Scott Morrison's right-hand man led the public service's most competent departmental executive team in early 2022, a survey of public servants has found.
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Phil Gaetjens, who famously never completed the Gaetjens' investigation into who in the Prime Minister's office knew about the Brittany Higgins rape allegations while he was head of the Prime Minister's department, resigned following Labor's election victory and coinciding with the 2022 APS Employee Census survey.
Federal Court, Home Affairs and Defence officials had the least faith in the competence of their bosses in 2022, the survey showed.
Analysis of the latest census result breakdowns by organisation showed PM&C ranked the highest among the agencies with 1000 or more employees when employees were asked about the leadership abilities of their immediate supervisor, branch manager and senior executive team as a whole.
The full table of rankings relating to managers and executives is below, and a bit lower in the article. There are multiple results in each table, and you can choose which results you see with the menu.
But even in the lowest ranking agencies, most officials gave a positive response when rating their manager or executive's capabilities.
There was a notable gap between the lowest ranking - the Federal Court of Australia, in which only a third of employees responded to the survey, but 68 per cent of those who did gave positive responses about their immediate supervisor - and the other two of the bottom three: 72 and 73 per cent for Home Affairs and Defence respectively.
The highest-scoring immediate managers were found in the National Disability Insurance Agency and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, both with 80 per cent.
The executives scores were similar, with the federal court having the lowest, then Home Affairs and Defence. The Prime Minister's department, led at the time by Phil Gaetjens, scored the highest.
The survey of more than 120,000 public servants from 99 agencies in May and June this year asked respondents if their supervisor could deliver difficult advice whilst maintaining relationships and if they were invested in the respondent's development.
Just two thirds of federal court officials said their manager could deliver difficult advice and even fewer (61 per cent) had managers invested their development, compared with 84 per cent of NDIA officials praising their managers for handling difficult advice and 81 per cent who felt their managers cared about their development.
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Agency executives were also the subject of competency and leadership questions. Public servants were asked if their branch manager created an environment that helped employees deliver their best.
A majority of felt they did not have that supportive environment at the federal court, the only agency where fewer than half had faith in their executive manager. The Prime Minister's department again scored highest on the environment set by the executives.
When asked if their executives worked together, the Bureau of Meteorology overtook Defence in the bottom three, indicating they were more likely to engage in infighting for resources or ignore each other than work together towards the strategic direction of the agency. The bottom three were Home Affairs, the federal court and the weather bureau. The most cohesive SES teams were in the Health and Attorney General's departments.
Communication between the senior executives and other employees was not seen as effective in many large agencies. Again, the federal court scored lowest, followed by Home Affairs and the weather bureau. The Health and Prime Minister's departments had the most agreeing that communication was effective.
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Harley Dennett
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
