Anthony Albanese announces key appointments in major public service shake-up

Revealed by Anthony Albanese, the public service shake-up will see Steven Kennedy elevated to lead the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy has been named as the new secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Steven Kennedy has been named Australia’s most senior bureaucrat, taking the helm of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, while Finance Department secretary Jenny Wilkinson will take his place at Treasury, the first woman to lead the department in its 124-year history.

Anthony Albanese announced the appointments at the National Press Club on Tuesday, with Dr Kennedy to succeed outgoing secretary Glyn Davis.

“These outstanding public servants will continue to excel in their service to our nation,” the Prime Minister said.

“I am delighted that Dr Kennedy and Ms Wilkinson accepted my invitations.”

Widely anticipated as Professor Davis’s successor, Dr Kennedy’s elevation follows a 33-year career in the federal bureaucracy, where he has earned a reputation as a political progressive – especially on issues such as climate change – and as someone willingness to tackle complex public policy issues head-on.

Dr Kennedy has earned a reputation as a political progressive. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Initially training as a nurse, Dr Kennedy joined the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1992 before subsequently working in Treasury, where he was seconded to work for Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, helping to craft their response to the global financial crisis. Later, he was appointed to lead the Infrastructure Department in 2017, before he was picked by the Morrison government to head Treasury in 2019.

In 2024, he was reappointed by Jim Chalmers, who on Tuesday praised his service. “Australia was incredibly fortunate to have someone of Steven’s calibre leading the Treasury, and is just as fortunate having him now lead the Australian Public Service,” the Treasurer said in a statement.

Under Dr Kennedy, Treasury insiders believe the department has adopted a more interventionist policy approach, advocating for taxes on unrealised superannuation gains, arguing that energy rebates could dampen inflation, and supporting temporary price caps on coal and gas.

To his detractors, Dr Kennedy is viewed as politically ruthless – a claim that flared this year when Treasury, at Labor’s request, costed a Coalition tax deduction policy, fuelling accusations of politicisation of the public service.

Although Dr Kennedy has predominantly worked on domestic policy, his appointment will require him to engage with major international issues, including foreign affairs, defence, and nat­ional security, areas he has not previously overseen.

Jenny Wilkinson will serve on the RBA board in her new role as Treasury secretary. Picture: NewsWire/ Gary Ramage

Replacing Dr Kennedy is Ms Wilkinson, who will step in as the nation’s pre-eminent economic adviser after being Finance Department head since 2022.

In the position of Treasury secretary, she will also take a seat on the Reserve Bank’s new nine-member rate-setting board.

Following Dr Chalmers’s appointment of RBA governor Michele Bullock and Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood, Ms Wilkinson’s appointment as Treasury boss marks the first time that women have led all three of the nation’s top public economic institutions.

Like Dr Kennedy, Ms Wilkinson is considered a progressive but is likely to be less interventionist than her immediate predecessor. Instead, she is expected to push the department back towards a narrower, more rationalist role of managing fiscal policy.

Beginning her career at the RBA in 1998, Ms Wilkinson later moved to Canberra and held several senior positions across the Treasury and Infrastructure departments, as well as in the Parliamentary Budget Office.

Immediately prior to her appointment as finance secretary, Ms Wilkinson served as the head of Treasury’s fiscal group, where she was one of the key architects of the Morrison government’s economic response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including the rollout of the $90bn JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme and other industry-specific supports.

The appointments of Dr Kennedy and Ms Wilkinson will take effect on June 16.

Mr Albanese did not name replacements for Ms Wilkinson or David Fredericks, who is stepping down as secretary of the Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water Department.