The Moran Report: where have all the ministers gone?

Abstract

The relationship between ministers and public servants has been a longstanding topic among students of Australian public administration. Recent debate has centred on issues of supposed politicisation and excessive responsiveness in the APS, caused, in part, by the weakened tenure of department heads (secretaries). The recent Moran report endorses changes to the appointment processes for secretaries which are presumably designed to strengthen secretaries' independence from their political masters, but it does not refer specifically to the relationship with ministers. The report also adopts a view of citizen-centred service and strategic leadership that appears to marginalise ministers. Its approach to public sector leadership is taken from international management theory which works well in a business context and in the US government system but is less well-suited to Westminster-style systems.