Work with Purpose: A podcast about the Australian Public Sector

The rise of cyber crime and cyber warfare have forced governments around the world to rethink how they define safety and security. With Australia experiencing a record number of cyber threats, the role of government in combatting this threat is more important than ever. In this episode of Work with Purpose, we are joined by Hamish Hansford, the First Assistant Secretary of the Cyber, Digital and T...

In our final instalment of the 2020 Retrospective Series of Work with Purpose, we give you our episode with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). In this podcast, you will hear from the CEO of ACIAR Andrew Campbell along with his incredible team. If you want to hear some inspiring stories about the APS, this is a must-listen. One might not necessarily associate an...

This week we continue our 2020 Retrospective Series of Work with Purpose. In our last episode, we re-played our episode with Professor Brendan Murphy and Caroline Edwards. This week we are giving you another opportunity to listen to our episode with the Secretary of the Treasury Dr. Steven Kennedy, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank Matt Comyn and the Senior Economics Writer for the Sydney Morning H...

This week we begin the 2020 Retrospective Series of Work with Purpose. Over the coming weeks, we will be uploading some of the podcast highlights from 2020. In this week’s episode of Work with Purpose, we re-play contentgroup CEO David Pembroke’s June interview with Professor Brendan Murphy and Caroline Edwards. He loves Italy, her mother was born in Spain. He is learning to sing; she grew up with...

Trust in the Australian Commonwealth Government has risen to new heights during the COVID-19 pandemic. With 2020 coming to a close, this podcast explores this year’s increase in political trust, and how trust levels will be shaped in the near future. In this special episode of the Work with Purpose podcast, we are joined by the Director of Democracy 2025 Professor Mark Evans. He is interviewed by...

While the Northern Territory has been comparatively free from the coronavirus, with only 53 confirmed cases, COVID-19 has still presented numerous and complex challenges. Just consider the logistical complications of the region’s vast expanse and diverse population, which includes some of Australia’s most remote communities.  Jodie Ryan, Chief Executive of the Northern Territory Government’s...

With each state and territory having such different pandemic experiences, how do you support businesses to keep operating? We hear from two of Australia’s key workplace regulatory authorities in this week’s edition of Work With Purpose.   We are joined by Sandra Parker PSM, the Fair Work Ombudsman, and Sue Weston PSM, the CEO of Comcare, which is Australia's national work, health, and safety,...

Whether it’s managing supply chains for troops in East Timor, or guiding an Australian Government department through the COVID-19 crisis, shared purpose and mission are critical. It is this shared sense of purpose and mission that enables teams to achieve extraordinary outcomes for the people they serve. How do you tap into this shared purpose when staff are distributed across working arrangements...

As COVID-19 changes the rules of access, how do our cultural institutions remain vibrant, relevant, and resilient? In this week’s episode of Work with Purpose, leaders from three of Australia’s best-loved institutions describe how they and their teams met the challenge. Doubling down on purpose, seeing COVID as an opportunity for innovation and staying close to local people were three of the...

One might not necessarily associate an APS career with building fish ladders along the Mekong river to facilitate upstream fish passage and feed millions of people who rely on this important protein. Or measuring soil moisture to inform farmers exactly when, and how much to water their crops. Or developing climate-smart livestock product systems to improve overall livestock health and reduce green...

How long will we be in the “new normal”, and how do we keep workplace cultures, relationships and productivity growing throughout? On this episode, we are joined by Rosemary Huxtable PSM, the Secretary of the Department of Finance and Chris Moraitis PSM, the head of the Attorney General's Department. From their unique perspectives leading the teams that underpin much of government services, they t...

How do you cut a government form down from 164 questions to 10 without losing the rigour? How can you leverage existing business information systems to take the hassle out of payroll and superannuation guarantees? These are just two of the innovations introduced by public servants this year to make Australians lives easier. The Public Sector Innovation Awards highlight public servants who rethink...

The ways we work have changed drastically this year, yet according to Telstra CEO Andy Penn, it’s only just getting started. Strap yourselves in. Things are about to get interesting. Australians have adopted digital technologies at an unprecedented pace during COVID-19 which has delivered benefits including mitigating skills shortages, improved work-life balance and increased workforce satisfactio...

From the first floor of a Belconnen Tavern to the shadows of Parliament House. Drew Baker’s transformative term as a leader of the ACT Branch of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA), is one of energy, strategy and opportunism. With his trademark eye for detail, Drew grew the organisation’s profile into one of Australia’s most important public sector institutions. In this week’s...

It’s the largest piece of Australian Government spending in history. Now, Secretary to the Australian Treasury Dr. Steven Kennedy gives an insider’s view of the JobKeeper program. In this unmissable episode of Work with Purpose, Secretary of the Treasury, Dr. Steven Kennedy and CEO of the Commonwealth Bank Matt Comyn is joined in conversation with Jessica Irvine, the senior economics writer for Th...

To serve the public in the face of a rapidly-adapting health threat, the Australian Government has evolved to match. Collaboration across federal, state and territory lines is heightened, and set to continue as the APS looks to strengthen its culture of communications and data sharing to support effective service delivery, as Philip Gaetjens, Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and C...

Fiji’s coordinated response to COVID-19 with Bernadette Welch  Work with Purpose – Global Perspectives explores the important work Australian Public Servants do around the world to deliver not just for Australians, but for the people of many other countries. It is an important and critical part of Australia’s role in the world in diverse areas such as health, trade, agriculture, defence, nati...

In South Australia perceptions and trust in the public service has doubled over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and now sits at around 60 to 70 per cent. In this episode of Work with Purpose — A National Perspective, Erma Ranieri, the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment, talks about how the South Australian public service has responded to the pandemic and is working to strengthen the res...

Federal Parliament staff including security and hospitality workers joined the Services Australia response to the COVID-19 pandemic as committee rooms in the Parliament building were converted to makeshift call centres. In this week’s episode of Work with Purpose we speak with the Secretary of Department of Parliamentary Service, Rob Stefanic and his deputy, Cate Saunders about how their team rall...

Service delivery has fundamentally changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Queensland, the government hasn’t waited for its citizens to come to them, it has actively pushed services out to the community. In this episode of Work with Purpose — A National Perspective, Dave Stewart, Director-General of Queensland’s Department of the Premier and Cabinet, talks about how the public service has...

The critically important relationship between business and government in managing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a consistent theme of the Work with Purpose podcast. In this week’s episode we bring together the leaders of two organisations, one private sector, one government, who have been working in Australia’s best interests not since the beginning of the pandemic but well befo...

Chris Jordan has driven major change in the Australian Tax Office since assuming his position of Commissioner in 2013. But it wasn’t his first public service role. Straight out of school, Chris followed his father into the N.S.W Police Force where he served on Sydney’s North Shore. It was the skills of observation and communication he learnt on the beat that helped him to turn the ship around.&nbs...

Innovation does not stand still on ‘’Work with Purpose’’.   This week we feature a conversation with IPAA Future Leaders who undertook a hackathon to explore the question “What could, or should the APS look like one year from now?”   The IPAA future leaders, as you have seen from the important contribution they have made to Work with Purpose, are the best and brightest in the APS. We wou...

National Cabinet has been one of the shining examples of collaboration in Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The gravity, the humanity, and the collaboration demonstrated through this process has been remarkable to observe, with people at the heart of the decisions. In this episode of Work with Purpose - A National Perspective, Sharyn O’Neill shares her experience and insights as the S...

Clooney or Pitt? Who would play Secretary Michael Pezzullo in the movie about the change he is driving in the Department of Home Affairs? In this week’s Work with Purpose, Secretary Michael Pezzullo draws on Hollywood inspiration to describe his ambition for the Department of Home Affairs, recalls how by age 11 he had already decided on a career of public service and that the achievements of his R...