What it means to be a frank and fearless public servant

(L-R): Cath Ingram FIPAA, Deanne Allan, Penny McKay, Andrew Metcalfe AO, Kylie Crane

On 3 November, we held a panel discussion about what it means to be a frank and fearless public servant. Cath Ingram FIPAA, IPAA ACT board and council member, and chair of the Finance, Risk, and Audit subcommittee, led the discussion with Andrew Metcalfe AO, former secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and IPAA National President; Kylie Crane PSM, deputy secretary at the Department of Education; Penny McKay, Deputy Commonwealth Ombudsman; and Deanne Allan, director at the Attorney-General's Department.

Here are some of the key points from today's event:

There is little point in frank and fearless advice if it’s not received or understood
The environment that is created sets the scene
Be candid and choose your moment
When delivering bad news, have a plan on how to tackle the issue
Tact and bravery can be done by anyone
Challenge yourself with small goals and build on it
Ethical and moral dilemmas come in shades of grey, you need to take a breath and work through them
Declare conflicts of interest
Have a relationship of trust with a person
Don’t shoot the messenger
Written advice is far more readily available
Ministers’ offices are aware that advice that is being sent to them might become public
Complaints should filter through to the business areas so they can learn
The world has become more intolerant of things going wrong
You can’t eliminate risk
There should be formal training for public servants on how to be frank and fearless