Public service
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State Parliament
Minister’s office pushed for former Labor staffer to get top job
Transport Minister Jo Haylen has refused to say whether former Labor staffer Josh Murray was recommended to be the state’s new Transport Secretary by a hiring panel.
- by Michael McGowan
Latest
Opinion
Opinion
Do top public servants deserve $900,000 a year? The short answer is yes
Is it ever possible to rationalise extraordinary pay packets for a few at a time when so many Australians are struggling?
- by Kirstin Ferguson
Series
The Reporter
The Reporter: True Stories
Gary Adshead’s 40-year career has been spent pursuing the truth. From crooks and crimes to state secrets and heroic rescues, we take you behind the headlines.
Robo-debt bureaucrat quits her $900k-a-year defence job
Kathryn Campbell’s resignation, effective last Friday, comes after damning findings were made against her by the robo-debt royal commission.
- by Angus Thompson
Opinion
Big four consultants
The big four are on the nose, but the stench is coming from elsewhere
If the Senate inquiry ends up targeting the practice of consulting instead of the structural rot, government agencies will lose more than the taxpayer gains.
- by Parnell Palme McGuinness
Updated
Robo-debt royal commission
Crossbench demands answers on robo-debt bureaucrat’s $900K AUKUS parachute
The robo-debt royal commission made a range of scathing findings against Kathryn Campbell, who ran the Department of Human Services when the welfare debt recovery scheme was introduced.
- by Angus Thompson
Opinion
Opinion
To be frank, our public service has been far from fearless - and well before robo-debt
Time and time again, public servants have been cowed by their political masters, even when it means breaking the law. It’s time to restore faith in our public service.
- by Tony Harris
Joyce’s relocation decision sparked agency’s downward slide: review
An independent review of the agricultural chemical regulator has issued damning findings about the forced relocation of the agency from Canberra to Barnaby Joyce’s electorate in northern NSW.
- by Mike Foley
Tony Wright’s Saturday Column
Robo-debt royal commission
How political egos led us to the shame of robo-debt
There was a time when senior public servants were called permanent secretaries. Then a series of political leaders sought to bend them to their will.
- by Tony Wright
Exclusive
Trade unions
State v state: Minns government mulls pay parity with Queensland for public sector
In a bid to halt a worker exodus, Labor has asked a new IR taskforce to consider whether public sector pay deals should be linked to what workers get across the border.
- by Michael McGowan
Honeymoon over for Minns as health workers threaten to strike over pay
A day after Treasurer Daniel Mookhey was heckled over wages at a HSU conference, delegates from the union have voted to endorse “escalating industrial action” across the state from Monday unless they receive a better pay offer.
- by Michael McGowan