Albanese dumps merit pledge to tap new Home Affairs chief

On Tuesday, without any opportunity for advertising and a competitive selection process, the prime minister broke with his government’s pledge to merit-based selections for secretaries.

“I am pleased to announce the governor‑general has accepted my recommendation to appoint Stephanie Foster as secretary of the Department of Home Affairs,” Mr Albanese said.

Her appointment was immediate and for five years.

The prime minister cited Ms Foster’s acting role, other senior jobs in the defence and infrastructure departments, and overseeing the cabinet and government function in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C).

Selecting on merit

“Ms Foster has well-established relationships across the APS [Australian Public Service] and significant policy experience, which make her eminently suitable to the role of secretary,” he said.

In opposition, Labor was highly critical of several Coalition secretarial selections, arguing that the lack of merit-based appointments had led to politicisation of the senior bureaucracy.

Earlier this month, Public Service and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher formally committed to open merit-based selection for all secretaries as a key pillar of restoring integrity and capability in the leadership of the federal public service.

“The next phase of APS reforms will include requirements for the PM&C secretary and the APS commissioner to conduct merit-based appointments processes for secretary roles to build rigour into the advice provided to the prime minister on candidates,” Senator Gallagher said in her annual report on APS reform.

“… we will improve transparency and consistency in how agency head appointments, performance and suspension for executive, statutory and non-statutory agencies are conducted – including having merit-based appointment processes …”

Since Labor took office, PM&C head Glyn Davis has instituted an open merit-based selection process, with an independent selection member invited to be involved. He has been strongly supported by the Public Service Commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer.

A government source said Mr Albanese appointed Ms Foster on the recommendation of Professor Davis and that all normal processes had been followed.

The head of PM&C typically makes secretarial recommendations to the prime minister, after a selection process administered by the Public Service Commission.

Professor Davis and Dr De Brouwer were both members of the Thodey public service review that recommended a “rigorous appointment process to identify the best people to lead the APS” as part of a major overhaul of the leadership of the federal public service.

Defence signals background

“The process will be transparent, vigorous and apolitical. The government and people of Australia will be confident that the right person is in the job,” the 2019 report said.

That report came after then prime minister Scott Morrison appointed his former chief of staff and experienced bureaucrat Phil Gaetjens to head PM&C.

Mr Gaetjens immediately resigned on the election of the Labor government last year.

Ms Foster acted as head of PM&C before Professor Davis took up the role.

Originally from a defence signals background, she was tasked with overseeing parliamentary work reforms following the rape allegations by Brittany Higgins.

In her capacity as deputy secretary for governance and APS Reform at PM&C, Ms Foster played a central role in the secret appointment of Mr Morrison to five ministries, according to a report by former High Court judge Virginia Bell.

Her role later attracted the attention of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

“Equally PM&C officials including Stephanie Foster must have known this was utterly without precedent and wrong,” Mr Turnbull said last year.

“How did all these experienced people allow Morrison to do this. If any of them had dug their heels in, pushed back, and done so in writing it is hard to believe even the self-described bulldozer would have persisted. If they did not push back then they, and the system, failed.”

Ms Bell concluded it was for Mr Morrison, and not PM&C, to make the ministries public.