Retiring Defence boss takes aim at cowards

Retiring Defence secretary Dennis Richardson has delivered a blunt assessment of senior public servants who complain it's getting harder to give ministers frank and fearless advice.

"I think public servants who say that are simply cowards," Mr Richardson told the National Press Club in Canberra on Friday, drawing a close to his 48-year career in public administration and diplomacy.

"I have never worked for a prime minister or a minister with whom I have not been able to talk frankly."

But neither has Mr Richardson worked with a senior politician with whom he hasn't disagreed or shared tense moments with.

"The odd minister might not like that for 24 hours or 36 hours but ministers - politicians generally - are very skilled at moving on."

Working with a minister is no different to working inside your own family, he explained.

"If you want your spouse or partner or children to do something which you know they won't want to do, then you need to think about how you are going to approach it."

And frank and fearless advice isn't about storming into a minister's office to get something off your chest before storming out and declaring "I told them."

"That is not about being frank and fearless - that is about being stupid," Mr Richardson said.

"It is about influencing decision-makers for an outcome that you think is the right one."

When you are a coward, it cuts both ways, he said.

"One, you don't give the advice that you should be giving. Secondly, you do whatever stupid thing you are told, even when it is by an adviser who pretends he or she is talking on behalf of the minister."

Rational thinkers should stop to challenge what they are told or seek clarification.

Mr Richardson rejected the argument things were different for him during his near half-century career.

"I have the advantage that I have a lot of Irish in my background and I like a fight," he said.

"The other thing I have is I love black humour, and that is why the past four and a half years has been a laugh a minute."