Verona Burgess

The qualities of the winners in this year’s PS Innovation Awards are not measured by success in the commercial market but more broadly about making improvements for the public good.

Patricia Kelly turned IP Australia from a bureaucratic backwater into one of the most forward-looking agencies in the APS.

Two senior Treasury officers have tackled the hot-button $65-billion annual impost of regulation in a personal submission to the review of the Australian Public Service, saying department heads should be legally required to clean up their stocks of red tape.

A better system is needed to acknowledge experience in a ministerial office to enable public servants to transfer back at a higher level and non-public servant staffers to have their service recognised in the APS, says Verona Burgess.

Australia is no close to deciding on let alone committing to a long-term policy for handling climate change, says Verona Burgess.

People have come to expect politicians to rort grants programs shamelessly. It is, however, the job of the APS to ensure the moneys are spent properly.

Royal commissions are a bit like senate estimates but without the party-political agendas and with far more skilled interrogators.

The exposure of jaw-dropping deficiencies in the conduct of government lawyers and senior staff with legal qualifications is most jarring.

A paper endorsed by so many senior wise heads surely requires more than passing government attention, not to mention the secretaries’ board.

Agency heads and SES who fail to identify and eradicate shadow values that have undoubtedly taken hold in parts of the APS should start to feel very afraid.