PSA CPSU NSW General Secretary Stewart Little was on a panel at a one-day event held by public-sector news website The Mandarin.

Mr Little was part of a panel titled The big challenges facing the public service. He was joined by Stephen Bartos from the University of Canberra and Brenton Prosser of the University of NSW. The panel was moderated by News Editor with The Mandarin, Melissa Coade.

Mr Little discussed attraction and retention, the failure of privatisation, the role of consultants and the lack of progress in reducing the number of Senior Executive Service. He also talked about the wages cap and its effect on the huge number of vacancies in the NSW Public Sector.

The panel was part of the Building a Better Public Service conference, held in Sydney in June. The conference featured presentations from former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull; Courtney Houssos, NSW Finance and Government Procurement Minister; ABC Chair Kim Williams; Secretary of the NSW Cabinet Office Kate Boyd; NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce; and NSW Public Service Commissioner Kathrina Lo.

Mr Turnbull talked about his surprise that public sector workers did not raise red flags over the Robodebt scandal, despite being Prime Minister for part of the program’s disastrous implementation.