‘Overpaid political hacks’: Public trust lost over jobs for mates

1 week ago 11

Australians fear the federal government is appointing “overpaid political hacks” to plum public service jobs and have lost trust in its capacity to make independent appointments, according to a long-hidden report that Labor has only released more than two years after it was finished.

In releasing the report into parliament’s “jobs-for-mates” culture, the government said it will implement an “appointment framework” to tackle the issue, but will not enact many other recommendations.

Following pressure from opposition and crossbench senators, Labor handed down former APS commissioner Lynelle Briggs’s report into public sector board appointments on Tuesday, over two years after it was provided to cabinet.

“Hardly anyone seems to be happy with the current system of appointments for boards and office holder positions,” Briggs wrote in the report.

“Ministers are frustrated that officials seem unable to deliver new talent and high-quality fields in a timely manner, and that they are often advised to reappoint people whose capabilities are uncertain.

“Public trust has been undermined to such an extent by the level of direct appointments in recent years that people fear that they are being landed with overpaid political hacks who cannot do these important jobs properly and that some of these bodies may not be operating in the public interest.”

Commissioned by Labor in 2023, the review recommends an independent standard public sector selection process be enshrined in law for board appointments, with “fair and open recruitment processes” except in exceptional circumstances under the discretion of the prime minister.

Politicians and their staffers should be barred from holding government board positions within six months of leaving their roles, and 18 months for those previously working in ministerial portfolios, the review recommended. It also sought to bar ministers from making appointments within six months of a federal election.

The report’s release was forced by senators who pressured Labor to make the review public through the extension of question time every day until its publication. The campaign triggered the longest question time in parliamentary history – three-and-a-half hours – with Labor eventually capitulating and vowing to hand down the report by the end of the year.

Ministers are currently bound to merit-based appointments and transparency about their decision-making. But current guidelines fall short of the Briggs report’s recommendation to upgrade the recommendations into laws and set time limits for former staffers and MPs.

“We took the time to get this right. We listened to stakeholders, and have designed a framework that will serve the Australian community for years to come,” Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said in a statement.

“We want to make the best appointments in the national interest with an emphasis on merit, diversity, accountability and this new framework delivers this,” Gallagher said. The framework is set to come into effect in early February 2026.

The report found that somewhere between 6 and 7 per cent of board appointments were political in nature and half were direct appointments by ministers, and questioned the public’s capacity to differentiate between the two.

“There is a perception that all direct ministerial appointments are politically motivated. In and of itself, that is a cause for concern in our Westminster system of government,” the report read.

“Too often the practice in recent years has been to appoint friends of the government to boards, either as a reward for past loyalty or to ensure alignment with government priorities and all too often these appointments have looked like forms of patronage and nepotism that should have no place in the modern Australian society,” Briggs said.

Independent senator David Pocock, who orchestrated the government’s pressuring in the Senate, said: “It is very disappointing the Albanese government has refused to accept the full suite of recommendations from the Briggs review designed to stop the rampant jobs for mates culture that exists in federal politics.”

“It is no surprise there is such low trust in politicians. Communities constantly call for more integrity but are ignored … now it’s clear why the Albanese government was hiding it for two years.”

On Tuesday morning Industry Minister Tim Ayres said Labor had made appointments “in the national interest”.

“We’re focused on the purpose of the organisations and the appointments that we make. We’re shaping, we’re shaping our approach to these issues, of course, of course. But these are good appointments. They’ve been made in the national interest. They’ve all been made following the proper processes,” Ayres told ABC Radio National.

“The captain of the ship makes a difference. And under the previous government. You know, it just got, it just got driven, driven into the rocks. If I can mangle the metaphor,” Ayres said.

The minister said Gallagher would be “outlining the government’s approach over the course of the day”.

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