sector union for lacking ambition.

The Community and Public Sector Union has ramped up its response, applying to the Fair Work Commission for a protected action ballot in Services Australia.

"We would want to find a resolution to issues but there's bargaining in good faith under way, and I think we have to let those processes play out," Dr de Brouwer said.

Reforms to the federal government's bureaucracy are not a new concept, but are front of mind as the public service awaits the findings of the robodebt royal commission and changes the way it engages consultants in the wake of the PricewaterhouseCoopers tax leak scandal.

The public service has "no intent to hide" from the the findings of the robodebt royal commission, to be handed to the Governor-General on July 7.

"There's no running away from this, I think it's an eye-opener for the service," Dr de Brouwer said.

"Most people I've spoken to in the public service, they want to engage on it, and they want to talk about it and they want to be good public servants, better public servants as a result.

"And I think that's the same with the leadership. It's just that you can't talk about those in a lot of detail or in any detail really, until you know what they've said."

Dr de Brouwer will also have a role to play in navigating the storm still brewing around PwC, as the commission considers what it can contribute.

That involves looking at whether consultants should have to conform to the same Code of Conduct as public servants, and whether the government can regulate movement between the APS and consulting firms.

As the commission and central agencies respond to the crises of the day, they also have an eye on the horizon, working towards making the public service a "model employer".

A vision of a room full of grey cardigans is not far from the new commissioner's mind. A model employer, for him, is one that embraces individuality.

"You're enabled in your workplace to be the best you can in your professional life.

"So you're given decision-making and development and a culture, a workplace culture, that enables you to do your job as best you can.

"You can be yourself in your workplace, and that really matters, that's part of bringing everything to the workplace."

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