Commissioner’s message
Public servants have the privilege of knowing that what we do, on a daily basis, matters because we are serving the Government, the Parliament and the Australian people. This privilege stands alongside a duty to fulfil this public role in a manner that is worthy of public trust.
One important dimension of establishing and maintaining that trust is to reflect the community which we serve, in a manner that is consistent with our formal institutional framework, and which builds our capability to perform our functions. The Public Service Act 1999 specifically requires the Public Service Commissioner ‘to foster an APS workforce that reflects the diversity of the Australian population’ (s41(2(d)).
As individuals we each bring our own self to the workplace. This is made up of many dimensions. It is also a blend of multiple and diverse experience. These dimensions and experience are based on our family backgrounds, cultures, ethnicity and ancestry, education, our local community, and our encounters with governments in the places we have travelled to, lived and worked in. The thing that we all have in common is that we share a commitment to public service, and to delivering high-quality work.
The more culturally and ethnically diverse we are, the more different our experience will be, the more varied our perspectives, the more engaged our worldviews. Such plurality of views and approaches strengthens the foundations of our thinking and reasoning, gives greater breadth to our policy debates and enriches our program implementation and service delivery. At an individual level, the better we are able to understand who we are talking with and what they are telling us, the better able we are to achieve our collective goal. Drawing on the full breadth of talent available and reflecting the people we serve, can only enhance our work and our lives.
It is fundamentally important to me that everyone in the APS can flourish, with their cultural, linguistic, racial, social or religious background, or other aspect of their self.
I encourage each and every APS employee to read this, our first APS Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Employment Strategy and Action Plan so that we can each do all that we can to make the APS a model employer and representative of the nation we serve. It will make our work better, and enable us to deliver more effectively for the Government, the Parliament and the Australian people, to fulfil our duty of service.
Dr Gordon de Brouwer
Australian Public Service Commissioner