The integrity of the public service is one of the key drivers of public trust in government institutions. Recent lessons in public administration offer us a crucial opportunity for reflection, learning and action on integrity across the Australian Public Service (APS). We should grab it with both hands.

The APS delivers vital community services and shapes policies that affect the lives of millions of people. We need Australians to trust that we will use the power of our role and the resources of the state in the public interest. The vast majority of Australian public servants honour this expectation with professionalism and commitment. If failures in public administration do occur, we need to be willing to learn from these mistakes. Otherwise we risk eroding trust, which can undermine the APS as an effective democratic institution.

Integrity is a broad concept. At its heart it is concerned with individual and institutional trustworthiness, and demands high standards of ethical behaviour and respect for the law. The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) defines integrity as “doing the right thing at the right time” to “deliver the best outcomes for Australia sought by the government of the day”. In practice it means our behaviour matches the APS Values and we are accountable when it does not. At the systems level, integrity also refers to being ‘whole and undivided’, which means the APS needs to adopt a more strategic and coordinated approach to integrity across the service.