Australia

Australia’s New World variant of Westminster has exhibited features of the anglophone model. Central government is comparatively young, inaugurated around 120 years ago, and has only shaped the national system during the second half of this period. The pattern of education and training has followed the growth and expansion of the Commonwealth’s functions and influence, reflecting prevailing paradigms for the public service, shifting fashions and adaptations to environmental change. This chapter surveys the history of the public service in conjunction with developments in Australia’s government, then provides an overview of the principles and practices that have been important to its evolution in the Australian context, as the Commonwealth grew in scale and functional significance. Once the impact of these changes had been absorbed, there was an extended period of modernisation that also reflected new external pressures relevant to education and training. In the most recent period of reform, the de-professionalising and de-institutionalising of the Australian public service has been countered by a return to responsible government and the rearticulation of the verities of traditional public administration through a focus on skills and capabilities, crafts and values.