Trust in the public service has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the results of a landmark survey published by the Australian government.
But the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet appears to have inflated the results by counting respondents who “somewhat trust” the public service to bolster lacklustre scores published earlier under freedom of information.
The departmental secretary, Phil Gaetjens, released the results of five waves of the citizen experience survey of a total of 15,000 Australians on Tuesday.
Speaking to the Institute of Public Administration Australia, Gaetjens admitted that “the picture wasn’t encouraging back in March 2019” when the survey was first conducted.
In August, the department released partial results, which were first sought by Guardian Australia in August 2019 but were blocked over departmental fears they could “mislead and confuse rather than inform” the public.
The internal report stated that in March 2019 “trust in the public service [was] low” with less than one-third of respondents (31%) reporting they can trust Australian public services.
Just one-quarter (25%) believed the public service could “successfully implement changes to meet the needs of all Australians”, according to the heavily redacted document.
Another #FOI classic from Department of PM & Cabinet. This one for a doc about low levels of public trust in government. Wonder why? #auspol pic.twitter.com/Q6E2IvcAG7
— William Summers (@william_summers) August 18, 2020
On Tuesday, the department released results claiming trust was much higher, at 59%, once the 28% of respondents who said they “somewhat trust” the public service were added.
Similarly, 51% of respondents were either “completely satisfied” or “satisfied” with the public service, a number boosted to 71% when the 20% who said they were “somewhat satisfied” were included.
Gaetjens said the results had been “worse” in March 2020 – showing “not exactly a glowing report card” – before they recovered in June.
That month total trust – including those who “somewhat trust” the public service – had risen to 65% and satisfaction had risen to 78%.
Australians reported improvements in “being treated with respect” up from 58% in March 2019 to 66% in June 2020, and staff doing what they said they would up from 54% to 62%.
Even in June 2020, only a bare majority (51%) said the “amount of time it took to reach an outcome was acceptable” and just 57% agreed that “information from the service was easy to understand”.
Gaetjens said the results now provided a “rigorous and reliable picture of Australians’ trust in, and satisfaction with, the Australian public services they use”.
He argued although the improvements might seem like “small changes” they were “significant”. “They show that we’ve turned a corner.”
After noting Australia’s stellar results suppressing the coronavirus, Gaetjens argued the response could not have been effective without public trust.
“You’re asking people to curb freedoms, to change – or sometimes upend – their lifestyles and everyday behaviours,” the departmental secretary said. “Trust in times like this means traction. So satisfaction and trust are tracking up and now we need to keep it that way.”
Gaetjens said higher levels of satisfaction and trust were linked to clear information, reliability and public servants following through on promised action.
He highlighted young people as an area needing improvement, with “just 43% of 18- 24-year-olds confidently [reporting] they know how to access services – compared to 53% of other people in other age groups”.
The trust surveys were initiated by the former departmental secretary Martin Parkinson.
The department claims the results informed a review of the public service released in September 2019 and changes announced in December.
The changes promised to “bust bureaucratic congestion”, abolishing four federal departments and sacking five departmental secretaries.
