It also delivers programs that have a public intent and are paid for out of the public purse. It has access to the coercive powers of government in implementing policy. For their efforts public servants are paid out of money levied from the people of Australia. It is for these reasons that the scrutiny to which the public service is subject is significantly greater than in the private sector. The disciplines which public servants face, and the ethical traditions to which they aspire, derive from the need to control governmental power, keeping it within proper bounds to protect the Australian citizen from abuse and excess.
Public servants are part of the democratic process.
Public service decisions are expected to be transparent and open to question by parliamentary committees, the framework of administrative law, the investigation of Ombudsman and Auditor, and the application of FOI legislation. However the framework of governance is now about to be transformed. It will no longer be accepted that a public good has to be delivered by a public service. In the process the distinction between the public and private sector will become less clear. Public administration, and its service culture, will increasingly be subject both to the discipline of administrative law and of the market place - and just how an effective balance will be struck between the two is not yet clear.