Public Eye | Julian Hill on 'tarting up' AusTender, Birmingham v Shorten on QoNs, Katy Gallagher on APS bargaining

Mr Hill was stressing the need for a more considered approach to a system which spends more than $80 billion per year of taxpayer dollars.

The chair of the Public Accounts and Audit committee also titled the 157-page review 'Commitment issues' - An inquiry into Commonwealth procurement.

"The committee secretary, Jenny Adams, who does a terrific job, was actually on leave for a few weeks in July, and I think she was horrified to come back and discover that we had in fact named the report 'Commitment issues'," Mr Hill told the House of Representatives last week.

"But the point of it is actually to signal that cultural change is needed, which means you need to get the attention of public servants and agencies if we are going to see a change in behaviour."

The damning report into procurement made 19 recommendations for reform, targeting capability in the APS, more transparency from the Department of Finance, and improvements to AusTender, the portal used to report on federal government procurement.

But Mr Hill also revealed the media release he had drafted to announce the report was censored for its tone, in what he called a government first.

"I did receive a call yesterday afternoon from the committee secretary, saying there was a big problem with the media release which we were about to issue," he told the lower house.

"I said, 'What's that'? She said, 'They're not going to put it out, because it's not in the tone of the language of the House of Representatives media'."

The member for Bruce was not discouraged, tweeting the "uncensored" version of the release out, with noticeable tweaks.

A subheading in the initial release stating "Better Match-making by Tarting up AusTender" was sanitised to become "Fixing up AusTender".

Likewise, "Take a good look at yourself!" was updated to "Internal scrutiny". And, "Panels have become an uncompetitive rort and it needs to stop!" was revised to "Panels are stifling competition and value for money".

It certainly does leave an impression.

Senate estimates nerds will be pleased to know Services Australia has tabled 275 answers to questions on notice from the May budget estimates, albeit 26 days late.

It prompted a spray from the opposition's leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, who took aim at Government Services Minister Bill Shorten for the tardy responses, in a sequel to another QoN-related spat between the two MPs earlier this year.

Senator Birmingham called it "quite remarkable" that every question remained unanswered "prior to the question being asked of the minister's office just prior to question time [on Wednesday]". He speculated the answers had been delayed in minister Shorten's office.

While some agencies table their responses in batches, it is not unusual for them to be tabled all at once.

The government's deputy leader in the Senate Don Farrell called out the Coalition for leaving nearly 1000 unanswered questions on the notice paper when they were voted out.

A spokeswoman for Mr Shorten dismissed Senator Birmingham's comments as an attempt to distract from the fallout of the unlawful robodebt scheme "with unworthy technical and partisan attacks about process".

"While robodebt architect and denier Scott Morrison remains in parliament the Liberals have no cover for their silly games," she said.

Anyway, public servants can be assured that their hard work is not going unnoticed.

The government still hasn't decided if it will bump up an offer of a 10.5 per cent pay rise over three years for the APS.

Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said there was still some more work to do with unions on the issue, speaking at an event on Tuesday.

But Senator Gallagher seemed less sure that enterprise agreements would be up and running by early 2024, the government's previous time frame.

"I think for the last couple of months, there's been some very intense negotiations, so hopefully they can conclude pretty soon."

"Admired" public servants and loyal former staffers were among those praised by Australia's 26th Prime Minister Kevin Rudd at a very well-attended who's who of Parliament House event, to unveil his official portrait by artist Ralph Heimans.

It has been 10 years since the now Australian Ambassador to the United States was prime minister and 13 years since the time before that.

While people who were there in the Rudd era might still be whirring, spinning and eye-popping from all the rush of the PM-pushed activity and reform that burst from the election in 2007, the man who was 'Kevin 07' declared for the sake of legacy he would "rather have done too much than not enough."

The appearance, in the work, of a cat stalking on a chess table, an animal first for a PM portrait, has got parliamentary denizens talking about possible symbolism. But of course, Dr Rudd is renowned for his pets. He even co-authored a book with Rhys Muldoon about them.

The former Labor leader had been studiously avoiding a sitting, but he revealed he had been repeatedly cajoled into it and eventually "vanity got the better of him".

It was pointed out to him that there was a timeline gap on the parliamentary walls as Tony Abbott's portrait is already on display. (Hello, Malcolm, you're next).

As school students looked on from above in the Members' Hall - and appropriately took selfies - Dr Rudd and his much-admired wife Thérèse Rein mingled with Anthony Albanese, Richard Marles, US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, a delegation from the United States Congress, former speaker Tony Smith, and Visy chair Richard Pratt. Also in attendance were PM&C secretary Glyn Davis, former Rudd staff, and former cabinet colleagues such as Kim Carr and Chris Bowen.

The current Prime Minister had a few things to say, including particular praise for the "pitch perfect" 2008 Apology to the Stolen Generations as a moment of national unity, but not before Dr Rudd let him know: "You were a key member of my government and you did a great job."