New development: Reviews of public sector performance - groundhog day?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to canvass, and comment on, the main features of the recentlycompleted Review of Governance, Performance and Accountability legislation/framework atthe national level of government in Australia. Most of the Report’s 52 recommendations areprocedural and will only be discussed when they may be of particular relevance in a broadercontext. The review reported on 4 September 2018. It continues the long line of reformreports conducted over the last 30 to 40 years. However, before the review was evencompleted, the Australian government announced (on 4 May 2018) another wide-rangingIndependent Review of the Australian Public Service (APS), with a reference group ofnational and international experts having‘diverse public and private sector experience’.Some suggested that the latter review should encompass thefindings and recommendationsof the former and be considered together, particularly as the announced chair was also amember of the earlier two-person review team. While no one would question the need forcontinuous learning, the main issue is about effective implementation of agreed recommendations that would improve performance and promote greater public confidenceand trust in government.