Frank but fearful: Senior bureaucrats scared of repercussions for talking to ombudsman

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A culture of fear and secrecy gripping the upper echelons of Victoria’s public service was so pervasive that bureaucrats were reluctant to take part in the state ombudsman’s investigation into the creeping politicisation of their ranks under then premier Daniel Andrews.

In a scathing report, Ombudsman Deborah Glass recommended Victorian premiers be banned from selecting senior bureaucrats under a bold plan to restore the independence of the public service.

Former premier Daniel Andrews and Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass.Credit: The Age

Her two-year probe warned of the risk to taxpayer funds if public servants continued to be blindsided on major projects, after key figures were cut out of planning the $125 billion Suburban Rail Loop.

The findings by the outgoing ombudsman – prompted by reports in this masthead – laid bare concerns by current and former senior public officials who were “deeply troubled” by issues related to their independence and the centralisation of decision-making within Andrews’ private office.

The investigation uncovered rushed recruitment practices, opaque selection methods for senior government jobs and examples of direct appointments of former ministerial staffers into senior public service positions.

The ombudsman’s report, which focuses primarily on the second term of the Andrews government, found that the public sector had been politicised and bureaucrats marginalised.

Glass also identified a culture of fear among government employees who were expected to provide frank and fearless advice. In one example, a public official lost their job after providing candid advice to the government shortly after its election win in 2014.

“Right or wrong, there is a widely held perception among executives that speaking candidly about the government’s preferred course carries a personal cost,” the report said. “It was of significant concern that many senior officials who spoke to us – voluntarily or under summons – feared possible career repercussions for doing so.”

Another example laid bare in the report quoted one of the first callers to the investigation’s hotline as saying they were “shit scared” of upsetting the government.

“Politicisation can take many forms. It is not just the hiring of people with political affiliations. It is also the closing down or marginalisation of apolitical, independent voices,” Glass said. “A culture of fear in the upper echelons of the public sector does not support frank and fearless advice.”

The Ombudsman also found that the number of people working in the Victorian premier’s office under Andrews surged and was now equal to the combined number of staff working in both the prime minister’s office and that of the NSW premier.

While the report stopped short of accusing the government of stacking the public service with ALP operatives, Glass said that “creeping politicisation” was a reality in Victoria and required urgent attention.

Premier Jacinta Allan on Wednesday said the report had made no findings that appointments were political.

“The inferences that are being drawn by others, the speculation, the shade thrown on a very, very good and strong public sector that we have in Victoria is not just deeply unfair,” she said. “It is not founded in any evidence that is presented in the ombudsman’s report.”

The report did not name individuals but included identifying details of some public servants caught up in the probe and previously revealed by The Age. It did not directly criticise Victoria’s 300,000 public service employees.

To highlight the marginalisation of the public sector, the report charts the development of the Suburban Rail Loop. It finds it was the brainchild of Tom Considine, a senior executive at the newly formed Development Victoria agency, after he went to a conference on value capture organised by the consultancy firm PwC.

Senior public servants, including long-serving departmental secretary Richard Bolt, were found to have been excluded from consultations on the 90-kilometre orbital rail line, with the government blaming the classified nature of discussions on the need to reduce the risk of land speculation.

But Glass slammed that excuse and criticised the government for a growing trend of secrecy and an overreliance on consultants over public servants. She concluded it was eroding the checks and balances required when spending public funds.

“[The Suburban Rail Loop] was subject to excessive secrecy and ‘proved up’ by consultants rather than developed by public servants. Its announcement ‘blindsided’ the agency set up by the same government to remove short-term politics from infrastructure planning,” Glass said.

“The lack of rigorous public sector scrutiny over such projects before they are announced poses obvious risks to public funds.”

The ombudsman’s office interviewed more than 40 people and received more than 180 submissions as part of its inquiry, which also investigated hiring decisions around the Commonwealth Games and the now-dissolved Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions.

Glass recommended a new independent public service chief should appoint senior bureaucrats. She also recommended the overhaul of employment clauses which allow the government to terminate staff at short notice and improvements to minimise cabinet secrecy.

Cabinet reforms would help bring Victoria in line with other jurisdictions such as Queensland, which recently vowed to release government papers within weeks of them going to cabinet – not years.

Glass said the eight recommendations addressed the need for greater independence in the appointment of public officials and would help reduce the fear some public servants had about speaking out. “But nothing will change without a recognition at the highest levels of government that change is necessary,” she said.

On Wednesday morning, the Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary, Jeremi Moule, told staff in an email that the ombudsman’s report had found “no evidence that Victorian public sector appointments have been influenced by partisan political considerations”.

He said recommendations to improve recruitment and selection would be considered.

“It is my hope now that the ombudsman’s findings will bring to an end unfounded and unfair criticisms of Victoria’s skilled and dedicated public sector workforce,” Moule said.

“The ombudsman’s report reminds us that we must never become complacent in striving for the excellence the government and people of Victoria require of us.”

Moule said he and Glass had differing views of the role of his department, which the report said had been criticised by some staff members for its size and influence.

“I am proud of the work [the department] undertakes every day to support the premier and the cabinet in their service of the people of Victoria, and I know that you are too,” he said.

Integrity expert Michael Macaulay, from the Victoria University of Wellington, said he was surprised the Victorian public service didn’t already have an independent employer of department secretaries as is the case in New Zealand.

“For a lot of people here in Aotearoa, it just seems like normal practice,” Macaulay said, adding that cabinet briefing papers had been in the public domain in New Zealand for more than a decade.

Accountability Roundtable director Stephen Charles urged cabinet to adopt the recommendations. “Merit selection in the public service, removing ‘at will’ termination for senior public servants and a rethink of cabinet confidentiality. All those things are critical,” said Charles, who is also retired Court of Appeal judge.

The Centre for Public Integrity’s executive director, Catherine Williams, agreed. “The systemic issues which [the report] raises strike at the heart of our system of responsible government,” she said.

Australian National University professor of public policy Andrew Podger, a former public service commissioner, said the issues raised in the investigation had fermented on both sides of politics over the last two decades.

“At the very least, the proposals for a more robust appointment process for department secretaries and for a more powerful head of the public service to oversee other senior executive appointments would be important moves – even if we didn’t go the full distance of the New Zealand model.”

Opposition Leader John Pesutto on Wednesday said the report was one of the “most serious and damning” indictments yet on the state Labor government.

“If I become premier in 2026, I will lead a government that puts a premium on integrity and good governance,” he said. But the state Liberal leader stopped short of promising to enact the ombudsman’s desired reforms.

Greens integrity spokesman Tim Read said his party supported all four of the ombudsman’s key recommendations.

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