Figure 2.4: Staff distribution at 30 June 2007

a Includes three Official Establishments Unit staff.

b Comprises five support staff for former Governors-General and three departmental liaison staff in ministerial offices.

c Staff listed are all employed under the Public Service Act 1999 and include 204 non-ongoing staff, 26 part-time staff and 15 staff on paid long-term leave. Staff on unpaid long-term leave are not included.

Executive

Dr Peter Shergold AC (Secretary):
Dr Peter Shergold has been our Secretary since February 2003. As Secretary, Dr Shergold is responsible for providing the overall leadership of the department and shaping its future. He determines priorities and appropriate resource allocations, delivers organisational performance and directs high-priority initiatives. In consultation with the deputy secretaries, the Secretary is responsible for overseeing corporate governance and providing strategic direction in the department.

The Secretary chairs our Corporate Leadership Group, regular meetings of portfolio secretaries and senior Commonwealth, States and Territories offcials. He is also responsible for providing leadership to the APS and speaks extensively on public service issues.

Before he became Secretary of PM&C, Dr Shergold headed up a number of Australian Government agencies, including the Department of Education, Science and Training; the Department of Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business; and the Public Service Commission. Before his public service career, he taught at the University of New South Wales. Dr Shergold was promoted to Companion in the Order of Australia in 2007 for his contribution to public policy and administration.

Ms Jenny Goddard (Deputy Secretary): Ms Goddard is responsible for economic, industry, infrastructure and environment policy advice and for service and implementation monitoring relating to Cabinet. She also chairs our Audit Committee.

In over 10 years in PM&C, she has worked in a variety of economic policy areas, including as First Assistant Secretary of Economic Division. Before joining PM&C in 1997, Ms Goddard served in the Australian Government’s Department of the Treasury for 13 years, including as the Treasury’s representative in London.

Dr Louise Morauta PSM (Deputy Secretary): Dr Morauta is responsible for social policy advice and coordination, and for people, resources and communications services. She also chairs PM&C’s Consultative Committee and the People and Leadership Committee.

Dr Morauta joined PM&C in April 2005, shortly before she was awarded the Public Service Medal for her work on health financing and blood issues while with the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. She has also worked in the Department of Finance and Administration and AusAID.

Mr Duncan Lewis AO DSC CSC (Deputy Secretary): Mr Lewis is responsible for international policy and national security policy advice and coordination, and for a range of government support services. He chairs PM&C’s Information Management Strategic Advisory Committee.

Mr Lewis joined PM&C as head of the National Security Division in January 2004, after 30 years with the Australian Army. He has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of his distinguished service in command of the Special Forces. He was appointed Deputy Secretary in 2005.

Mr Alan Henderson PSM (Deputy Secretary): Mr Henderson is head of the APEC 2007 Taskforce. The taskforce is responsible for managing the staging of meetings and coordinating security for APEC 2007, including ministerial and officials meetings around Australia and the APEC leaders meetings in Sydney in September 2007.

Much of Mr Henderson’s career was in the Australian Government’s Treasury (1974–91) but he worked in PM&C from 1991 to 2002 and in the Department
of Defence (as Deputy Secretary, Corporate
Services) from 2002 to 2006. He returned to PM&C to take up his current position in July 2006. He was awarded a Public Service Medal in 1998 for management of the Australian Government’s
input into the work programme of the Council
of Australian Governments.

Performance overview

Price

The total price of the department’s outputs in 2006–07 was $147.3 million. This comprised $136.1 million from government and $11.2 million from other sources (namely, the sale of goods and services, special accounts, resources received free of charge and miscellaneous revenue). More detailed information is provided in Chapter 8, ‘Our finances’.

Department-wide measures of performance

There are certain indicators against which the department’s performance is measured across all output groups, rather than separately by output. These are:

• ministerial correspondence (including ministerial briefings and messages)
• parliamentary questions on notice, and
• requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

Each of these is discussed in more detail below.

Ministerial correspondence

During the period 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007, the department processed approximately 185,000 items of correspondence addressed to the Prime Minister—an average of 740 per day.

The largest volumes of correspondence related to David Hicks, workplace relations, immigration policy, climate change and the Kyoto agreement, drought assistance and water conservation, troops in Iraq and alternative/renewable energy.

Approximately 94 per cent of correspondence was processed on time which is a three per cent improvement compared with the previous year.

Some 7,536 briefings (minutes) were provided to the Prime Minister, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister and the Office of the Prime Minister through the Ministerial Correspondence Unit.

In addition, the department coordinated the preparation of 600 messages to community groups and other organisations from the Prime Minister.

The volume of ministerial correspondence received in the past 10 years is shown at Figure 2.5.

Figure 2.5: Items of correspondence processed

Parliamentary questions on notice

The Prime Minister received 149 parliamentary questions on notice during the year. Many questions had a significant number of sub-questions and sought annual data for up to eight years. The trends relating to questions on notice are provided in Figure 2.6.

Of the 149 questions received in the year, 113 were from the House of Representatives and 36 from the Senate.

Responses to 174 questions were lodged during the year: 137 from the House of Representatives and 37 from the Senate. The average response times for lodgment of questions in 2006–07 (irrespective of the financial year in which the questions were asked) was: 182 days for the House of Representatives and 152 days for the Senate.

Twenty-one questions asked in 2006–07—11 from the House of Representatives and 10 from the Senate—were transferred to other ministers. There were 78 questions on hand at 30 June 2007.

Figure 2.6: Trends in parliamentary questions on notice

a This statistic reflects the fact that 37 questions lapsed due to the November 2001 election.

b Response times shown for 2006–07 and 2005–06 reflect the average number of days from the asking to the answering of questions, irrespective of the financial year in which the questions were asked. Previous years’ figures reflect the average time taken to lodge responses to questions asked in that financial year.

c This figure amended due to a reporting error.

Freedom of information requests

The department was responsible for managing 65 requests for information under the FOI Act received during 2006–07, plus 11 existing freedom of information (FOI) requests on hand at 1 July 2006. During the year, 43 FOI requests were finalised, leaving 33 FOI requests on hand at 30 June 2007.

The department received one application for internal review during the reporting period, and two were finalised.

Figure 2.7: Trends in freedom of information requests

a The statistics for 2002–03 to 2005–06 reported in this table differ from those reported in PM&C’s 2005–2006 annual report, due to errors in the calculation of the statistics which have now been corrected.

b Numbers of decisions notified within 31–60 days with consultation or within 31–60 days without consultation are unavailable for this year. Accordingly, timeliness is within a range where the lower figure would apply if all decisions notified within 31–60 days did not require consultation and the higher figure would apply if all decisions notified within 31–60 days had required consultation (and thus were within the period of time allowed under the FOI Act).

External participation: The department plays a significant central policy coordination role. Although we do not have any standing arrangements for outside participation in policy formulation or administration, in undertaking our role we commonly draw on perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders to discuss emerging issues as well as those currently under consideration by government. These stakeholders come from diverse backgrounds, including: