Public Eye: What DSS thinks of Ray Griggs' headshots, inside the AEC's referendum mission, eSafety Commissioner on APS jargon

It was a discovery we stumbled across, after submitting a freedom of information request for Mr Griggs' all-staff correspondence on robodebt throughout the duration of the royal commission hearings. (Read more about that here.)

But we didn't stop there. We wanted to know what public servants in Mr Griggs' department thought of his plethora of headshots. So, we FOI'd the correspondence relating to the article we wrote on our first FOI. This is what we uncovered.

The department's FOI director revealed a crucial piece of the puzzle in the document explaining their decision to grant partial access to correspondence within Social Services.

Under the subheading "context", they detailed Mr Griggs' headshots were updated in mid-2022 to use the department's locations and backgrounds.

"Prior to this time, the Department used headshots taken prior to the secretary commencing with the department. From September 2022, these images were used in all staff communications," they explained.

And on the quantity of headshots: "The secretary chooses different images to use in context, to appropriately align with the tone and message of the communications.

"For example, an image to celebrate staff achievement should not be the same as an image to represent a more serious matter."

There were mixed reviews from staff on Public Eye's coverage. (Note: We did not request the names of non-SES staff, nor any identifying details for staff.)

"It gave me a giggle this morning," one public servant told colleagues via instant message. Another wrote: "Must be a slow news day."

This sentiment was echoed by another bureaucrat in a different group chat, who added: "How do they find these things out anyway?" We trust this public servant now knows how.

"If you look back through the all staff emails, you'll see the many moods of Ray," another public servant wrote to colleagues, in a chat which also featured memes comparing Mr Griggs to a stingray, and one poking fun at The Canberra Times for choosing to report on the issue.

In yet another group chat, someone wrote: "I'm kinda curious as to what he'd think about the article." Sadly, we didn't turn up any correspondence to answer this question.

Another bureaucrat expressed surprise that The Canberra Times had procured Mr Griggs' emails on robodebt.

"Not that there is anything to hide - Ray is always warm and articulate and encourages staff to always consider the people our policies are designed to assist," they wrote in an email.

"Then I came across the article below. People are way more observant than I am - I always read the secretary staff newsletters and have never noticed the photo changes."

That's what Public Eye is here for.

The "yes" and "no" cases for the Voice to Parliament referendum were published last week, and now public servants at the Australian Electoral Commission are furiously working to get them translated, formatted and printed.

The AEC has creative licence over the font, size and colour of the pamphlets, and Commissioner Tom Rogers gets the final say.

"These specifications are set out by the electoral commissioner and have already been decided," an agency spokesperson said.

"The specifications were distributed to members of Parliament prior to their submission of the cases to help with their preparation."

The boring versions, currently uploaded online, will be replaced soon for printing.

The AEC did not respond to questions on which font will be used, and how it was decided.

Each case now has to be translated into 35 culturally and linguistically diverse languages, which the agency says will take some time.

A "relatively small" team is working on the pamphlet process but they have the support of teams across the agency.

"We will be delivering over 12.5 million copies to households nation wide so it's a big task so we have multiple people across different business areas working on the project," the spokesperson said.

The eSafety Commission has come far since commissioner Julie Inman Grant started in 2017, but it hasn't all been smooth sailing, she told a summit held by The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday.

"The week I walked into eSafety I was handed an audit that said that half of my investigators were clinically depressed because technology was failing them," she said. She credited chief information officer Kathryn King for helping to turn things around.

"[She] helped us transform and be digitally-led internally but also externally, but that took me a long time, and as someone who came from the technology industry, into the APS ... I did not get any training, no induction.

"I didn't know what an EL1 or an SES was, when I walked in. I had to figure it all out on my own. So my first two years I just spent building, building the technology, building the government structures."

She welcomed comments from Government Services Minister Bill Shorten and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher on building technology competency within the APS.

The Department of Health and Aged Care's paused $2.3 million audit contract with embattled consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers "could be reactivated at a later time".

The contract was awarded before the firm's government advisory business was sold off. PwC was auditing the Aged Care Workforce Bonus Grant, to determine whether the correct amounts had been paid.

"The audit was paused in June 2023 to obtain additional information and assurances from PwC. This information has been received from PWC," a department spokesperson said. PwC declined to comment on the information provided.

The contract has since expired, but: "Pending satisfactory explanations of no conflicts, it could be reactivated at a later time." No other departments, nor Services Australia or the Australian Taxation Office, have reported pausing contracts with PwC.