Public service 'restaurant' needs overhaul

Australia's longest-serving federal bureaucrat has compared changes to the public service to celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's restaurant overhauls.

Finance Department secretary Jane Halton outlined her vision for reforming the public service in a lecture at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday.

The term "reform" was widely abused and when it was heard "we should be a little suspicious of over-promise and under-delivery".

Ms Halton gave the example of Ramsay whose TV show, Costa Del Nightmares, involves going into rundown Spanish restaurants and transforming them.

Ramsay would sack the chef, clean out the kitchen, put in place a new menu and transform the look of the restaurant.

But within a month the business would often go back to its old ways.

"Ramsay may have reformed in a narrow dictionary sense but the changes did not produce lasting effect," Ms Halton said.

"Lasting reform depends on people and resources being lined up behind good ideas and proper accountability structures being put in place for the long haul."

Her vision for the public sector was to be "agile, modern, connected, responsive" as well as accountable.

But it order to achieve this departments had to change their culture and attitude.

Quoting chef Ramsay, Ms Halton said: "You can't just buy fresh produce and stick it on top of the old stuff."

The federal government spends around $430 billion a year through its almost 200 departments, agencies and other entities.

Ms Halton said the experience for many businesses dealing with the government was "bad" and it was wrong for departments to load businesses with red tape "just because you want to cover your bases if something goes wrong".

In a bid to make departments and agencies more business-like and accountable, they have all been required to produce four-year corporate plans by the end of August.

Recent steps to abolish, merge and privatise government entities has saved $1.4 billion without impacting on government functions, she said.

"The government has asked us to work on redoing the menu, cleaning out the kitchen, transforming the look and feel of the business of government, with no entertainment value but with the intent of systemic reform."