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The Centre for Policy Development’s Public Service research team conducted months of research to provide an overview of the APS, including an appraisal of its capability and an  analysis of attitudes toward the APS agencies and services. Without detracting from the merits of the Government’s ‘State of the Service’ reports collated annually by the Australian  Public Service Commission (APSC), CPD’s report provides an alternative perspective. Whereas the APSC’s reports are inward focused, our report is written from the ‘outsider’  perspective of a non-government think tank. We consider the social context within which the APS functions and explore debates about the role, size and function of the public service, drawing on a diverse range of sources including political and media commentary and academic literature. Our audience and purpose are distinct from those of the APSC report: we    aim to communicate with a wide and general audience and provoke debate and discussion. The scope of our research was defined by geography, chronology and administrative  scale.

The report focuses on the Australian Public Service and to a lesser extent other elements of the Australian Government Administration. We have not examined in detail the equally large and complex public services of Australian states and territories except where this is useful to provide context or discuss issues associated with the public service agencies of both state and Commonwealth governments. Our scope is also defined chronologically. Although the report briefly describes the evolution of the APS since 1900, the focus is on the last twenty years and, in particular, the last decade. The report considers the public sector, government administration, public service organisations, including the agencies and departments that constitute the APS, public servants and the services and other functions they deliver. As much as possible, we aim to maintain this distinction. In  some instances we make inferences about one of these elements or expressions of ‘public service’ to draw conclusions about others. 

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