'I was part of a team': public service medals bring…

'I was part of a team': public service medals bring achievements into limelight

Belinda Fraser will receive a PSM as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours. Picture: Dion Georgopoulos

Belinda Fraser walked into work at the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources one day in March last year thinking it was just a normal day.

But almost immediately she was thrown onto a taskforce with the goal of ensuring Australia could source ventilators for the national medical stockpile for what was expected to be a crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We know now that the need for thousands of ventilators didn't materialise in Australia, but in March modelling for the Department of Health told of a grim future, and experts like Ms Fraser were brought in to use her knowledge of the Australian manufacturing industry.

It's this work, that took place while Ms Fraser was also working from home with her two children needing home-schooling like many others, that is being recognised in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours with a Public Service Medal.

"I literally came to work one day in my normal role and was asked almost immediately to pivot and help make this ventilator taskforce," Ms Fraser said.

Her work involved co-ordinating with Australian companies that already had the capability to manufacture ventilators to increase production, and finding other companies with the ability to move existing manufacturing capability onto building ventilators.

The Department of Industry played an important role in the $31 million contract with Grey Innovation Consortium to build thousands of invasive ventilators in Australia.

"It was incredibly time-intensive, there was a lot of uncertainty around the pandemic, what did it mean, how bad was it going to get," she said.

"Globally every country was in the same position, everyone was trying to buy more ventilators. It was quite full on."

While she is honoured to receive the medal, Ms Fraser said she was somewhat embarrassed to be singled out among a team effort.

"It was nothing like everything I've done before as public servant, but really rewarding," she said.

"I'm one person that's part of a team, I didn't do anything more special than anyone who gave their time across government, across our department, in that time."

Like Ms Fraser, many of the recipients of the Public Service Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours are being recognised for their work as part of the response to the pandemic.

Perhaps the most high-profile is Deputy Secretary at Prime Minister and Cabinet Paul Grigson, who has been touted as the next secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Paul Grigson has been recognised with a Public Service Medal. Picture: Supplied

Mr Grigson has been recognised for his work in co-ordinating the response to the 2019-20 bushfires across different levels of government, and the establishment of the national coordination mechanism in the response to the pandemic.

Chief Executive of Services Australia Rebecca Skinner has also received a medal for her work across decades in national security policy, intelligence and most recently in delivering more than $10 billion in payments across the pandemic.

Service Australia CEO Rebecca Skinner. Picture: Dion Georgopoulos

Group Manager of Families at the Department of Social Services Shane Bennett, and Debbie Mitchell from Services Australia have been recognised for work in designing and delivering the Coronavirus Supplement that increased the payments made to people unemployed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for simplifying claims processes.

Acting Assistant Secretary for COVID-19 crisis operations at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade James Buttigieg's work in bringing stranded Australians home from overseas has also been recognised.

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