Australian Public Sector Accountability

This webpage was originally a collection of links on public sector accountability in Australia. I had put those links together simply because I found it useful for myself and hadn't found another site that did it for me. However, it is probable that people will find more interest in the particular case of my experience with the defunding and not-funding of Timorese NGOs and my allegations that I was pressured to lie to cover up the reason for those decisions. Accordingly, I have brought that material to the top.

No document on this website should be construed as a comment, positive or negative, on the policy of the Australian Government. This site exists purely to compile a number of documents that are otherwise publicly available but relatively inaccessible. This disclaimer does not apply to external sites or reproductions on this site of others' writings (eg newspaper articles).

Peter Ellis

Source documents from the Ellis case: "Diplomat Claims He Was Told to Lie"

Most of these documents were included in a large release of documents under the Freedom of Information Act by the Australian Public Service Commission on 10 August 2007 or by DFAT on 14 August 2007. Further documents were also released but are of less significance and have not been posted here to avoid overwhelming the reader more than is already the case. A letter that summarises some of the issues relating to FOI is available here.

Some of these documents have been turned into PDFs from electronic originals held by Ellis. The text and formatting is identical to the hard copies released by the APSC (who released entire documents with little or no censoring) except for handwritten signature; it saves bandwidth to use the originals rather than scanned in versions.

Ellis' original allegations - about pressure to lie and keep a secret blacklist, from 30 May 2005. For comparison, here is the same letter in the version released by DFAT with significant (and interesting) deletions, such as all reference to what country Ellis was posted to (even though this information is readily and legitimately available elsewhere).
An example of some of the evidence considered in the subsequent preliminary investigation. This document has heavy deletions from the DFAT FOI process, but is enough to give the idea, in this case, into the process behind Minister Alexander Downer's decision to break a contract with Forum Tau Matan.
Another example piece of evidence - Ellis' timeline of what happened in the last week of May 2005 (includes heavy deletions from DFAT), during discussions about what to tell Forum Tau Matan.
Ellis' notes from a meeting of 25 May 2005 in which he alleges he was told to "make up something against selection criteria" when making his "case by case" decisions on funding NGOs that had signed a public statement about maritime boundary negotations. This document was not released under FOI but the substance of its content is repeated in various other documents that were (eg Ellis' original allegations, and the APSC review of those allegations).
DFAT's letter to Ellis after a preliminary investigation, concluding that there had been no pressure to lie but only preliminary and exploratory discussions, of 19 September 2005. This letter was released in full by the APSC and almost in full by DFAT.
Ellis second allegations - about retaliation in the form of the non-extension of his posting, of 24 July 2006. This letter was released in full by the APSC and almost in full by DFAT.
Ellis' detailed statement in support of his retaliation claims, of 10 December 2006. This document was released in full by the APSC but not released at all by DFAT, who determined that it was fully exempt from release under the FOI Act.
DFAT's letter to Ellis after a preliminary investigation, concluding that there had been no retaliation
Review by staff of the Australian Public Service Commission of Ellis' original and subsequent allegations
Final letter reviewing the allegations , from Australian Public Service Commissioner Ms Lynelle Briggs to Peter Ellis on 6 July 2007 (by which time Ellis had left the Australian Public Service and was hence a private citizen as far as the Australian government is concerned). Ms Briggs concluded that the evidence did not support Mr Ellis' claims
Correspondence between Ellis and AusAID confirming that AusAID held only one document on the non-extension of his posting, his own application.
Peter Ellis' response to some of the key points of the final APSC review, highlighting concerns about both process and findings. This document was written in September 2007, after Ellis left the public service. It was not obtained under FOI, but a response to the documents that were so released.

Public coverage of the Ellis case: "Diplomat Claims He Was Told to Lie"

Some of the articles below are reproduced from hard copy as they are not available on the web. If this is problem for copyright, an authorised person should just send an email and the offending article will be removed.

La'o Hamutuk (a Timorese NGO)'s summary of the underlying issue about funding NGOs and chronology of events (external site)
Markus Mannheim, "Diplomat claims he was told to lie" The Canberra Times 19 May 2007 (external site)
Ross Peake, "Whistleblower's fate to be decided soon" The Canberra Times 24 May 2007
Senators Faulkner and Hogg speaking with Doug Chester, excerpt on Mr Ellis' case from Senate Estimates 28 May 2007. Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Budget Estimates.
Peter Ellis, "Whistleblowing: Lying for Your Country" New Matilda 30 May 2007 (external site)
Paul Cleary (2007) Shakedown: Australia's grab for Timor oil, Allen & Unwin. Contains a few pages discussing the issue of defunding and not funding Timorese NGOs in the context of maritime boundary negotiations.
- An open letter from Ellis to Cleary clarifying some aspects of matters related in that book.
Margo Kingston (2007) Still Not Happy, John, Penguin. Contains a chapter on the whistleblowing aspects (external site).
Peter Ellis (2007) "Peter Ellis on being a whistleblower" Webdiary (external site).
Report of the Independent Audit into the State of Free Speech in Australia 31 October 2007. Contains a box on the Ellis case on page 65 (external site, large document).
Markus Mannheim, "Paper trail peters out for whistleblowing diplomat" The Canberra Times 2 November 2007
Stephen Bartos, "The decline and fall of public sector ethics" The Canberra Times 6 November 2007
Matthew Moore, "Many reasons for anger, but this one's a cracker" in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald 8 November 2007 (external site)

Investigation of whether Peter Ellis broke the APS Code of Conduct

DFAT have provided assurances that this investigation, which eventually cleared Ellis, was not related to his internal whistleblowing or allegations of retaliation for that whistleblowing. The documents are provided here as an insight into how such investigations proceed and what they consider, particularly when the issues involve national security classified material.

A short outline of how the case emerged (includes links to source documents obtained under FOI). It began when DFAT investigated an article that appeared in Crikey leaking an email sent on 26 June 2006, but when it couldn't find the culprit, the investigation was expanded out to cover emails back to 1 June 2006 and earlier. This turned up an unrelated email from Ellis that was alleged to involve breaches of the APS Code of Conduct.
Ellis' response to the investigation report, obtained under FOI. Contains some interesting discussion of security classification of documents.

The determination was that no breach of the APS Code of Conduct had occurred.

Other references on Australian Commonwealth public sector accountability

Nearly all of these are to external sites.

The useful Oz Politics Guide to Australian Politics, which includes a good (but not definitive) introduction to the institutions and conventions of Australian governance.
Democratic Audit of Australia; a team at the Australian National University has been conducting Audits since 2002 to assess Australia's strengths and weaknesses as a democratic society.
The Australian Journal of Public Administration. Only a selection of articles are available online, but all the contents pages are available.
Brian Martin's page on dissent in Australia. Includes discussion of whistleblowing, free speech, defamation laws, etc.
Whistleblowers Australia
The Whistling While They Work research project into internal witness protection in the Australian public sector.
Australia's Parliament, which includes useful information on Parliament, research conducted by the Parliamentary Library, and a reasonably good search engine of Hansard and other documents in the possession of Parliament.
Transcripts, questions in writing, etc from past Commonwealth Senate Estimates sessions. First instituted in 1970, Senate Estimates is a crucial part of Australia's accountability structure, where public servants who take action at the bidding of the executive government can be questioned directly by Parliamentarians.
"Australia's Right to Know", a joint statement from eight Australian media executives in May 2007.
The Attorney-General's Department's Freedom of Information Guidelines, aimed at government departments that are administering FOI requests. This page is invaluable in putting together caselaw, precedents and general interpretations, particularly on the touchy issue of exactly what documents or parts of documents really are exempt and which aren't.
The Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act 1982.
The Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will investigate claims of poor administration by government departments (not personnel complaints), such as poor administration of Freedom of Information requests, or problems with agencies that deal with public-interface issues such as Immigration and Taxation.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal; provides independent review of a wide range of administrative decisions made by the Australian government and some non-government bodies. Their page includes guidance on what decisions it can review and how to submit an application for review.
The Australian National Audit Office. The website contains easy access to all ANAO reports. Underutilised in the debate on Australian public policy; ANAO reports rarely get the action and attention they should.
The Commonwealth Australian Public Service Commission. Contains useful information on the framework, values and intent of the Australian Public Service and its place in Australian governance. Also contains important guidelines for agencies in their implementation of the Public Service Act (for example, in enforcing the APS Values and Code of Conduct) and an annual State of the Service Report which includes data on staff perceptions of matters such as the code of conduct, whistleblowing, merit-based staff decisions, and so forth.
The searchable AustLII database of legal material. Contains many invaluable documents (eg legal precedents) on administrative, criminal and civil law impacting on public sector accountability. Some key areas include judicial decisions on Freedom of Information exemptions and administration; interpretation of section 70 of the Crimes Act (which makes unauthorised disclosure of a fact or document by a current or former public servant a criminal offence); or administrative decisions in all fields.
Information on the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS). Because the Australian Intelligence Community is exempt from many of the normal accountability requirements of actions of the government, it is subject to oversight from this specially created body.
The 'deregulation of evaluation', a post by Peter Ellis on changes in the use of evaluation in the public service in the 1990s, referring to a 2007 World Bank publication.

Contact me at ellisp@netspeed.com.au.