Robodebt: Can the APS value of stewardship help reform the rot that saw a social welfare program go to the dogs?

--A feature story for the The Mandarin | Robodebt: Can the APS value of stewardship help reform the rot that saw a social welfare program go to the dogs?

Dr Gordon de Brouwer has been left holding the mop to clean up all the things the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme has shown must change in the public service.

Having been appointed by the new Labor government to focus on public sector reform as a secretary within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet shortly after an election won, with a promise to the Australian people that it would set up the royal commission into the illegal scheme, the need for some internal tetris to get the APS back on track and focused on all that it can be has been a known element of his job description.

The 2019 Thodey review, of which de Brouwer and the now-boss of PM&C Professor Glyn Davis were expert panel members, is an oft-cited blueprint for what an effective, responsive APS of the future can and should be.

Public service minister Katy Gallagher made her immediate reform priorities known to de Brouwer when he was appointed last year: she wanted to build an APS that delivered better outcomes for the community, acted as a model employer, and contributed to building a fairer and more inclusive Australia.

“Public service is one of the critical pillars of political integrity — it must be empowered to be honest and truly independent, to defend legality and due process, and to deliver advice that the government of the day might not want to hear just as loudly as the advice that we do,” Gallagher told an audience of public servants last October.

“My intention is to implement enduring reforms that would require a conscious and public decision should any future government want to wind them back. At its heart, this is about restoring the public’s trust and faith in government and its institutions — in the APS,” she said.

It would be fair to say that these goals and the aspirational vision of Thodey for the APS run counter to the kind of decision-making and obfuscating going on within the Department of Home Affairs (DHS) – now known as Services Australia — which permitted the robodebt fiasco to run rampant for three years, and with a long period of denial and cover-up to follow.

DHS became Services Australia in May 2019, falling under the ministerial responsibilities of former government services minister Stuart Robert. At the time, then-prime minister Scott Morrison declared he wanted to see the MOG bust the congestion of “bureaucratic bottlenecks” by making better use of technology and better-integrating service delivery across different portfolios.

‘Integrity’ and ‘stewardship’ have become lightning-rod concepts for Gallagher’s APS reform agenda. Given the long shadow that robodebt cast on the reputation of all public servants, even before the royal commission, it’s safe to say that is no coincidence.

The government’s commitment to establishing a National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), which is now operational, is also a significant driving force behind this pro-integrity thinking.

Dr de Brouwer’s mission as a much-needed reform guru sharpened when he took the reins of the Australian Public Service Commission from Peter Woolcott in May.

He recently apologised to the community about the role of the public service in allowing the punitive measures of robodebt to affect hundreds of thousands of Australians, using an episode of IPAA ACT’s ‘Work with purpose’ podcast to express contrition about systemic failures in giving advice and integrity and accountability shortcomings.

Any worthwhile reflections about robodebt should put integrity and empathy front and centre, de Brouwer told the podcast.

“[To the people who are directly affected by the [robodebt] policy, I am personally deeply sorry for what the public service did to them.

“Once the findings and recommendations [of the royal commission] are out — and when we know what the judgments are, what the call is — that the public service can take responsibility for what it did, that we seek the learnings and we make the changes since we look to the future.”

The commissioner noted that robodebt exposed how the public service had “lost its soul” to a degree, as well as its focus on people. He said the royal commission’s inquiry called for a reexamination of how public servants discharged their legal and ethical responsibilities, as well as leaders at the highest level.

Systems in the APS would need to be strengthened, de Brouwer added, along with improving workforce-wide training and performance management.

“We’ll need to examine and act … to ensure that what we’ve seen so far isn’t repeated,” he said.

That was four months ago, in April.

It shows that the optics of the robodebt royal commission have been so bad for the APS that a seasoned leader like de Brouwer knows contrition and accountability needed to be forthcoming sooner rather than later.

Three months before Catherine Holmes’ final report was handed to the government, in fact. The report is due to land on Friday.

But the commissioner took things a step further — he suggested the issues raised by robodebt were not unique to DHS, now Services Australia, but across the public service.

It was an astounding admission for someone who works with the group of federal department leaders — the secretaries board — so closely.

Dr de Brouwer said the issues highlighted by robodebt were known problems, although not quite “intrinsic” ones, and reinforced the need for reform.

“What robodebt has captured are things that people can see across the service in general.

“It comes down to the nature of how you provide advice — ‘how much do you have to deliver?’ as opposed to thinking about ethical issues — those sorts of elements,” he said.

Dr de Brouwer was careful to be seen as a champion of the public service, stressing that many mandarins took their job very seriously and acted with the utmost integrity.

“It’s an existential thing. The things that define a public servant, that differentiate them, are often that they’re deeply driven by public value and public purpose, and they do that with integrity,” he said.

Speaking to The Mandarin, de Brouwer said the pros of having a body like the NAAC to foster a pro-integrity culture and codified values was that they served as enablers for people who were minded to do the right thing. These measures were not regarded as extra burdens or could be easily disregarded as optional considerations.

“They’re actually an enabler of sustained delivery, rather than a constraint or something to stop you or, or a negative force,” de Brouwer said.

“Most people — the vast majority — will want to do things with evidence, they want to provide evidence based-policy, they want it to be open, they want it to draw in a range of views, they want to engage and talk with people with respect, they want to be treated with respect,” he said.

Drawing a comparison to the way risk management tools helped public servants navigate complexity, these tools were intended to facilitate and make integrity decisions easier.

“It helps you do your job, and it’s a way of doing it. And it’s the same with risk — when people talk about ‘how do you identify risk?’.

“Risk management processes aren’t all a way to stop you. They provide guidance of ‘what are the things you need to manage in order to achieve an outcome?’. Risks can highlight where the perils are, what the pitfalls are, and [help you] manage and engage with that to ensure you’re getting the outcome that you want,” he said.

The commissioner, an economics wonk, is a mild-mannered strategist and would much rather discuss matters of substance and his long list of things to get done than air any aspects of his own personality which make him so committed to the cause.

His appetite to transform the APS’s robodebt legacy into a learning opportunity is apparent. The guy is a thinker and a doer, and has already set in motion the kind of high-level and granular conversations with APS leaders and everyone down to the frontline of service delivery.

Runs on the board for de Brouwer’s reform agenda include legislative changes to the Public Service Act to include stewardship as a sixth APS value, a five-year vision for the APS in the form of a purpose statement currently going through consultation and to go to a staff vote in August, regular insights reports commissioned by the secretaries board, and a laser focus on capability and workplace conditions to emphasise — just to name a few.

Delivering his first address as commissioner in June, de Brouwer warned a public service audience that the reform journey was never-ending. Getting the bureaucracy to a standard that meant it was fit-for-purpose would also take at least 10 years, he added.

“We get things wrong at times, and sometimes seriously bad. There’s a long history of reports and some recent ones underway, like the robodebt royal commission, that show big failures and mistakes,” de Brouwer said.

“We have a lot to learn from these events, especially leaders — not just leaders, but especially leaders — and we’ll need to come to grips with the consequences.

“But these events do not undermine my own belief that the vast majority of public servants are good, decent people and want to do their job well,” he said.

This week in the APS, the soul searching continues.