37 / 45
Two Way Governance: Presentation 10
Cabinet approves the appointment of
the department’s CEO, but the
department appoints all other staff.
Governments can change at any
election if the voters aren’t happy with
the way they are working. Governments
change when they lose their majority in
the House of Representatives.
Public service departments do not
change that much with different
governments. The Minister may want a
new public service boss but the public
servants usually stay.
However they usually change their
priorities when a new Minister tells
them to.
Old man Nugget Coombs was the head of a public service department for five
Prime Ministers over 30 years: Curtin, Chilfey, Menzies, Holt and Gorton; and
was an adviser to Gough Whitlam.