Canberra Conversation Lecture Series

Followed by the 2012 Public Service Excellence Awards 1.30pm—2pm

At a significant point in the evolution of public administration in Australia, the ANZSOG Institute for Governance at the University of Canberra has invited the Hon. Gary Gray AO MP, Special Minister of State and Minister for the Public Service and Integrity to speak on
the future direction of the APS.

The level of change and reform within the public sector is at a significant level. A new Public Service Bill is before Parliament, work is underway on the whistle blowing legislation, initiatives stemming from the “Blueprint” report are now being implemented and several State public services are facing significant cuts and restructuring.

Governments across the world are under extreme budgetary pressure and in addition, the APS faces challenges in responding to social and demographic change in the population it serves and the workforce from which it attracts its employees. How then can the APS respond to and continue to deliver public value in the face of
these challenges?

Following his lecture Gary Gray will be presenting 2012 ANZSIG Public Service Excellence Awards. ANZSIG Public Service Excellence Awards are awarded for public servants at different levels of governance who have made an outstanding contribution to their field. Award recipients also receive an Adjunct Professorship or Honorary Fellowship with the ANZSOG Institute for Governance.

ANZSIG is proud to announce the 2012 recipients of the Public Service Excellence Awards:

 

 Glenys Beauchamp PSM

 Secretary,
 Department of Regional Australia,
 Local Government, Arts and Sport

 

Adjunct Professorship for outstanding public sector leadership

Glenys was appointed Secretary Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government on 21 December 2010. Prior to this appointment she was Deputy Secretary, Governance, in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. In this role she was also the Commonwealth Co-ordinator General oversighting the rollout of the infrastructure components of the Government’s Stimulus Plan.
Her other Commonwealth appointments include as Deputy Secretary in the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) with responsibility for child support reform and early development of the paid parental scheme and, coordinating Australian Government support to the 2009 Victorian bushfires (Glenys was awarded a Public Service Medal for this work).
Prior to joining FaHCSIA in 2002, Glenys was Deputy Chief Executive of the ACT Government Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services and Executive Director with the ACT Department of Health. Other executive positions in the ACT Government involved transport reform, electricity, gas and water reforms, environment policy, and housing.

“Glenys has been awarded this excellence award for the outstanding leadership skills that she has consistently exhibited in different roles at different levels of Australian government. Glenys has played a central role in attempting to solve some of Australia’s most difficult public policy  problems and she has done this with great skill, diligence and integrity”.
Professor Meredith Edwards (Chair, ANZSIG’s Public Service Awards panel)
 

 

Pam Davoren

 Deputy Director-General,
 Policy and Cabinet
 Chief Minister and Cabinet Directorate

Adjunct Professorship for the promotion of public sector excellence in combating social exclusion and enhancing strategic policy capability in state government.

Pam is the Deputy Chief Executive in the Chief Minister and Cabinet Directorate of the ACT Public Service in Canberra and has wide ranging experience in public sector governance and public policy development. She has played a crucial role in developing and facilitating policies to combat social exclusion in the ACT. In addition, she is playing an important role in change management following the implementation of the Hawke Review.

“Pam has been awarded this excellence award for the outstanding work that she has done in both combating social exclusion in the ACT and in enhancing policy capability in state government. Pam’s creative policy leadership has been integral to the government’s recent successes in this thorny area of public policy.”
Professor Meredith Edwards (Chair, ANZSIG’s Public Service Awards panel)
 

 Ruth Goldsmith

 Group Manager Leadership,
 Penrith City Council
 

 

Honorary Fellowship for excellence in the promotion, design and implementation of sustainable development planning at the local level.
Ruth Goldsmith is the Local Planning Manager of Penrith Council. Ruth has led by example in developing and sharing better practice in sustainable development in municipal local government. This has involved advocacy of a broader understanding of sustainable development which moves beyond narrow cost benefit analysis to quality of life and wellbeing issues. She is a past winner of the Excellence in the Environment Award and is currently setting national standards in the development of livability measures for metropolitan cities.

”Ruth has the crucial ability in good policy-making of taking a contested academic concept - in this case sustainable development - and turning it into something of practical use which improves the lives of members of her community. This is a unique quality which we are celebrating today”.
Professor Meredith Edwards (Chair, ANZSIG’s Public Service Awards panel)

 

 Megan Lancaster

 Director, Stakeholder Engagement,
 Murray-Darling Basin Authority
 

 

Honorary Fellowship for excellence in collaborative governance with citizens and stakeholders

Megan Lancaster is currently Director of Stakeholder Engagement at the Murray Darling Basin Authority. Megan has worked at all levels of government including Local, State and Federal, as such she has a unique perspective on how different levels of government view their roles in engaging with local communities and the challenges of doing this effectively.

After the devastating 2009 Victorian Bushfires Megan worked for the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA) as the Marysville Community Engagement coordinator. Megan said her job description was to coordinate the Community Planning process. In reality she came face to face with the challenges of local leadership, delegated decision making and competing agendas. Megan said she felt privileged to have been given the role and is very thankful to the Marysville community who taught her how much she still has to learn.

“The Awards Panel see Megan as an exceptional example of an emerging 21st century public servant. She recognizes the importance of genuine collaboration in public value creation and that we can only solve many of the intractable problems that we are confronting with the active support and involvement of the citizenry and local communities. She therefore views her role as an empowering rather than a disempowering one. Megan also seeks to develop strong working relationships with knowledge institutions on the basis that the more we know about a problem and how it has been understood nationally and internationally the better our decisions are likely to be”.
Professor Meredith Edwards (Chair, ANZSIG’s Public Service Awards panel)
 

 

 Carmel McGregor

 Deputy Secretary People Group,
 Department of Defence 


 

Adjunct Professorship for the promotion of public sector excellence.
Carmel is the Deputy Secretary People Strategies and Policy in the Department of Defence. She joined the Department in March 2012. Carmel's previous position was that of Deputy Australian Public Service Commissioner (APSC).

Prior to joining the APSC in 2008, Carmel was Deputy Secretary Client and Corporate Services in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) from 2005. Whilst in DIAC she led global client service reform and a major organisational and cultural change program. In this role, she was responsible for client services, including policy review and service delivery operations for DIAC on and off shore. Carmel also managed a large change agenda in legal services, people services, financial and parliamentary service to support the client service reforms.

Carmel also held the position of General Manager Employment, Disability and Education at Centrelink where she managed delivery of employment and education programs and led the implementation of the Welfare to Work reforms. Prior to this Carmel was General Manager People and Corporate Performance in Centrelink where she re-engineered the human resource, leadership development and organisational design functions to support business delivery for the largest service delivery agency in the APS.

From 1999-2001 Carmel lived in Paris where she worked as a consultant for the Public Management Service of the OECD with key involvement in international for a on modernising government. Carmel is currently Australia's representative on the OECD's Public Governance Committee. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, a Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute, Acting President of Institute of Public Administration Australia in the ACT, a member of Australian Institute of Training and Development and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

“Carmel has been awarded this excellence award for her outstanding contribution to the promotion of public sector excellence and in particular the work that she has done in enhancing the quality of service delivery in Australia and in advancing the position of women in the Australian public service”.
Professor Meredith Edwards (Chair, ANZSIG’s Public Service Awards panel)
 

 

 Deborah May

 Managing Director, 
 The May Group and Advancing Women
 

 

Honorary Fellowship for her research and advocacy on gender equity in the workplace.
Deborah May is a Fulbright Scholar, graduating from the only business school in the world specifically designed for women, Simmons Graduate School of Management, Boston, Massachussetts, USA. Deborah developed her coaching skills in Boston, while working with diversity firm, Ibis Consulting Group. She is one of Canberra’s most experienced coaches, an alumnus of the Institute of Executive Coaching and Institute of Human Excellence and has a particular passion and expertise in coaching women to achieve career and leadership success.
She is on a number of departmental coaching panels currently coaching individuals at all APS levels, including up to Secretary and Deputy Secretary levels. In addition, Deborah coaches many executive clients across the private and tertiary sectors. In recent times Deborah has conducted research into the perspectives, practices and biases involved in the promotion of women in the workplace, and developed strategies to improve the prospects of women in their careers with a number of agencies, including the Australian Treasury.

Deborah is passionately committed to advancing women and has specific expertise in developing women’s leadership and creating diverse workplace cultures. Her interest in gender and diversity was sparked during her 10 year career with IBM when it was an issue yet to be addressed.

“Deborah has been at the forefront of promoting gender equity in the workplace in Canberra especially at the Executive level through her practical contribution and research in this area which we would like to celebrate here. She has worked as an executive coach to many senior women and their male colleagues, developed and facilitated numerous women’s leadership and gender awareness programs, helped organisations develop more women-friendly, inclusive workplace cultures, and most recently launched an on-line resource site for women. Deborah's research on the mobilization of unconscious bias against women in the workplace is proving particularly influential in helping organizations to develop strategies to ensure that women realize their true potential free from inequitable cultural constraints.”
Professor Meredith Edwards (Chair, ANZSIG’s Public Service Awards panel)

 

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