Independent Review of the Australian Public Service (AU0022)

Engage Australians in the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service
Commitment Start and End Date
September 2078-June 2079
Lead implementing agency/actor
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Commitment description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
The Australian public and successive Australian governments have been well served by a highly professional Australian Public Service (APS). The APS has consistently engaged with the key policy, program. service delivery and regulatory challenges of the day, and sought to understand current management. governance and technological developments.
However. new technology and global developments are transforming the Australian economy and society. This will continue and accelerate over the decades ahead. posing new opportunities and challenges for citizens. business and the broader community.
TheGovernment is determined to ensure Australia capitalises on the opportunities this provides to drive innovation. increase productivity, create jobs. improve citizens· experience of government. and deliver better services. The APS has a critical role in assisting government to manage and respond to new and emerging challenges- both in policy and implementation. But it must be best placed to harness the opportunities. with the necessary in-house capability to both develop and implement solutions.
This means improving the capacity of the APS to innovate. collaborate. and to use data and technology more effectively.
What is the commitment?
The Government has established an independent review to ensure the APS is fit-for-purpose for the coming decades. The review will examine the capability, culture and operating model of the APS and identify an ambitious program of transformational reforms.
The independent panel leading the review will consult widely, both within and outside the APS.
The panel will ensure their work is undertaken in an open and transparent manner. in collaboration with the APS and its stakeholders.
To do this. the panel will:
• encourage wide participation both within and outside the APS. and input to deliberations throughout the life of the review (including through more dynamic engagement mechanisms such as on line polls);
• utilise appropriate technologies. such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing capabilities to support timely development of insights and analysis; and
test ideas (both face-to-face and online) in an open and iterative manner.
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
Ensuring recommendations are well informed and reflect stakeholder input will maximise their impact in delivering transformational change and ensuring the APS is fit-for-purpose in 2030 and beyond.
By conducting the review in this manner. the panel will model a best practice approach and set the expectations for the conduct of future reviews.
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?
This commitment will advance the OGP values of transparency
and civic participation by:
• conducting the review in an open and iterative manner;
• facilitating informed public participation into the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service;
• improving policy development and service delivery; and
enhancing transparency around the inputs to government decision-making
Additional information
Up-to-date information on the Independent Review of the APS is available at: https:!/www.apsreview.gov.au/
Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable
Open and ongoing consultation through face-to-face and online mechanisms which. where permissible. will be published
7/1/2018 – 6/30/2019
Report delivered to government
4/1/2019 – 6/30/2019
Contact information
Contacts
Independent Review of the APS taskforce. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Email and Phone
agsreview©gmc.gov.au
Other Actors Involved
All Australian Government departments and their staff will be encouraged to contribute to the review.
The review will also engage with state and territory governments to understand their experiences of designing and implementing transformational organisational change.
Specific organisations are not currently known. but it is expected that a wide range will be consulted in the course of the review. including citizens. APS employees. community groups. business groups. public sector unions and academia.

7. Engage Australians in the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service

Commitment Text:

The government has established an independent review to ensure the APS is fit-for-purpose for the coming decades. The review will examine the capability, culture and operating model of the APS and identify an ambitious program of transformational reforms.

The independent panel leading the review will consult widely, both within and outside the APS.

The panel will ensure their work is undertaken in an open and transparent manner, in collaboration with the APS and its stakeholders.

To do this, the panel will:

• encourage wide participation both within and outside the APS, and input to deliberations throughout the life of the review (including through more dynamic engagement mechanisms such as online polls);
• utilise appropriate technologies, such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing capabilities to support timely development of insights and analysis; and
• test ideas (both face-to-face and online) in an open and iterative manner.

Milestones:

• Open and ongoing consultation through face-to-face and online mechanisms which, where permissible, will be published
• Report delivered to government

Start Date: September 2018                                                                 End Date: August 2020

Editorial Note: This is a partial version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text, see the Australia National Action Plan available at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Australia_Action-Plan_2018-2020.pdf.

Context and Objectives

The Innovation and Science Council, established in 2015 as part of the government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda, [48] produced a strategic plan for Australia’s innovation, science, and research system. That plan, Australia 2030: Prosperity through Innovation, [49] identified the need for the public sector to work more flexibly across industries and to significantly improve its policy and service delivery, including using digital technology. The plan recommended the federal government review the Australian Public Service (APS) to enable it to play a greater role in innovative policy development, implementation, and service delivery. [50]

In response, [51] the federal government established a process to independently review the APS’ capability, culture, operating model, performance evaluations, and governing legislation, particularly noting “how it ensures the transparent and most effective use of taxpayers’ money in delivering outcomes.” [52] According to the terms reference, the review panel would “consult widely, both within and outside the APS, including … a reference group of eminent individuals with a diverse range of domestic and international, public and private sector expertise.” [53]

Noting that the inclusion of this commitment in the action plan pre-dates completion of the APS review, this commitment aimed to encourage wide public participation in the APS review and the testing of ideas in an open and inclusive manner. It is therefore relevant to the OGP value of civic participation. The commitment also provided for the use of technology and innovation in facilitating such participation, including the use of artificial intelligence and natural language processing capabilities to support timely development of insights and analysis.

This commitment, as written, is generally verifiable. While any report delivered to the government will not be completely verifiable until it is released publicly, the use of public consultations to inform the review is verifiable. However, beyond online polls, the commitment does not outline specific mechanisms for citizen engagement, which contributes to a lack of specificity.

If fully implemented as written, this commitment stood to have minor potential impact on the success of the APS Review through greater citizen engagement. The IRM notes, for instance, that opportunities for citizen participation in the APS Review were available prior to this commitment; the review called for submissions between 4 June 2018 [54] and 31 July 2018. [55] A group of national and international experts with diverse public- and private-sector experience was appointed on 12 July 2018. [56] This suggests that the introduction of this commitment was unlikely to significantly change existing practice. Although developments pertaining to the implementation of this commitment—i.e. during the APS review process—are beyond the purview of the IRM’s design report, the IRM recognizes that workshops for APS and members of the public, along with other opportunities for participation, took place throughout the review. [57]

The broad terms of reference governing the APS review meant that the review panel could receive submissions from across the functions and services of the APS. Given the diverse issues that were expected to arise through such a process, the influence of individual submissions is contingent on the conduct of the review and how specific issues are identified and tested. The impact of public participation on the review, at the time the commitment was included in the action plan, is therefore uncertain.

The broad scope of the APS review, and the wide range of issues under consideration, was expected to invite a large number of submissions. The success of the review in attracting submissions from a large number of persons, representing a variety of perspectives, along with evidence of effectively responding to such participation, may encourage future use of the participatory methods employed, including the use of technology.

Next Steps

The review itself was anticipated to include recommendations for implementing structural and other reforms. Going forward, due consideration should be given to monitoring and evaluation of any reforms arising from the review, including through the ongoing participation of relevant stakeholders outside of government. The government could also reflect on the success of the process of the review, particularly the impact of engagement strategies, and the technology used for developing insights and analysis.

It is also unclear how the review will impact other open government reforms. A review of federally held information-access laws, policies, and practices was part of Commitment 8 in NAP1. That commitment followed several government-commissioned reviews on information-handling by the Australian Public Service, as informed by contributions from government, business, and civil society. [58] In the following Progress Report, the IRM noted:

The need for a comprehensive review into information management and access to government information laws and practice has been widely recognised. However, given the potentially broad scope and complexity of the issues that have or might arise in any such review, a more detailed and specific program for consultation should be developed and made public, and include the identification of available resources and relationship with other OGP commitments. [59]

Similarly, Commitment 15 of the first national action plan, and Commitment 6 in this national action plan, provided a framework to improve public engagement by the federal APS. While the terms of reference for the APS review refers to the need for public engagement during its review, and briefly references the need for transparency in the use of taxpayers’ money, it does not specifically reference OGP values in reforming public service. Therefore, it is uncertain whether the APS review will impact open governance reforms.

7. Engage Australians in the independent review of the Australian Public Service

Complete.

For details regarding the implementation and early results of this commitment, see Section 2.3.

Aim of the commitment

This commitment aimed to encourage wide public participation in [the independent] APS review, test ideas in “an open and inclusive manner” and use “appropriate technologies such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing.” ^[52]

Did it open government?

Marginal

This commitment is complete. The May 2018 announcement of the APS review and the 4 June–31 July 2018 extensive online and face-to-face public submission stage both occurred before the commencement of the second action plan in September 2018. The review’s consultation report, released in December 2018, reported that engagement, including consultation on a May 2019 Priorities for Change report, included over 11,000 individuals and organisations across 400 consultations. ^[53]

The OGF was advised at its 9 October 2019 meeting that most consultation participants were from the APS. ^[54] This suggests that a significant proportion of feedback was from APS staff rather than the public, as encouraged by the commitment.

The commitment’s stated aim was also to test the use of “appropriate technologies such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing.” Officials advised the OGF that the review’s engagement “process was resource intensive but included a natural language processing capability which augmented, but did not replace, extensive data processing.” ^[55] Meeting minutes gave no further detail about the impact or value of testing these new technologies to enhance public participation in the review.

The independent review report, Our Public Service Our Future, provided no evidence that this commitment led to wider public engagement than had been already planned for the review. Although the panel asserted that the review must be grounded in evidence from listening to the Australian public, there is no evidence that this commitment led to wider public engagement. ^[56]

However, the review report promoted “an open public service,” “greater trust,” and “greater impact through genuine partnerships, with an emphasis on co-design and collaboration.” ^[57] It praised the development of a public engagement strategy and a practical APS Framework for Engagement and Participation and recommended a charter of partnerships that “can be built on work recently commissioned by [the] Secretaries Board on best-practice approaches to public engagement.” ^[58]

Delivering for Australians, the government’s December 2019 response to the APS review, agreed in part to this recommendation: “Rather than agree [to] a new framework like the proposed Charter of Partnerships, the APS will apply the recently-agreed APS Framework for Engagement and Participation to support genuine collaboration with Australians in designing better services and finding solutions to policy problems. Application of this [f]ramework will be monitored through individual and agency-level performance.” ^[59]

Government’s public adoption of the framework (i.e., Commitment 6) sets the scene for changes in APS public engagement practice. OGF members reported that the advice was well aligned but felt that there was a gap between this advice and the government’s resistance to co-design. ^[60]