About the Australian Public Service Commissioner

Mr Stephen Sedgwick

Mr Sedgwick has had a long and distinguished career in the public sector having served as the Secretary to the Commonwealth Departments of Finance, Employment and Education between 1992 and 2002. He became Australian Public Service Commissioner in December 2009 after a period as Professor and Director of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne.   He is a former Commissioner and Chairperson of the Industry Commission, a former senior officer of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and was the Senior Economic Adviser to Prime Minister Hawke from 1985 to 1988.

Mr Sedgwick graduated with Honours in Economics from the University of Sydney and holds a Master’s Degree from the University of London (LSE).  He was a member of the Board of the Asian Development Bank between 2002 and 2007. 

He is currently chairperson of the NSW Government Better Services and Value Taskforce; and a member of the Research and Policy Council of the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia, the Board of the Sir Roland Wilson Foundation, the Advisory Council of the ANU Crawford School of Economics and Government, and the Advisory Board for the Australian National Institute for Public Policy.

Media releases and speeches

Media releases

• Indigenous Australian Public Servants have their say

Speeches/presentations

• Launch of the 2009 Census Report—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander APS Employees - 14 July 2010
• Australian Public Service reform: The past, the present and the future - 8 June 2010
• Strategic policy development and APS values - 12 May 2010
• Australian Public Sector Reform - 6 May 2010
• State of the Service report 2008-09 - WA