The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has criticised Prime Minister Scott Morrison's speech to the Institute of Public Administration Australia on August 19 in which he outlined his "vision" for the future of the Australian Public Service (APS).聽
In his speech, Morrison said the public service is meant to be an enabler of government policy, not an obstacle, and that it needs to be more open to outsiders.
While welcoming the PM's wish to improve service delivery, the union said these aims are 鈥渁t odds with the ideological cuts to the public service this government has implemented鈥.
CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood said on August 19:聽"All our members want to make our聽services聽better for Australians. However, there are some things in the Prime Minister鈥檚 speech that don鈥檛 match the government鈥檚 own policy settings.鈥
There is deep concern among public servants that Morrison's reference to the APS being 鈥渕ore open to outsiders鈥 and harnessing the knowledge of 鈥渆xternal partners鈥 is merely code for even greater outsourcing, privatisation and staff cuts.聽
Flood said: 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 have an ideological commitment to privatisation, outsourcing, job cuts and shrinking the聽public聽service聽while expecting good advice, good聽services and enforcement of rules like those that protect us from predatory banks.
鈥淭he聽service聽delivery failures facing many Australians 鈥 people waiting for [National Disability Insurance Scheme] plans, people whose farms were devastated by imported pests, people caught up in [Centrelink] Robodebt 鈥 were caused by staff cuts.
鈥淚t is the role of government to set the policy agenda then equip the聽public聽service聽to carry it out. We can鈥檛 do the first without the second.聽
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 have it both ways: fewer staff means less work gets done."聽
A further stage in the government's attack on the public service is likely to be reached when a 12-month review into the APS, headed by former Telstra CEO David Thodey, is released later this year.