Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee

Lobbyists, known by many as log-rollers, are as much part of the business of politics as sharks are part of the business of fish.

Evidence before the senate finance and public administration committee has painted a picture of spaghetti junction.

Senate estimates is back, with land councils and Indigenous-related areas up for accountability to the parliament and through it, the people.

If events of the past week in NSW can remind federal public servants of anything, it should be that circumstances can change in the blink of an eye.

Much of the APS needs to lose the attitude that policy is the apex of public administration and service delivery is done by lesser mortals, says Verona Burgess. With change and uncertainty all around the federal bureaucracy, to fulfil the Prime Minister’s expectations it will need to quickly learn from state counterparts.