Australia’s Public Sector

Fundamental to an active and effective government that is fit for purpose in the 21st century is strengthening the capabilities of our public sector. For almost three decades the skills and the capacity of the public sector has been gradually reduced across major service areas and key portfolios. What we need is better, smarter investment in our public sector to ensure they have the skill sets and tool kits to best design and deliver services across the country. In 2013 and 2014, CPD released its False Economies series exploring the impact of the blunt approach to ‘efficiency’ on the long-term capability of the Australian Public Service. In December 2015, CPD released ‘Grand Alibis: how declining public sector capability affects services for the disadvantaged’ which highlighted key challenges in improving public services for our most vulnerable citizens.