Andrew Podger
Andrew Podger is honorary Professor of Public Policy at The Australian National University, and former Australian Public Service Commissioner and Secretary of the Departments of Health and Aged Care, Housing and Regional Development, and Administrative Services. He was national president of the Institute of Public Administration Australia from 2004 to 2010, and a member of the foundation board of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2004, and has written extensively on social policy including health financing, retirement incomes and tax and social security, and on public administration.
Andrew's recent articles
23 April 2025
If I were the minister assisting the PM on the public service …
Before any new ministry is announced, the current minister, Katy Gallagher, or the shadow minister, Jane Hume, should provide early advice to the prime minister-elect on the structure of his ministry and the machinery of government.
18 March 2025
Figuring out China: It’s still complicated
I visited Beijing in December for the first time since COVID, at the invitation of Renmin University and the Beijing Municipal Government. As well as attending the major conference they were hosting, I was keen to catch up with members of the network of public administration scholars I had helped to establish 15 years ago.
21 February 2025
At last: A serious attempt to fix retirement phase of super
Last year’s Treasury Discussion Paper, The Retirement Phase of Superannuation, highlighted the emphasis that has been placed on the accumulation phase of Australia’s superannuation system, and the continued slow progress on the retirement phase, 30 years on from the system’s creation. Sadly, the government’s timid response in November to Treasury’s suggestions and the wealth of submissions its review attracted demonstrated once again unwillingness to bite the bullet and ensure the system actually meets its objective of delivering income for a dignified retirement.
31 January 2025
The APS has more work to do to address Robodebt revelations: Review of Mean Streak by Rick Morton
Towards the end of his book, after referring to the NACC initial decision not to investigate alleged misbehaviour and to the completion of the APSC’s code of conduct investigation, Rick Morton states: ‘a large group of the senior management of the Australian Public Service … would like that to be the end of things, as if robodebt was the result of a few bad actors and not the inevitable crisis that springs from a sclerotic institution.’ It is a conclusion that, sadly, I largely agree with.
24 January 2025
Albanese squibs on APS independence: Can the crossbench force genuine reform?
While the Albanese Government has made some progress in rebuilding APS capability, it has dropped the ball on restoring the degree of independence it promised. Moreover, because so little of what it has done has been legislated, almost everything of consequence could be quickly undone by a future government. For genuine and lasting reform, we must therefore turn to the crossbench to insist on appropriate legislation by the next Parliament.
20 December 2024
Finding a fair and productive level of inequality: A review of Battlers and Billionaires by Andrew Leigh
When I met Andrew Leigh before his ‘Meet the Authors’ discussion of this new edition of his book, I had to ask him, ‘how on earth do you do this?’. Lyn Hatfield Dodds who moderated the discussion opened with the same question.
5 December 2024
Why the Productivity Commission is kidding itself on childcare
A more robust analysis by the commission might have yielded different priorities or recommendations for childcare.
27 November 2024
COVID 19 Response Inquiry Report: A comprehensive review despite its limited terms of reference
My recent review of the book, Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism, by Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden (H&H) highlighted its ‘convincing, frank and honest account’ in just over 200 pages, and encouraged the Health Department in particular to listen to its lessons. The official COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report by Robyn Kruk, Catherine Bennett and Angela Jackson ( KB&J) may lack H&H’s punchiness but is an equally impressive document that deserves careful reading not only by Health but across the Commonwealth and the States.
25 November 2024
Health Department: Listen to these lessons from our COVID 19 experience
A review of Steven Hamilton and Richard Holden, Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race, UNSW Press
19 November 2024
‘Fairness and balance’ in P&I reporting on the Middle East
Discussion about the Middle East is difficult. Conflicting views are deeply held and even reasonable people struggle to speak, and to listen, dispassionately and with respect.
24 September 2024
The APSC’s Robodebt code of conduct inquiry: too little, too late and not convincing
Those thousands of Australians so terribly damaged by Robodebt are unlikely to be satisfied by the Robodebt Centralised Code of Conduct Inquiry Report or the associated statement last Friday by the APS Commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer. Nor should the public service or the general public. Nor even those who were investigated.
2 September 2024
NSW dilutes protection against politicisation
NSW, like Victoria before it, is demonstrating once again that the dangers of politicisation do not lie with just one side of politics.
2 August 2024
APS integrity reforms could have a big impact
There is reason to believe that genuine integrity reform – even just insistence on obeying the law - would have a big impact. Not just on the operation of the APS but on the Government, the Parliament and the Australian public.
11 July 2024
A serious reform package that should attract wide support
The proposals set out in the discussion paper released last week are intended to offer a coherent and comprehensive package to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and capacity of the APS and its integrity. The burning platform of Robodebt and other recent public administration failures provide this once-in-a-generation opportunity for genuine and lasting reform, one that must not be missed.
5 July 2024
Restoring integrity to the Australian Public Service
The purpose of this paper is to help promote discussion about the ways in which the efficiency, effectiveness and capability of the Australian Public Service (APS) and its integrity can be improved, and the standing of the APS as a key institution in Australia’s democratic system can be restored.
4 May 2024
Pezzullo and Campbell demonstrate the need to review the APS values
Mike Pezzullo’s mea culpa should convince no-one that he understands the seriousness of his breaches of the Code of Conduct or the responsibilities that go with being a departmental secretary.
17 March 2024
Changing mindsets: From wealth creation to delivering retirement incomes
Australias superannuation system is based upon defined contributions, largely because that avoids the main weakness of many overseas systems based on defined benefits of rising costs for future generations.
2 March 2024
Accountability demands putting it in writing
The APS Commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, included some surprising comments when speaking at The Mandarins Rebuilding Trust and Integrity in the APS conference last week.
6 February 2024
Albaneses proposal doesnt fix bracket creep for low income earners
The Albanese Governments proposed change to the Stage 3 tax cuts is clearly a broken promise; or, put another way, where was the political courage to offer an alternative when Stage 3 was announced (well ahead of the 2022 election)? But for the purposes of this analysis, lets put those genuine integrity issues aside.
22 December 2023
Holding senior public servants to account
A central question the Joint Committee on Public Accountability and Audit is pursuing in its inquiry into probity and ethics in the Commonwealth public sector is how to hold individual public servants to account for the failures so often being found in ANAO reports and those of other inquiries. Must we have a Royal Commission before individuals are identified and held to account?
13 December 2023
Politicalisation is a bipartisan problem: Victoria's Labor Government joins the club
The most disappointing part of the Victorian Ombudsmans report on alleged politicisation of the public sector is the nothing to see here response by the Secretary of the Premiers Department, Jeremi Moule. Perhaps this is not surprising given Victoria, like so many other jurisdictions in recent years, has appointed someone closely associated with the First Minister and the current Government to head the First Ministers Department and take on the formal role of head of the public service.
12 November 2023
Serious reform now firmly on the agenda
The good news from Katy Gallaghers second progress report on APS Reform presented at ANU last week is that there will be a second Public Service Act Amendment Bill in the new year containing much more substantive reform than the disappointing Bill before the Parliament at the moment.
15 October 2023
The Pezzullo affair: Time to clarify APS values and responsibilities
Glyn Davis may have been shocked by the Pezzullo revelations but, as several other observers have noted, many other people inside and outside the public service were not really surprised.
14 October 2023
Engaging with China despite rising tensions
The challenges of engagement when international tensions rise go beyond defence and security considerations. The benefits, however, are vitally important and deserve continued investment. It is essential therefore to consider carefully the terms of engagement the sometimes conflicting principles that should guide engagement.
25 September 2023
Pezzullo story points to serious systemic problems in the APS
The revelations in the Nine newspapers that Mike Pezzullo, secretary of the powerful Home Affairs department, shared with Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs are certainly extraordinary. But, just like the revelations about Robodebt from the royal commission, they must not be treated as an isolated case but as evidence of serious systemic problems in the Australian Public Service (APS).
5 September 2023
MOP(S) Act Amendment Bill: Much to commend but critical omissions too
There is a lot more substance to the Members of Parliament (Staff) Amendment Bill now before the Parliament than the Public Service Act Amendment Bill. But, once again, a key reform proposed by the Thodey Review and endorsed by the Robodebt Royal Commission is missing.
30 August 2023
Balancing responsiveness and independence: Another view
Frank and fearless advising is certainly a function of character as Peter Shergold said in 2007, a line Mike Keating endorses in his recent article in Pearls and Irritations, but I still believe firmly that it is also a function of the limited tenure of departmental secretaries as I argued with Shergold in the pages of the Australian Journal of Public Administration.
8 August 2023
Merit is the forgotten fundamental APS value
It is dispiriting that the Public Service Act Amendment Bill now before the Parliament says so little about merit. Nothing about secretary appointments and terminations and only a minor grammatical change to clarify that ministers are not able to direct agency heads about individuals employment.
29 July 2023
Campbell's AUKUS appointment was probably justified
Criticism of Kathryn Campbells appointment a year ago to a $900,000 a year job to assist with implementation of the AUKUS agreement is mostly based on hindsight following the adverse comments about her performance in DHS and DSS by the Robodebt Royal Commission. To be fair to those who made that decision, it is important to disentangle the different issues involved and to consider what information was available to them at the time.
13 July 2023
Accountability of the Public Service: The Robodebt Royal Commission highlights personal responsibilities
The Robodebt Royal Commission makes clear that the APS Value, accountability, is not just aspirational: individual public servants have duties and failing to meet them should have serious consequences.
21 June 2023
Refer the Public Service Act Amendment Bill to a Senate Committee
Last Thursday (14 June), the Government tabled its Public Service Act Amendment Bill 2023 in the House of Representatives. The Bill is almost exactly the same as the exposure draft which was released by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on 22 May with consultation ending on 31 May.
3 June 2023
Consultants like PwC are loyal to profit, not the public. Governments should cut back on using them
ThePwC scandalreveals appalling behaviour by an individual consultant and his company that provided consulting services to the federal government.
1 June 2023
Governments response to Thodey: long on rhetoric, short on substance
My recent stocktake of the state of play on implementation of the Thodey Report recommendations was written just before PM&C released details of proposed changes to the Public Service Act with an exposure draft of the legislation and an exposure draft of explanatory materials. Extraordinarily, consultation on the changes ends on 31 May but these documents were only released on 22 May (a brief consultation paper was released on 3 May).
28 May 2023
Thodey recommendations a year into Albaneses watch
At his valedictory event, former APS Commissioner, Peter Woolcott, suggested that the Government and APS leadership were now pursuing Thodey on steroids. Some have endorsed that view referring to the partnership between Glyn David and Gordon de Brouwer as the dream team, now further consolidated by de Brouwers appointment as the new APS Commissioner.
23 May 2023
Tax cuts and JobSeeker a different view
There is understandable disappointment that the Government did not do more to improve the adequacy of JobSeeker, with many highlighting how this could have been done by scrapping the Stage 3 tax cuts. But the revenues from scrapping Stage 3 are not as great as most commentators suggest; and, though the Budgets welfare measures provide some welcomerelief, they leave fundamental problems in the structure of the welfare system and add to its complexity one of the many issues that contributed to Robodebt and the difficulties welfare recipients have in dealing with Centrelink.
1 May 2023
A comprehensive approach to APS values and codes of conduct
In a recent submission to the Department of thePrime Minister and Cabinet's (PM&Cs) public service reform team, Paddy Gourley, Helen Williams and I support stronger action to improve the capability of the APS and its standing as an institution, but do not support adding stewardship to the APS Values. Stewardship is a responsibility of ministers and senior public servants, not a value that every public servant can be expected to uphold.
16 April 2023
Super tax concessions dont cost $45 billion a year and wont cost more than the pension
You may haveread this weekthat Australias super tax breaks are excessively generous (well beyond any plausible purpose) and that their costs unsustainable.
15 February 2023
Fixing APS remuneration will be a long journey
Katy Gallaghers recent rejection of an ATO supported pay increase was entirely justified if the Government is to move away from agency-based remuneration to an APS-wide approach.
2 January 2023
Media professional standards test falls short. Will the government act?
Treasury may consider the news media professional standards test is adequate, but hopefully the Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and her department think differently.
17 December 2022
Action on the Jenkins Report: good progress on behaviour, but more needed on institutional issues
It is now a year since the Jenkins Report on parliamentary standards was published. With the release last week of the Final Report of the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards with its proposed codes of conduct, and the Review of the MOP(S) Act by PM&C reporting earlier in November, we now have the wherewithal to implement all the Jenkins recommendations.
7 December 2022
Whitlam strengthened the public service. Can Albanese do the same?
The Whitlam government fostered a great strengthening of the public service and its policy capacity. Sadly, much of that has been lost with the excessive political controls of more recent governments. Can the Albanese Government reverse some of the decline?
30 November 2022
The Bell report: another mark against the APS leadership
The APS needs leadership that acknowledges the failures of recent years and reminds everyone, from top to bottom, that it is there to serve not only the Government but also the Parliament and the Australian public.
27 November 2022
Matching pay and responsibilities: are secretaries paid too much?
As the Government begins the difficult task of repairing the Australian Public Service (APS) pay and classification system, it also needs to change the membership of the Remuneration Tribunal then ask it to review secretaries pay having greater regard for their public sector roles and responsibilities. For too long the Tribunal has relied upon private sector comparisons and practices.
9 November 2022
An opportunity to clarify parliamentary roles and responsibilities
The Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards has been charged with developing a code or codes of conduct for people working in the Parliament. While the context is to address the bullying and harassment behaviour revealed by the Jenkins Report, the Committee also has the opportunity to articulate through values statements and codes of conduct the respective roles and responsibilities of the different groups of people who work in the Parliament.
5 November 2022
The Budget and the APS
The budget papers reveal considerable action to progress the Albanese Governments APS reforms recently set out by Katy Gallagher. However, not all of the budget measures are clear yet, some are questionable and there remain important measures still to be pursued.
18 September 2022
NSW Inquiry into Trade Commissioner appointment has lessons beyond NSW
The former NSW Public Service Commissioner, Graeme Head, provided the Premier with a most carefully considered report on the processes leading to John Barilaros appointment as Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner.
4 August 2022
Politicisation in Australia A problem that crosses jurisdictions and parties
The striking evidence of politicisation of public services in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, after the evidence about the Commonwealth, demonstrates that the problem is pervasive across Australian jurisdictions and is not restricted to one side of politics.
26 July 2022
The Gaetjens valedictory
I do not know the former Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Phil Gaetjens personally, but others who do and whose judgment I respect have long told me of his competence as both an economist and a manager.
7 July 2022
Reforming the MOP(S) Act and the conduct of ministerial advisers
While the introduction of the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act back in 1984 did thwart an attempt at the time to allow political appointments into the APS and regularised the employment arrangements for the growing numbers of staff of ministers and MPs, the Act has not been reviewed since.