Promotion in the Commonwealth Public Service : its development and current practice compared with those of the New South Wales and Victorian public services

Abstract

Career services with recruitment at the bottom, security of tenure and safeguards against outside recruitment had been more or less established in Victoria and New South Wales before the end of the last century and the Commonwealth service took over these traditions. Under the strong control of a single Commissioner the efficiency of officers was judged by examinations and the reports of inspectors but procedural difficulties and central control irritated permanent heads. At the same time public service associations, grown strong after gaining access to the Arbitration Court were demanding promotion appeal rights. On the recommendation of McLachlan in his Royal Commission Report, promotion power was transferred to permanent heads in the new Public Service Act of 1924 while the new Board (which replaced the Commissioner) determined promotion appeals of officers through the enquiries of Inspectors. The new Board also devised a classification of narrow salary ranges. Under the new system departments like the P.M.G's formulated their promotion procedures. But the depression greatly reduced promotion opportunity and returned soldiers were flooding the Commonwealth service under statutory preferences. The associations agitated for an appeal committee system instead of inspectorial enquiry in promotion appeals. During all these years Victoria had a single Commissioner but Ministerial control of service economy reduced his powers in practice and promotion opportunity was very low. New South Wales started with a strong Board and the Allard Royal Commission recommendations in 1918 made it stronger. Both state services suffered as much as the Commonwealth service during the depression. The second world war showed up the need for a new type of official leader ship and strengthened the service associations who won some of their demands. In the Commonwealth service, the Bailey Committee recommended enquiry in to promotion appeals by appeal committees. In New South Wales, a new open Court was created to hear appeals, while in Victoria the association succeeded in getting an independent powerful Board with a service representative. in the current period of expansion all the three services have quite high rates of promotion and the professional officers are particularly favoured in many ways. m the Commonwealth service each department has its own variations in promotion procedure; the authorities feel the need for a new concept of efficiency but there is no unified movement or direction. in all the services, employer- employee relations are smooth. The history of Australian promotion practices during all these years shows how greatly they were affected by Australian non-traditional egalitarian environs in the beginning and how much they were later influenced by changing social and political conditions such as the second world war, depression and the increasing strength of trade unions. An analysis of this history and current practices also illustrates the limitations of "general" principles of public administration when they are divorced from their social context and stage of evolution.