Behind the files, beneath the air conditioner and beside the water cooler lurk the real news stories of the Public Service and PS News editor Frank Cassidy has had his nose in the air, back to the wall, shoulder to the wheel and ear to the ground to dig them out.
   So, fresh from his physiotherapist here’s what he’s found out:

PS-sssst...

Rum go
It’s the abbreviation that just keeps giving.
   DBCDE, the alphabetically aligned shorthand for the Federal Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is already famous for its sound-alike likeness to “obesity’ but it also has a fun-loving party side if a pronunciation overheard at a recent function is any guide.
   In a lucky coincidence, the event was held in a licensed venue because it was there that the Department was joyously referred to as ‘D’bacardi’.
   I’d drink to that!

Funding licked
Top marks to Federal Public Service Commissioner, Steve Sedgwick for accompanying his latest State of the Service Report with a brutally honest summary of the troublesome financial straits his Commonwealth PS was heading into.
   Claiming that the looming financial strains hadn’t been experienced for “quite some time,” Mr Sedgwick made the point that the PS would soldier on and perform brilliantly regardless.
   “Even in time of fiscal constraint,” Mr Sedgwick intoned, “the Public Service will continue to respond to emerging priorities within the Government’s overall funding envelope.”
   “Funding envelope?”
   Times must be tougher than we think if PS funds now come in envelopes!

Unity or nothing
To the floor of the United Nations now where our dearly beloved country snatched embarrassment from the jaws of success by its head-scratching decision to sit on its hands recently while the rest of the world raised theirs to vote the embattled nation of Palestine into observer status.
   Setting aside any hint of politics or personalities, from a simple public administration point of view the question must be asked why any nation in the world, including us, would join a body called the “United” nations and then choose not to act in a united fashion.
   Perhaps the UN would be better named the ‘UN-united nations’.

Forward thinking
And finally, back to Steve Sedgwick’s Australian Public Service Commission where the good news is that that a review of job classifications across the APS has delivered its report.
   The not so good news is the introduction to Mr Sedgwick’s foreword to the report.
   “APS Classification Review” blasts the headline.
   “Foreward by the Public Service Commissioner,” blunders the sub-heading.

   Till next week...

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