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Last updated: 6 May 2009
APS Values and Code of Conduct in practice
Section 4: Personal behaviour
Chapter 15: APS employees as citizens
Relevant Values and elements of the Code of Conduct
APS Values
- The APS is apolitical, performing its functions in an impartial and professional manner.
APS Code of Conduct
- An APS employee, when acting in the course of APS employment, must treat everyone with respect and courtesy, and without harassment.
- An APS employee must disclose, and take reasonable steps to avoid, any conflict of interest (real or apparent) in connection with APS employment.
- An APS employee must use Commonwealth resources in a proper manner.
This chapter sets out a general approach to help APS employees decide on the proper course of action in various circumstances. Usually, the decision will be a matter for judgement.
Participating in political activities
It is quite acceptable for APS employees to participate in political activities as part of normal community affairs.
APS employees may become members of or hold office in any political party.
APS employees, whether or not they are members of political parties, are expected to separate their personal views on policy issues from the performance of their official duties. This is an important part of professionalism and impartiality as an APS employee.
Where an APS employee is involved in publicly promoting party or other views on certain issues, and where their duties are directly concerned with advising on or directing the implementation or administration of government policy on those issues, there is potential for conflicts of interest.
Employees of the Australian Electoral Commission
Commonwealth anti-discrimination legislation prohibits discrimination against a person on the ground of political opinion. The legislation generally permits exemptions, however, where action that might otherwise amount to discrimination is deemed essential to meet the requirements of the job. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) exemption relates to the importance of the Commission being, and being seen to be, politically neutral. All AEC recruitment and selection advertising and selection criteria contain the statement 'the AEC operates in a politically sensitive environment. Any person who is, and is seen to be, active in political affairs, and intends to publicly carry on this activity, may compromise the strict political neutrality of the AEC and cannot be considered for this position'. All employees sign a declaration of political neutrality on engagement.
Wearing or displaying political material while working
While it is important for a reasonable tolerance to be exercised towards the expression of different political opinions, APS employees should be aware that wearing or displaying political material at work could create disharmony in the workplace. At the same time, APS employees should remember the APS Code requires them to treat their colleagues with respect and courtesy and without harassment.
If an APS employee's duties involve direct public contact, it is not appropriate to wear or display political material while working. It may give the impression that the agency endorses the political material. In some circumstances, it may create doubts in the minds of some clients as to whether their queries or applications will be handled impartially.
Political campaigning and fund raising
Some APS employees choose to campaign for candidates for political office. The role they play may range from handing out how-to-vote cards on election day to other activities with a higher profile.
If an APS employee has a significant role in a political campaign, there is potential for a conflict of interest between taking a position on issues and impartially performing their official duties. The conflict should be discussed with management. Ways of resolving such conflicts might include the employee taking leave, rearranging existing duties, or transferring to other duties, or agreeing to take a less significant role in the political campaign.
If an APS employee is involved in political campaigning, they should make it clear they are not undertaking these activities as part of their official duties. For example, they should not wear an official uniform at party political meetings. APS employees should not use government resources including email, telephones, photocopies, and facsimile machines for any political activity.
An APS employee may apply to take leave without pay, annual or long-service leave to assist with an election campaign.
Standing for Parliament
Section 44 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act provides that any person who holds any office of profit under the Crown: 'shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives'.
The High Court, in its decision in Sykes v. Cleary ((1992) 176 CLR 77), held that section 44(iv) disqualified State and Commonwealth public service officers from being chosen or sitting as a Senator or Member. In Free v. Kelly ((No. 2)(1996 138 ALR 649), the High Court found the successful candidate, employed by the Australian Defence Force at the time of her nomination, ineligible to sit as a Member because she held an office of profit under the Crown.
This means that APS employees would need to resign before being able to nominate as candidates.
It would appear that a person who did not resign from the APS before nominating for election to the Federal Parliament would be in breach of the Constitution. APS employees who are in doubt about this should seek legal advice.
APS employees intending to stand for election to State Parliament, or the Northern Territory or ACT legislative assemblies, should seek legal advice about any legislative provisions that require them to resign from the APS.
Under s. 32 of the PS Act and Regulations 3.14–3.16, an APS employee who resigns to contest an election has the right to be engaged again in the APS as long as they resigned no more than six months before nominations closed and the application to be engaged again was made within two months of the result of the election being declared.
Standing for election for TSRA
APS employees who are Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal people living in the Torres Strait region can stand for election to the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA). However, under the provisions of section 142V of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005 , employees of TSRA must resign if they wish to nominate for election. Employees who resign to contest an election but fail to be elected are entitled to be engaged again by the TSRA on the same basis as APS employees who resign to contest seats in Parliament. Employees seeking more information on this issue should contact the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
If APS employees from agencies other than TSRA are elected to the bodies, they should seek agreement to undertake the outside employment involved and make use of leave to attend meetings or carry out the business of the Regional Council or TSRA (see also Chapter 13: Outside employment).
Participating in local government activities
Apart from the matters dealt with below, there is nothing to prevent APS employees from holding office in local government organisations. It is not necessary to resign to stand for election to a local government body.
If an APS employee holds office in, or is employed by, a local government body then agency arrangements concerning outside employment apply (see also Chapter 13: Outside employment). APS employees should take care when considering, or commenting on, political or social issues related to their local government role, to ensure it does not conflict with their official duties.
Participating in union activities
Under the Workplace Relations Act 1996, APS employees are generally subject to the same workplace relations arrangements as the wider community. They are free to choose whether to join or remain a union member. There is no restriction on which union they may join, or the level at which they participate in union activities. APS employees taking part in trade union activities, for example as officers or delegates of a trade union, must uphold the APS Values and comply with the Code of Conduct, including when making public comment (see Chapter 3: Managing official information).
Official and unofficial use of blogs
Blogs are websites that post information or opinion on various issues that are open for comments. Some blogs are maintained by media organisations (including Fairfax, News Ltd and ABC) while others are established by organisations, private individuals or community/non-profit bodies. The use of blogs by APS employees falls into two basic categories:
- the official establishment and/or use of blogs to advertise, explain and provide information on Government policies and programmes
- the private use of blogs by individual APS employees.
The official use of blogs comes under the general policy guidelines on agency advertising campaigns and the involvement of APS employees in it. These guidelines comprise the Guidelines on campaign advertising by Australian Government departments and agencies (Department of Finance and Deregulation, June 2008) and Chapter 5 of this guide.
The core theme underlying these policies is that agency advertising and information campaigns must not advocate, or be seen to advocate, a party political position. The Commission’s guidelines incorporate and emphasise the Government’s policy not to use public servants in Government advertising unless that role is essential in the communication of an important message on an issue such as public health or similar.
In relation to the private use of blogs by APS employees, the fundamental principle here is that it should not be done in the APS’s time using the APS’s resources. Private blogging at work is a prima facie breach of s 13 (8) of the APS Code of Conduct: ‘an APS employee must use Commonwealth resources in a proper manner’. Moreover, APS employees blogging from work are easily identified by their email addresses and this sort of information has on occasions been used by some blogging sites to embarrass State public sectors.
APS employees blogging in their own time using their own resources are covered by the same broad principles as other APS employees who comment in a private capacity on public issues, namely that they are entitled as citizens to do so, but they must avoid comment that might be interpreted as an official statement on behalf of their agency or that compromises perceptions of the employee’s ability to do his/her job in an unbiased or professional manner. More information and advice on this matter is contained in Chapter 3: Managing official information.
One issue that needs to be borne in mind with blogs is that they are often unmoderated and so the potential for offensive remarks and opinions is therefore greater than many other forms of public expression. APS employees must comply with s 13(11) of the APS Code of Conduct, ’An APS employee must at all times behave in a way that upholds the good reputation of the APS‘. A person who could be identified as an APS employee and who posted offensive, racist or obscene material on a blog could be in breach of this section of the Code in much the same way as, say, a person wearing an agency uniform or badge who shouted offensive, racist or obscene material in public could be in breach. The issue would need to be considered on a case by case basis and clearly the more senior the employee the greater the possible damage to the APS’ reputation.
Many people blog anonymously or use a non-de-plume and it would be harder to make a case for a breach of the Code if an APS employee could not be publicly identified as such. This is an issue that would need to be considered on a case by case basis, particularly as there may be freedom of expression implications. Of course, employees should not even blog anonymously using the APS’ time and resources.
