Shergold panned in Never Never Land

Little wonder the public service is leaking like a sieve. And the Australian Federal Police, it would appear, is struggling to keep up.

One of the most often asked questions post the Remembrance Day raid on NIT has been why the Government did not raid mainstream newspapers which had reported from some of the Cabinet documents which informed this newspaper’s coverage.

The Ruddock tape episode provides a partial answer. But that’s not to say the AFP has not been busy.

Victorian Labor Senator Jacinta Collins earlier this year sought to find out just how many investigations the AFP had conducted into suspected leaks of information in respect of federal government departments and agencies. She also asked, in a question on notice on May 12, how many AFP staff hours were spent on investigating these suspected leaks. The Government responded in August, informing her that a total of 111 investigations had been launched between 1997 and, to date, in 2004. The investigations had consumed 32,987 staff hours from the year 2000 to 2004 with no figures available for 1997/98/99.

We do not know how many prosecutions resulted from these investigations but there’s obviously a lot of democratic sabotage about.

Which brings us back to Peter Pan. My memory, as it turns out, did serve me well.

NIT editor Chris Graham provided me a copy of report from February 9, 2003 by the former public service reporter for The Canberra Times, Verona Burgess.

It was headlined: "Peter Pan lands his fairytale role". The article said Shergold’s ascension to the job of Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has been received “quite positively” in the Australian Public Service.

“There is palpable relief,” it continued, “that John Howard has chosen one of the incumbent Secretaries, rather than a party political operative. But a couple of PM and C wits said in alarm “Good God, does that mean he’ll want us to dress up?” Shergold will never live down his star appearance as Peter Pan in the Department of Education, Science and Training’s Christmas pantomime in December - not to mention the night he burst into song at Allan Hawke’s farewell dinner. “Shergold, in short, is impossible to shame.” Ms Burgess certainly got that right.

“It is interesting,” the article continued, “that John Howard, himself not exactly overburdened with charisma, should have chosen two such colourful, extroverted characters as Max Moore Wilton and Peter Shergold to lead the Public Service. In an interview on Thursday he said he would like to move to a more ‘collegiate leadership’ of the public service.”

Shergold went on to explain this meant the secretaries of each department working together on a whole-of-government approach to issues. Ms Burgess forecast it would take “significant leadership on his part to ensure that happens, especially since he is taking over the job after what has at least partly been a regime of terror at the hands of 'Max the Axe'”. Max Moore Wilton would have been proud of the Shergold-inspired Remembrance Day raid.

Different characters they may be but I suspect both have never understood that democracy dies behind closed doors.

I worked in the Australian Public Service during the reign of "Max the Axe". I survived one of his politically inspired witch-hunts at ATSIC. Others did not. That’s a story for another day. I’m glad, however, that I do not work in Shergold’s service. The ATSIC I joined was frank, fearless and creative. The one I left ruled by fear and loathing.

There was no faith, no trust and bucket loads of bull-dust.