Address in Reply

Address in Reply

Adjourned debate on motion for adoption.

(Continued from 12 February 2015.)

Mr SPEIRS (Bright) (11:02): I am delighted to see such a turnout in the audience today to hear my concluding remarks.

An honourable member: They're not here for you.

Mr SPEIRS: No, of course, they are here to hear the maiden speech of the member for Davenport. I wish to conclude my remarks on the Governor's speech by reflecting on a topic which is relevant to every aspect of his speech, and that is our state's largest employer, our Public Service. During my maiden speech I delivered a substantial statement around the dire situation facing our Public Service.

As someone who has spent several years working in the cabinet office, I reflected at the time with sadness on the hollowing out of the sector, its loss of capacity, collapse in morale and deep politicisation. This has led to an overall decline in standards and the loss of a civil service which people aspire to be part of. I uttered a statement in my maiden speech that I have made on a number occasions since: 'The good people either leave or stop being good.'

It has not got any better in the year since my maiden speech. In fact, it has got much worse. While privileged to sit in this house I hope to use my experience of the Public Service to deliver an annual statement on the state of the sector. In making such a statement, I undertake to rarely mention names of public servants outside of chief executives. I believe that the deep politicisation of the chief executive role has meant that they are today an extension of the executive and as such open to significant public scrutiny.

My great gripe with the Public Service is its leadership values, or lack thereof. The quality, direction, productivity and plain decency of any organisation is reflected in its values, which in turn meld together as a catalyst for an overall culture.

The culture of our state's Public Service is in a very bad way. In about 2013 the government launched values for the Public Service. The values were devised by Change@South Australia, a program that I have spoken of favourably here in the past. The values are professionalism, service, collaboration and engagement, sustainability, courage and tenacity, trust, respect, honesty and integrity. On paper they all make sense, but to give values value they need to be put into practice by all and they need to be driven from the top by ministers, chief executives and other senior leaders. This is not happening.

When looking through the public sector values, the one that is painfully missing is external empathy. I see very little empathy demonstrated by the leadership of the South Australian Public Service to South Australian communities. Instead, I see political expediency, jobs for mates, waste, spin and kowtowing to political masters.

A fortnight ago I sat in a room with Michael Deegan, the new chief executive of the transport department. Mr Deegan replaced Rod Hook as chief executive last year. It seems that for that unlucky department it is a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. We were talking about one of the biggest issues facing my electorate of Bright today, being the sound of the train horns—a strangely intractable problem given that this is 2015—which is making the lives of hundreds of residents miserable.

The effort by the department to solve this matter has been woeful. Despite hundreds of signatures on an electronic petition, many representations by community members, two meetings between me and departmental officials or the minister, there has been no improvement. What struck me—in fact, what scared me—was the dark, cold, unfeeling nature of this man. During that meeting I felt like I was in a dank cell enduring torture. The minister smiled and made friendly overtures but beyond him looming large was 'Dr No'. There, wrapped up in one place, was all that was wrong with the public sector—avoidance, unhelpfulness, icy indifference, and not one smidgen of empathy.

The politicisation of the sector is a cancer spreading from department to department, draining purpose and ambition from individual workers, and breaking down morale cell by cell. Politicisation not only creates an environment where ministers and their advisers will only be told what they want to hear, it actually creates an echo chamber where bad ideas, thought bubbles and even daydreams suddenly become reality as an eager gaggle of underqualified, overpromoted, highly politicised public servants battle out preselection and factional battles within the bureaucracy, desperate to curtsey to their political masters.

I want to share a story. In 2012 I witnessed this echo chamber firsthand when I accompanied a group of departmental executives to meet Premier Weatherill. The Premier was delivering a presentation to COAG and I had been tasked with putting it together. As we sat around the table, the Premier, cradling his cup of tea, softly uttered, 'I think we ought to mention procurement in this presentation.' It was a throwaway line. The Premier wanted a dot point, a brief reference to public sector procurement.

Next to him, Jim Hallion nodded sagely, 'Yes, Premier. Procurement, yes, procurement.' Beside Mr Hallion, another executive said, 'Yes, Premier. Procurement, yes, procurement. Procurement, that's right. It should be all about procurement.' On the other side of the table, a card-carrying ALP executive's eyes started to light up. She pulled out a texta and wrote 'YES, PROCUREMENT' in capital letters on her notepad. 'Yes, procurement, Premier,' she said. 'That is genius. The entire presentation ought to be about procurement.'

A flurry of excitement went through the room as people scrambled to their Blackberrys to send emails to subordinates. I imagined instructions landing in inboxes throughout the State Administration Centre and, before we had even left the boardroom, an order had been placed with a Chinese manufacturer for 2,000 'Jay4SA' T-shirts with the subheading 'We're all about procurement.'

This is what happens when truth to power is removed, when frank and fearless advice becomes anathema. You create an echo chamber where the whisper of a dot point becomes an entire strategy. This is where our Public Service is today, and that is broken. What happens if you push back, if you want to adhere to your values, if you want to deliver frank and fearless advice? Well, to discuss that I have to change my phrase about what happens to good people because, today in the South Australian Public Service, the good either leave, they stop being good, or they are sacked for being good.

I refer to the dismissal of a number of executives from the Department of the Premier and Cabinet last month. I knew many of those who lost their jobs. All were long-term public servants who had collective work experience stretching to a couple of hundred years. Some were better than others; some were very good, long-term, hardworking, diligent, quality public servants with decades of service.

These executives were dismissed without emotion or care. Their execution came without warning. They were marched up to the chief executive's office one morning, told that their services were no longer needed, then escorted back to their desks to collect their favourite coffee cups, and then out. No farewell morning tea, no thanks for their service, no dignity; they were treated like white-collar criminals.

'This is the way it is done in the private sector' was the propaganda sprayed through the bureaucratic corridors. Well, that is wrong. In the private sector, industry leaders understand that their employees are their greatest asset and this cruel approach would not be tolerated. I return to one of those values espoused by Change@SouthAustralia: respect. On the Change@SouthAustralia website, the 'shared organisational practices' of respect are outlined, and two of these are:

Applying empathetic people management skills to bring out the best in employees, and making the wellbeing of all staff a priority [and]

Being sensitive to the impact that decisions and policies can have on all involved, including employees and members of the community

I did not see that value demonstrated in the treatment of those sacked executives. Something is rotten in the state of South Australia, and the smell emanating from the upper echelons of the public sector would suggest that the decay starts there. Enter Kym Winter-Dewhurst, allegedly described by the Premier as his 'second chief of staff', and who comes with excellent pedigree worth, it seems, $550,000 annually. Clearly, the Premier believes that Mr Winter-Dewhurst is something a superhero when it comes to public sector management.

As we know, superheroes often have their weapon of choice: Batman has his batarangs; Captain America has his patriotically painted shield; Thor has his hammer; and Kym Winter-Dewhurst, superhero of the public sector, according to the Premier, has his trough—an iron trough, forged using BHP ore. Chained to his ankle like a medieval cilice, he drags his iron trough across the South Australian landscape, feeding his bovver girls and sycophantic geezers as they munch down his putrid, politicised swill. Snouts in the trough. Mates and buddies, captains of spin, apparatchiks and hacks.

Those further down the hierarchy, fearful for their existence, do not know what to do. They know that if they give frank and fearless advice they will be sacked, or at least not make any career progression. Yet, they joined the Public Service to make a difference; they do not agree with the politicised environment and their advice is not listened to. Do they stop being good, just doing the basics to get by, save up for their next flexiday and thank God for a job in these tough economic times, or do they simply leave and go to some workplace where their skills will be valued and where career progression can occur? Or do they realise that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and sign up for their local ALP subbranch?

Sadly, I am not sure there is any recovery plan in sight. The politicisation is becoming worse. The message to younger, upwardly mobile public servants is that they cannot be part of a frank and fearless service so they can get on the gravy train or they can get out. It is a tragedy for good government, and it is the state of our Public Service in 2015.

As I finish up, I would like to thank my staff for supporting me during my first year in parliament: my office manager, Helen Dwyer; my adviser, Ruth van den Brink; my trainee, Aric Pierce; regular relieving staff member, Raelene Zanetti; and the many community volunteers who support our cause.

It gives me great pleasure to conclude these remarks and to hand over to the new member for Davenport, a colleague and friend who I look forward to working alongside as we hold this government to account and pitch ideas for our community and state. I know he will become a vital member of the Liberal team.