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Meet the Mandarin

April

Ray Griggs, Secretary for the Department of Social Services

The four Cs: How to rebuild a department after robo-debt

Considered one of Canberra’s best leaders, former navy chief Ray Griggs is now Department of Social Services secretary, helping to rebuild culture after a damning royal commission.

  • Tom Burton

March

The new dean of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, Professor Caron Beaton-Wells.

How ‘deliberate reflection’ and being a ‘list zealot’ help this leader

Competition expert Professor Caron Beaton-Wells runs up to eight lists on her phone and manages them ruthlessly. “That immediately makes me feel like it’s all manageable”.

  • Tom Burton

February

No other agency in government knows how to deal with multiple vulnerabilities, says Sandy Pitcher, the CEO of the South Australian Human Services department.

Battler for the underdog on being the department of last resort

South Australia has long been a leader in innovative social policy and services. After a series of leadership roles in Victoria and SA, Sandy Pitcher wants her staff to take pride in being the place the most vulnerable can turn to.

  • Tom Burton
Secretary of the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Adam Fennessy.

Why the agriculture secretary needs mediation and a ‘big fat novel’

It’s Adam Fennessy’s second stint as an agriculture secretary. He shares his best leadership tips, how to embrace digital transformation and what he looks for when hiring.

  • Tom Burton
NSW Customer Service Department secretary Graeme Head.

How nursing prepared this government leader

Newly appointed NSW Customer Service secretary Graeme Head learnt how to work in fast-changing workplaces as an emergency nurse at Sydney’s RPA Hospital.

  • Tom Burton
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December 2023

Chris Barrett, the new secretary for the Victorian department of Treasury and Finance.

The man maximising every dollar of Victoria’s public coffers

Victoria’s new Treasury secretary Chris Barrett explains why he switched from consulting to the public service and reveals the best thing he learnt from studying at Princeton.

  • Tom Burton
National Disability Insurance Scheme CEO Rebecca Falkingham: “If you can be absolutely influenced by the users of the system you will always be delivering better outcomes.”

‘Heart not head’: What drives the woman reforming the NDIS

Rebecca Falkingham on the two women who changed her life, the best career advice she got, and how kicking a soccer ball with her kids is her “meditation”.

  • Tom Burton
Natalie James left Deloitte to lead Tony Burke’s overhaul of the workplace relations system.

Meet the ex-Deloitte partner overhauling the IR system

Ex-Deloitte partner Natalie James doesn’t plan to emulate a consulting firm at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, but she refuses to give up some habits.

  • Ronald Mizen

November 2023

NSW Treasury secretary Michael Coutts-Trotter advises running ideas past someone who won’t necessarily agree with them.

Michael Coutts-Trotter’s best advice for the young and ambitious

The NSW Treasury secretary explains how to test decisions, work with political staffers, the best way to build a career – and his love of steel-cut oats.

  • Tom Burton
Federal data and privacy regulator Angelene Falk.

The woman at the heart of your data protection

Amid rapid technology change, federal privacy and information commissioner Angelene Falk has had to learn how to anticipate the harmful effects on consumers.

  • Tom Burton
The director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate, Rachel Noble.

A top spy shares her best career advice for success

The woman running one of Australia’s key intelligence agencies is not a morning person, schedules meetings after 9.30am, and most fears the threat from within.

  • Tom Burton

October 2023

AEC boss Tom Rogers

Election boss Tom Rogers on how social media changed democracy

The Australian Electoral Commissioner, fresh from delivering the Voice referendum, explains why taking risks and having a crack is the best career advice.

  • Ronald Mizen

How consulting made Blair Comley a better public servant

The incoming Health Department boss has helped reform the GST, design Kevin Rudd’s carbon reduction scheme and Julia Gillard’s carbon tax. He answers our public servant Q&A.

  • Ronald Mizen
Tax Inspector-General and Tax Ombudsman Karen Payne.

Meet the top tax bureaucrat who can’t stand liars

Tax Inspector-General and Tax Ombudsman Karen Payne talks about what big law can teach the APS and her love of Ennio Morricone, in our public servant Q&A.

  • Ronald Mizen

September 2023

How the 80:20 rule makes Danielle Wood more productive

The incoming boss shares her defining career moments, best advice, love of authors Anna Funder and Zadie Smith and her plans for change in our public servant Q&A.

  • Ronald Mizen
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Why being a nurse and working for Kevin Rudd changed Steven Kennedy

The Treasury Secretary shares his defining career moments, best advice, love for alternative Australian music from the 1980s in our public servant Q&A.

  • Ronald Mizen

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