‘Never overlook the human factor’

Former Defence Secretary Dennis Richardson has a simple message for public servants who want to make a difference.

Dennis Richardson at his home in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Former Defence Secretary Dennis Richardson has a simple message for public servants who want to make a difference — never overlook the human factor.

“You’ve got to influence people,” he tells The Australian. “Giving frank and fearless advice is not about getting things off your chest.

“Giving frank and fearless advice is about influencing. And if you’re going to influence policy direction, you’ve got to influence people.”

Mr Richardson is today being honoured with the Companion of the Order of Australia for his service to public administration through his “leadership roles in the national security, defence and foreign policy arenas, and to workplace cultural reform.”

Joining the public service in 1969 as a trainee with the department of external affairs, Mr Richardson is widely regarded as having an unparalleled career in terms of experience and range of senior positions served.

Over the last two decades, Mr Richardson has headed up the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Defence and served as Australia’s ambassador to Washington.

While Mr Richardson said the award was a “great thing to get” he also paid tribute to the people who volunteered time for their local communities on a day-to-day basis without any expectation of recognition.

“I think it’s important when you get something like this to keep it in perspective,” he said. “I’ve been paid to do a hobby. It’s essentially what it is. I’ve always been interested in current affairs. And I was lucky enough to get a job where my natural interests and my professional interests coincided.”

Mr Richardson said it was incredibly important that “people from a variety of backgrounds” entered the public service to advance Australia’s national interest, saying there was always a “risk” of having too many people providing advice with the same outlook.

“You want people who have a view about Australia and the world. What that view is is sometimes less important than having the view,” he said. “Too many people come into government with the view of managing issues without a sense of the broader context.”

He also said that work of representing Australia was “not about cocktails and parties.”

“It’s about having a hard-headed assessment of your own national interest and being prepared to pursue those national interests vigorously,” he said.

In seeking to influence policy, Mr Richardson urged public servants to accept they would not always be successful.

“You’ve got to be prepared to lose. You’re not going to win anything if you’re not prepared to lose,” he said. “It’s unrealistic to expect that you’re going to be successful in nudging policy in the direction you might want all the time.”

Mr Richardson also rejected the notion that the influence of the bureaucracy was on the decline and being overshadowed by the rise of political advisers working in ministerial offices — at least in the national security realm.

“I think in the national security and foreign policy space, I think that’s less so. Mind you, advisers are important and always have been important.”

Looking back on his career highlights, Mr Richardson identified his time in Washington.

“I’ve never told former prime minister Howard this but I think I would have done Washington for nothing. Regardless of how busy and demanding the job was, it was always enjoyable.”

He also said it was the challenges in his professional life that gave him “the biggest kick”.

“You’ve got to be careful how you express that though because, in a job like ASIO, your biggest challenges normally derive from tragedies. And you don’t go looking for tragedies. No-one would have wanted 9/11. No-one would have wanted Bali,” Mr Richardson said. “However, if those things happen that presents you, if you’re in a job like that, with a big challenge.”