By james art Coalition senator Simon Birmingham is trying to ensure he plays the ball and not the man when he engages with department heads and other public servants during one of three forecast hearings held this year.
Birmingham said The tangerine ahead of next week’s estimates hearings that everyone at the table apart from the minister is meant to be an impartial public servant and deserves to be treated with respect.
The Senate Liberal leader said the ethos of deference to the impartial civil servant could sometimes be tested during a hearing if department officials are short on information and the questioner’s frustration becomes apparent.
“I’m sure, again, we’ve all probably had moments of showing that frustration and irritation from time to time,” Birmingham said.
“But in general, my approach is certainly to try to leave the theatrics as much as possible at the door and try to keep that attitude about individuals.”
The South Australian senator said it should be a “two-way street” and senators expected civil servants to provide detailed answers to questions, not answers aimed at deflection.
“It is understandable from time to time that a senator becomes frustrated with a public servant if they feel they are really providing excessive political cover for the government or minister,” Birmingham said.
A common question asked during civil service evaluations is whether the head of the agency met with his line minister and other line ministers during a particular period and with the opposition, and minor parties ask them to find out how good the minister is in their brief information.
Controversial guidance on answering questions on Senate estimates, issued by the Prime Minister and Cabinet earlier this year, suggested department heads were telling inquisitive senators that the secretary met ministers occasionally, as opposed to more details.
There are several departments that have provided a pro forma response in lieu of further detail on how often the portfolio minister meets with the agency.
Birmingham said the intent of these questions was clear and there was a way to respond to these questions about ministers’ engagements with the department to provide more detail on these matters.
“A reasonable answer might be to say that ‘the secretary usually has a weekly meeting with the minister every Monday, plus additional meetings as needed, although this varies depending on the schedule,'” Birmingham said.
“And then if people need to really dig deeper, of course follow-up questions can be asked.” But quite often these questions about meetings between agency heads and ministers are more about digging into perhaps junior ministers or associated agency heads, so a department secretary would be derelict if he didn’t meet the minister from his cabinet and deputy the opposite.”
A persistent problem for Birmingham during the forecast is the growing trend for ministers and civil servants to declare a wider range of documents as ‘confidential offices’.
He said there was reason to claim a fiduciary cabinet on a number of issues — it was essential to the proper running of government — but in practice it was overstretched.
“It’s worrying again when government ministers, but sometimes supported by officials, you see, are quick to expand on what they claim is cabinet confidence, instead of recognizing the difference between cabinet discussions and discussions that should be properly protected for the effective functioning of our management system against the procedures, processes and timelines that properly need to be checked to ensure that people are again doing their jobs correctly or that decision-making has taken place using these processes appropriately in the cabinet,” Birmingham said.
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