Ombudsman slams ‘culture of fear’ under Andrews, risk to public funds over multibillion-dollar projects

Victoria’s premier would be banned from selecting the state’s top bureaucrats under a bold plan to restore the independence of the public service following a scathing report by the Victorian ombudsman, who has uncovered how former ministerial staffers have been shuttled into senior public service roles.

Outgoing Ombudsman Deborah Glass on Wednesday handed down the findings of a two-year probe, exposing a culture of fear and secrecy, and warned of the risk to public funds if public servants are blindsided on major projects such as the $125 billion Suburban Rail Loop.

The findings, prompted by reports in this masthead, laid bare the influx of political operatives into senior public service ranks and the centralisation of decision-making within then-premier Daniel Andrews’ private office.

The investigation uncovered rushed recruitment practices, opaque selection methods for senior government jobs and examples of direct appointments of former ministerial staffers to senior public service positions.

The ombudsman’s report, which focuses primarily on the second term of the Andrews government, found that the public sector had been politicised and bureaucrats marginalised.

Glass also identified a culture of fear among government employees who were expected to provide frank and fearless advice. In one example, a public official lost their job after providing candid advice to the government shortly after its election win in 2014.

“Politicisation can take many forms. It is not just the hiring of people with political affiliations. It is also the closing down or marginalisation of apolitical, independent voices,” Glass said.

“A culture of fear in the upper echelons of the public sector does not support frank and fearless advice.”

To highlight the marginalisation of the public sector, the report charted the development of the Suburban Rail Loop. It found it was the brainchild of one senior executive at the newly-formed Development Victoria agency after they went to a conference on value capture, organised by a consultancy firm.

Senior public servants, including long-serving departmental secretary Richard Bolt, were found to have been excluded from consultations on the 90-kilometre orbital rail line, with the government blaming the classified nature of discussions on the need to reduce the risk of land speculation.

Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass.Credit: Luis Ascui

But Glass slammed the excuse, and criticised the government for a growing trend of secrecy and relying on consultants over public servants, concluding it was eroding the checks and balances required when spending public funds.

“It was subject to excessive secrecy and ‘proved up’ by consultants rather than developed by public servants. Its announcement ‘blindsided’ the agency set up by the same government to remove short-term politics from infrastructure planning,” Glass said.

“The lack of rigorous public sector scrutiny over such projects before they are announced poses obvious risks to public funds.”

The ombudsman also found that the number of people working in the Victorian premier’s office, under Andrews, swelled significantly and was now equal to the staff working in both the prime minister’s office and that of the NSW premier combined.

The report did not directly criticise the 300,000 Victorian public service employees.

While the report stopped short of accusing the government of stacking the public service with ALP operatives, Glass said “creeping politicisation” was a reality in Victoria and required “urgent attention”.

The ombudsman’s office interviewed more than 40 people and received more than180 submissions as part of its inquiry, which also investigated hiring decisions around the Commonwealth Games and the now-dissolved Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions.

Glass recommended that a new independent public service chief should appoint senior bureaucrats. She called for the overhaul of employment clauses, which allow the government to terminate staff at short notice, and improvements to minimise cabinet secrecy.

Cabinet reforms would help bring Victoria in line with other jurisdictions such as Queensland, which recently vowed to release government papers within weeks of them going to cabinet, not years.

Glass said the eight recommendations addressed the need for greater independence in the appointment of public officials and would help reduce the fear some public servants had about speaking out.

“But nothing will change without a recognition at the highest levels of government that change is necessary,” she said.

On Wednesday morning, Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Jeremi Moule told staff in an email that the ombudsman’s report had found “no evidence that Victorian public sector appointments have been influenced by partisan political considerations”. He said recommendations to improve recruitment and selection would be considered.

“It is my hope now that the ombudsman’s findings will bring to an end unfounded and unfair criticisms of Victoria’s skilled and dedicated public sector workforce,” Moule said.

“The ombudsman’s report reminds us that we must never become complacent in striving for the excellence the government and people of Victoria require of us.”

Moule said he and Glass had different views of the role of his department, which the report said had been criticised by some staff members for its size and influence.

“I am proud of the work DPC undertakes every day to support the premier and the cabinet in their service of the people of Victoria, and I know that you are too,” he said.

Integrity expert Michael Macaulay, from the Victoria University of Wellington, said he was surprised the Victorian public service didn’t already have an independent employer of department secretaries, as is the case in New Zealand.

“For a lot of people here in Aotearoa, it just seems like normal practice,” he said.

“The only controversy here in New Zealand in the last year or so has been the reappointment of chief executives before the new government came in. But even so, you couldn’t accuse that of being a political appointment.”

Macaulay added that cabinet briefing papers had been in the public domain in New Zealand for more than a decade.

“Genuinely speaking, briefing papers, they’re not where the argument takes place. They’re the information that informs the argument. I think it’s a good thing they’re proactively released.”

Opposition Leader John Pesutto on Wednesday said the report was one of the “most serious and damning” indictments yet on the state Labor government.

“If I become premier in 2026, I will lead a government that puts a premium on integrity and good governance,” he said.

Greens integrity spokesman Tim Read said his party supported all four of the ombudsman’s key recommendations.

Premier Jacinta Allan said the report found there was not a single example of partisan political hiring.

“The inferences that are being drawn by others, the speculation, the shade thrown on a very, very good and strong public sector that we have in Victoria is not just deeply unfair. It is not founded in any evidence that is presented in the Ombudsman’s report released today,” she said.

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